We know that that EOTAS [Education Otherwise Than At School] was left out of the first SEND reform consultation earlier this year. There is now a second consultation specifically on EOTAS which runs till September 18th. The consultation links from the Department of Education are at the end of this post.
EOTAS Driven By System Failures
The Department for Education [DfE] seems to believe that Education Otherwise Than At School is a sign of failure.
- Up till now, special needs support has taken too long because the current system requires individual families struggling to secure assessments and individual plans
- In the current system, too many families are having to fight for support in school
- When everything takes so long, relationships with school break down, needs become acute, and EOTAS becomes the only alternative
- Future schools will be helping earlier, so the need for most EOTAS will fall away
Making EOTAS Fit The SEND Reforms
By the time the EOTAS consultation appeared, the Department for Education had already set out its plan for i/ restricting EHCP provision to a predetermined Specialist Provision Package ii/ limited to “the most complex needs” with iii/ day to day provision decided by the school or setting in an Individual Support Plan.
The government could have made EOTAS into a parallel system NOT tied to predetermined packages maintained by schools OR – as doomily expected – it could have decided to keep everything tidy and remake EOTAS to make it fit with its new vision.
For the avoidance of doubt, page 19 of the consultation document says “We are not proposing to retain the current arrangements, under which local authorities are responsible for arranging and managing EOTAS provision.”
Below are extracts from the EOTAS SEND consultation document explaining how the government sees EOTAS working in future.
Future EOTAS With EHCP
See Visual 1 on page 27 of the consultation document.
- New-style EHCPs will only be issued to the minority who meet the criteria for a Specialist Provision Package
- A setting will always be named (school or further education depending on age)
- The provision set out in the package will be arranged by the named setting – either within the setting or elsewhere
- EOTAS provision which is OUTSIDE the setting must only be sourced from approved providers who meet new national standards
“The local authority undertakes a needs assessment and determines that a child or young person requires a Specialist Provision Package, with provision set out in their EHCP. As part of this process, the local authority could make a decision about whether some or all of the provision may need to be delivered otherwise than in a school or further education setting“ [Page 17]
“A school or further education setting responsible for delivering the Specialist Provision Package would take on the role from the local authority of managing any EOTAS arrangements. The setting – typically a specialist one and different to the one the child or young person previously attended – will have demonstrated it has the expertise and capacity to meet the needs of children and young people receiving that package.” [Page 17-18]
“The child or young person would be on the roll of the school or further education setting, even where some or all of the provision is delivered elsewhere” [Page 18]
“Alternatively, we could explore a model in which the local authority does not have a formal role in determining whether some or all of a child or young person’s provision should be delivered otherwise than in a school or further education setting. Instead, responsibility for this decision would sit with the named setting overseeing delivery of the Specialist Provision Package. The setting would determine whether EOTAS arrangements are required to deliver the package effectively and would be responsible for the day-to-day management of those arrangements” [Page 18]
“No right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal against the local authority decision to change or cease EOTAS arrangements” [Page 23]
It should also be noted that tribunals are set to lose the power to make orders about placement (REFERENCE pages 105-6) which for future EOTAS will allow the local authority the final say over which school or setting is named to deliver the EOTAS (or not)
Future EOTAS No EHCP
In future there will be far fewer EHCPs because of the government changing the threshold. Chapter 3 of the EOTAS SEND consultation explains the plan for children who are unable to attend school but who DON’T have an EHCP.
Page 34 explains that this covers “children with complex physical health conditions, medical treatments or recovery needs that significantly affect their ability to attend school, and children whose mental health difficulties prevent them from attending school.”
The plan – such as it is – seems to involve “building capacity in mainstream schools through outreach and short-term placements” [consultation document page 35] plus “closer involvement from schools in securing and overseeing provision” [consultation document page 37-8]
This bit of the EOTAS SEND consultation seems even more of an afterthought than the rest. Essentially it looks to guidance published in 2023 on how schools should be supporting children with health needs [LINK]
Using this guidance as reference point in the EOTAS SEND consultation is a bit confusing though because the cornerstone of the guidance is local authority duties under section 19 which look set to be devolved to schools although the consultation is vague and does not actually spell this out.
The EOTAS SEND consultation also doesn’t seem to have an education plan for young people beyond 16 if they are unable to attend a further education setting but don’t have a Specialist Provision Package.
Existing EOTAS When Law Changes
Chapter 2 of the EOTAS SEND consultation document sets out the plan for keeping current EOTAS EHCP arrangements for those who will be at secondary or post-16 at the point when the law changes – currently estimated to be 2029-30.
Consultation Links
- https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/send-reform-education-otherwise-than-at-school
- https://consult.education.gov.uk/accountability-and-special-schools/send-reform-education-other-than-at-school
- https://consult.education.gov.uk/accountability-and-special-schools/send-reform-education-other-than-at-school/consultation