Alternative provision needs urgent reform

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have published a report looking at how education, health and care partners work together to commission and oversee alternative provision (AP).

The report finds that the lack of national standards and clarity around who is responsible for AP commissioning and oversight are leading to inconsistent outcomes for children and young people.

AP is commissioned by schools or local authorities when pupils have been excluded or cannot attend mainstream school, for example due to complex medical, social or emotional needs. Currently, not all AP needs to be registered or inspected, meaning there is lack of oversight of children and young people in unregistered AP.

The report finds that while good registered AP plays an important role in providing high quality support, there are too many children and young people’s experiences  are negative, and the overall picture is of a system in desperate need of reform. Many attending AP experience a highly disrupted education, with one parent describing the situation as “soul destroying”. One child also spoke about feeling abandoned by their home school.

The report highlights some examples of good practice, including some local areas successfully supporting children and young people in transitioning out of AP. However, decisions about placing children and young people in AP are not always considered thoroughly enough and the effectiveness of placements is not properly monitored. These issues are compounded by a lack of clear purpose for the use of AP and poor strategic planning. Inspectors also found that agencies do not always collaborate, and health partners often are not involved in decision making about individual AP placements.

The report sets out a series of recommendations including better guidance on the purposes of AP and potential indicators of success, and clearer roles and responsibilities for different local area partners, with more clarity on how health and social care partners should be involved in strategic planning for AP and the commissioning and oversight of individual placements.

Other recommendations include improved oversight of certain groups of children and young people in AP, including through the introduction of a proportionate registration and inspection regime for all AP, and greater consistency and rigour in decision making around individual AP placements and subsequent monitoring and evaluation arrangements.