Ed Yourself
Ed Yourself

EOTAS Specialist Provision Packages

In July 2026 the government launched a public consultation on the future of Education Otherwise Than At School [EOTAS] as part of its ongoing Special Educational Needs and Disability [SEND] reform programme.

Anyone wanting to understand the EOTAS proposals needs to understand the implications of Specialist Provision Packages [SPPs] as these are not necessarily spelled out in the EOTAS consultation.

The EOTAS consultation closes on September 18th and all GOV.UK consultation links can be found at the foot of the page.

The EOTAS consultation document says “We want to ensure that EOTAS arrangements are aligned with our SEND reform proposals and the envisaged introduction of Specialist Provision Packages“.

The EOTAS consultation therefore represents the government’s belated attempt to bring EOTAS in line with the Schools White Paper.

Summary Specialist Provision Package Proposals

  • Only those with “the most complex needs” will get a package
  • The packages will have been drawn up in advance by a national independent panel of experts
  • The packages will be “based around the provision required to meet the needs of groups of children and young people who share similar characteristics and who require similar support to meet their needs.” [EOTAS consultation page 4]
  • The government’s provisional Package grouping can be found in the SPECIALIST PROVISION ANNEX published in early 2026 – more on this below

The Education Health and Care Plan [EHCP] of the future will simply be the document into which the pre-written Package is dropped

  • A setting – school, Academy (or college for post-16) will always be named to deliver the package; this might be a mainstream, special, alternative provision or hospital school – page 15 of the EOTAS consultation document says it will “likely be a setting that has not previously supported the child or young person”
  • The government White Paper published in February 2026 said: “EHCPs will continue to set out the statutory entitlement to support for children and young people, with Individual Support Plans describing the day-to-day provision delivered in schools.” [LINK]

Because the contents of the EHCP will be dictated by the Package, there will no longer be appeal rights to tribunal over individual special educational needs or the provision required to meet those needs as this will all be set out in the Package already

  • Any decision about when and whether EOTAS is required will come under the category of “day-to-day provision” and hence be up to the school
  • Page 19 of the consultation document underlines this by saying “We are not proposing to retain the current arrangements, under which local authorities are responsible for arranging and managing EOTAS provision.”
  • Currently, EOTAS is a placement decision (albeit EOTAS is not named in the placement Section I of the EHCP read more here https://edyourself.org/eotas-case-law-leaving-section-i-blank/) but future EOTAS would be a DELIVERY decision and hence no right of appeal to tribunal over EOTAS

It is not stated in the consultation but may be assumed that a child’s name would have to be added to the school roll. (It has always been the case in this country that a child does not “become registered” by a school being named and only a parent can register a child at school – see https://edyourself.org/school-roll/

  • The fact that a Specialist Provision Package does not necessarily equate to a special school is highly relevant for home educators since the Wellbeing Act 2026 will make it much more difficult to get a child off the roll of special school – see https://edyourself.org/deregistration-future-law/
  • In support of its not always being a special school, the 2 Case Studies in the EOTAS consultation are River Tees Multi Academy Trust comprising 4 alternative provision academy converters and 1 special free school [LINK] plus Wandsworth Hospital and Home Tuition Service which is a Pupil Referral Unit [LINK]

Specialist Provision Annex February 2026

Groups supposedly sharing similar characteristics turns out to be a key feature of Specialist Provision Packages. Earlier in the year, the government published some “outlines” in a SPECIALIST PROVISION ANNEX. It claimed these were “designed to provide an initial picture” and “not final nor comprehensive”, which might – or might not – mean a different direction later.

In any event, the “initial picture” is that all future special educational provision will fit into three main groups each containing two to three Specialist Packages, making seven Specialist Packages in total. [SOURCE = SPECIALIST PROVISION ANNEX FEBRUARY 2026]

With that caveat in mind, the three main groups for the time being are:

  • Packages based around heavily adapted curriculum
  • Packages based around adapted delivery of the curriculum, including providing a different
    environment
  • Packages based around the provision needed to enable access to the curriculum

Packages based around heavily adapted curriculum

Profound and multiple learning difficulties – “This package will support children and young people with more than one disability, including a profound cognitive impairment, significant difficulty communicating, and additional conditions, such as physical disability, sensory impairment, sensory processing differences, and medical needs”

Significant executive function – “Significant executive function (known as severe learning difficulties in the current terminology) will support children and young people with a severe and permanent global learning disability, or life-long speech or language disorder“

Complex executive function and communication – “This package will support
children and young people with significant permanent learning disability affecting some,
or all, areas of speech, language and communication, executive function, social and
emotional, motor skills and sensory development. Children who need this package often
manifest with behaviour that challenges.“

Packages based around adapted delivery of the curriculum, including providing a different
environment

  • Social and emotional development focused on externalising behaviour – This package will support children and young people whose social and emotional needs manifest in behaviour which challenges.
  • Social and emotional development focused on internalising behaviour – This package will support children and young people whose social and emotional needs manifest as withdrawal, disengagement or ‘shut down’.

Packages based around the provision needed to enable access to the curriculum

  • Sensory impairment – This package will support deaf children and young people, those with a visual impairment, and those with multi-sensory impairment
  • Physical disability – The physical disability (without significant learning difficulties) package will support children and young people with physical disabilities, who are able to access the mainstream curriculum

For those who may be wondering what happens if a child or young person has needs across different packages, the Specialist Provision Annex offers the following assurance: “Children may therefore need elements of support from more than one package. We will work with the expert panels to reflect this in the design of packages as they are developed.”

Mainstream Inclusion

The Equalities Impact Assessment for the main SEND Reform consultation earlier in the year explained the government’s vision for mainstream inclusion, see page 25 below:

“Where a child’s needs can be well supported in mainstream schools through an Individual Support Plan and the help of the Experts at Hand service, that will be the norm and there’s no need for a statutory assessment. This will reflect our reorientation of the system towards mainstream inclusion with early intervention, flexible provider-led support and the embedding of education and health professionals within mainstream settings.” [LINK]