Ed Yourself
Ed Yourself

EOTAS Consultation Changes Everything

The government launched a public consultation on EOTAS [Education Otherwise Than At School] on July 10th 2026 which closes on September 18th. The proposals are still at an early stage and the government will need to get a whole new law through parliament first which could easily take 2 years. The draft of the new law has not yet appeared but we know that it will be called the Education For All Bill.

The EOTAS consultation changes everything because it puts the delivery model first, rather than the needs of the child or young person. There has never been SEND law or alternative provision law which has done this before.

Current Law

Under current education law, the local authority has a legal duty to make arrangements for children who are unable to attend school and who meet the criteria for what is called “section 19 provision”. S 19 provision must be suitable to age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs the child may have, PLUS case law has determined that the provision must be “available, possible, and accessible to the child” 

Local authorities also have duties under the current Children and Families Act 2014 to secure provision otherwise than in school under SEND [special educational needs and disability] law where children and young people have an EHCP [Education Health and Care Plan] and where it is judged inappropriate for provision to be made in a school.

There is a legal requirement for independent legal routes of challenge and enforcement via the Ombudsman and SENDIST [the special educational needs and disability tribunal] Statistics show that the Ombudsman and tribunal in SEND cases almost always endorse the parents’ understanding of the law rather than the local authorities’ but these systems are stretched to breaking point trying to meet ever-increasing demand without sufficient resources.

Future Law

In the proposed future system, it would be SCHOOLS rather than local authorities, who would have responsibility for time-limited alternative provision for compulsory school age which would also be restricted to those deemed unable to attend school on health grounds, PLUS any alternative provision could only be sourced from an approved list of providers.

The proposed future system would also see the number of EHCPs drastically reduced, which would be achieved by changing the rules for new EHCPs combined with reviewing existing EHCPs against the new rules PLUS the new-style EHCPs would not start with needs before moving onto provision, but instead would start with matching the child or young person with one of a limited number of pre-set “specialist provision packages”.

There is already a rule that the Ombudsman cannot look at what happens in schools, so the proposed shift from local authorities to schools will remove an independent challenge route.

To complete the removal of independent challenge and enforcement, the government is also proposing that tribunals will no longer be able to issue directions about needs, provision or placement as is currently possible via appeals to SENDIST on the contents of Sections B, F and I of an EHCP. (In passing, the “ISP” referred to below is an Individual Support Plan)

Page 22 of the EOTAS consultation document says:

“There will no longer be appeal rights over the individual SEN and SEP set out in an
EHCP, as these will form a central part of the specialist provision package eligibility
criteria for an EHCP and will inform placement decisions taken by the local authority.
Information about a child or young person’s SEN or special educational provision will be
considered as part of appeals about Specialist Provision Packages or placements as
appropriate, rather than being separate. Additionally, more detailed information on the
specific SEN and SEP required will be included within a child or young person’s ISP.
This means that parents and young people will not be able to appeal to the Tribunal
specifically about whether a child or young person should receive EOTAS
arrangements.”

My Comments

IF children and young people can’t get EHCPs in future, and IF those with existing EHCPs risk having them taken away, and IF the EHCP is just reduced to being a document which sets out a pre-set Specialist Provision Package, and IF everything is delegated to schools, THEN everything changes beyond recognition in ways which it is still quite difficult to comprehend because so much could be dismantled and so many safety nets would just not exist.

There is still time to take action before the consultation ends on September 18th and in the coming weeks there will be webinars and articles from people who have studied the proposals in depth and who will be doing everything they can to support parents to make their voice heard.

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