Alternative provision (AP)
Welcome to Solihull’s Alternative Provision website. We hope that you find all of the information that you need about all aspects of alternative education provision. You can contact us at alternativeprovision@solihull.gov.uk
Alternative provision (AP) is educational provision for children of compulsory school age who are unable to attend mainstream or special schools and who would not otherwise receive suitable education for any reason, for example, due to illness or exclusion
Alternative provision is commonly defined as education outside school, arranged by local authorities or schools themselves. Alternative provision can be defined as something in which a young person participates as part of their regular timetable, away from the site of the school or the pupil referral unit and not led by school staff. Schools can use such provision to try to prevent exclusions, or to re-engage pupils in their education. Pupil referral units are themselves a form of alternative provision, but many pupils who are on the roll of a pupil referral unit also attend additional forms of alternative provision off site. (Ofsted 2016).
Alternative Provision: Statutory guidance for local authorities, DfE, January 2013
Creating opportunity for all: our vision for alternative provision, DfE, March 2018
Alternative provision: the findings from Ofsted’s three-year survey of schools’ use of off-site alternative provision, Ofsted, 2016
Good alternative provision is that which appropriately meets the needs of pupils and enables them to achieve good educational attainment on par with their mainstream peers. All pupils must receive a good education, regardless of their circumstances or the settings in which they find themselves.
Provision will differ from pupil to pupil, but there are some common elements that alternative provision should aim to achieve, including:
- good academic attainment on par with mainstream schools – particularly in English, maths and science (including IT) – with appropriate accreditation and qualifications;
- that the specific personal, social and academic needs of pupils are properly identified and met in order to help them to overcome any barriers to attainment;
• improved pupil motivation and self-confidence, attendance and engagement with education; and - clearly defined objectives, including the next steps following the placement such as reintegration into mainstream education, further education, training or employment.
www.gov.uk/alternative-provision
Ofsted has a number of useful reports about alternative provision, including its 2016 report about the findings from a three-year survey:
A slideshare of findings from the above report is available at: https://www.slideshare.net/Ofstednews/inspecting-alternative-provision.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/alternative-provision-progress-made-but-more-still-to-be-done
gov.uk - alternative provision: effective practice and post-16 transition
First and foremost, schools are responsible for the pupils that they place in alternative provision.
‘It is vitally important that schools recognise their responsibility for each and every pupil sent to an external provider. These are some of the most vulnerable children in the education system…’ (Sean Harford, National Director for Education, Ofsted)
Commissioning schools should:
- Give careful consideration to the availability of provision, the extent to which the providers that are available can meet the needs of the specific pupil, the quality and safety of the provision, costs and value for money.
- Maintain on-going contact with the provider and pupil, with clear procedures in place to exchange information, monitor progress and provide pastoral support.
- Maintain a full and accurate record of all placements made. This should include a pupil’s attendance, progress, achievements and destination following the placement.
- Make arrangements for payments to providers.
‘Some schools were still not taking enough responsibility for ensuring the suitability of the placements they set up. A few of the schools in the survey placed pupils at an off-site provider without having visited first to check its safety and suitability. Some schools did not check for themselves that the relevant safety standards were met’.
(Alternative provision: the findings from Ofsted’s three-year survey of school’s use of off-site alternative provision, Ofsted 2016)
Any provider of education should be registered as an independent school if it meets the criteria: that it provides full-time education to five or more pupils of compulsory school age, or one such pupil who is looked-after or has a statement of SEN/EHCP. All AP Academies and AP Free Schools must be registered as schools whether or not they provide full-time or part-time placements.
Independent school registration
Failure to register when the above thresholds have been met is unlawful and the provision would be operating illegally.
Commissioners should have accurate knowledge of a provider’s registration status. Searching by the provider’s name on the Department for Education’s ‘Get information about schools’ website will help commissioners to determine their status. If the provider is not recognised, it is not registered provision. This means that the provider is not regulated by the DfE or inspected by Ofsted.
‘A small number of providers contravened regulations about registration. They were taking more than five pupils on a full-time basis when they should not have been doing so. Schools did not always check providers’ registration status properly or at all, and still sent pupils to the provision’.
(Alternative provision: the findings from Ofsted’s three-year survey of school’s use of off-site alternative provision, Ofsted 2016)
Commissioners can use unregistered provision but inherent risks need to be carefully managed. In Solihull, this means that a pupil should only be placed with an unregistered provider if all of the caveats below are securely met:
- Unregistered provision is only used in circumstances where there is robust evidence that the pupil’s needs cannot be met in a registered school;
- A pupil’s attendance at unregistered provision should be limited to a maximum of 10 hours (2 days) per week;
- Commissioners undertake weekly checks in relation to the status of other pupils attending the provision. As a result, the commissioner will be able to determine whether the provision has already met, or is at risk of meeting, the criteria by which the provision must register as an independent school.
- Solihull’s quality assurance framework is robustly applied through regular QA visits and
- the provision is consistently deemed to be suitable for the individual pupil;
- the provider is consistently able to provide evidence that they do not meet the thresholds whereby they must be registered.
(A provider of alternative provision should be registered as an independent school if it caters full-time for five or more pupils of compulsory school age; or one such pupil who is looked after or has a statement of special educational needs/Education Health Care Plan).
Schools and other commissioners placing pupils in unregistered provision should be fully cognisant of the risks involved and frequently consider these risks carefully.
Where a school places a pupil with an alternative provision provider, the school continues to be responsible for the safeguarding of that pupil, and should be satisfied that the provider meets the needs of the pupil. Schools should obtain written confirmation from the alternative provider that appropriate safeguarding checks have been carried out on individuals working at the establishment, i.e. those checks that the school would otherwise perform in respect of its own staff. (Keeping Children Safe in Education: statutory guidance for schools and colleges, (DfE, September 2019 [paragraph 185])
There is also a comprehensive safeguarding section in ‘Alternative provision: the findings from Ofsted’s three-year survey of schools’ use of off-site alternative provision’, Ofsted, 2016 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alternative-school-provision-findings-of-a-three-year-survey)
There are two pupil referral units in Solihull. Pupil referral units (or PRUs) are schools that are established and maintained by a local authority to enable it to discharge its duty to arrange suitable full-time education for permanently excluded pupils, and other pupils who – because of illness or other resaons – would not receive suitable education without such provision.
Summerfield Education Centre caters for 11-16 year olds who have been permanently excluded from their school.
The Triple Crown Centre caters for 11-16 year olds who, for reasons of significant ill-health, are temporarily unable to attend their usual school.
Solihull Academy is Solihull’s AP free school. The school opened in April 2018 and provides 110 places for pupils in Year 9-11.
The Solihull learning community makes use of a wide range of other alternative provision. Solihull Council does not endorse any particular provision. The table below gives an overview of providers that are known; they have not been quality assured or validated. Commissioners are responsible for the pupils that they place in alternative provision and will need to undertake regular quality assurance visits and monitoring checks to establish the on-going suitability, quality and safety of the provision.
Name of provider | Registration status | Latest Ofsted report | Brief overview |
Elective Home Education:
Elective Home Education Policy and Procedures SMBC September 2019
DfE Guidance for Local Authorities and Parents
Ofsted Report October 2019 EHE and Secondary
Medical Alternative Provision: