What do academy trusts need to know about the updated guidance on alternative provision?

New DfE guidance includes detail on the use of in-school units for alternative provision.

The Department for Education (DfE) has updated its statutory guidance Arranging Alternative Provision: A Guide for Local Authorities and Schools (the Guidance).

The Guidance refers to statutory requirements for local authorities and maintained schools. Academy trusts are not covered by the statutory requirements, but they must take account of anything in the guidance which is relevant to carrying out their functions. In other words, academy trusts should have regard to the guidance when providing alternative provision or directing pupils to alternative provision inside or outside the trust.

The Guidance sets out requirements including assessing pupil need, carefully considering how the alternative provision will meet that need, providing information to parents about the placement, ongoing monitoring and clear reintegration planning.

Key changes in the February 2025 alternative provision guidance

Inclusion of unregistered alternative provisions

The Guidance now addresses the use of unregistered alternative provision settings, emphasising the need for local authorities and schools to ensure these settings are safe, suitable and provide high-quality education for pupils.

The new Guidance also emphasises that schools must keep documented evidence of due diligence and ongoing monitoring for any unregistered alternative provision used.

Using in-school units for alternative provision

A new section has been added to the Guidance concerning the use of in-school units as part of alternative provision strategies. In-school units are structured settings within the school such as inclusion rooms and behaviour support hubs.

The new Guidance notes that in-school units can be used to support pupils who are at risk of exclusion or those requiring additional support for behavioural or pastoral reasons, aiming to keep them within the school environment. The overall purpose of in-school provision is noted as being “to improve behaviour and maintain learning with the goal to successfully reintegrate children into mainstream lessons”. As well as being used for pupils of the school and the wider trust, they can also be used as alternative provision for pupils from schools outside the trust.

Key considerations for academy trusts considering plans for setting up an in-school unit include:

• discussing plans with the local authority to consider how they fit with the wider local strategy for alternative provision;

• consulting with parents on any potential change of provision before it takes place – although parental consent is not a requirement;

• ensuring the provision is part of a host school which is responsible for the provision and for those pupils who are attending;

• taking into account the Significant Change guidance where the addition of an in-school unit will count as a significant change (Making significant changes to an academy); and

• dual registering any pupils directed to the unit from another school.

Funding mechanisms for alternative provision

The updated Guidance provides a summary of the multi-layered arrangements for funding of alternative provision, including:

• Core Funding: the annual allocation of funding based on an amount per high needs place for a number of pupil places, which the PRUs receive directly from the local authority and alternative provision academies receive from the Education and Skills Funding Agency;
• Top-up Funding: the funding required over and above core funding, to facilitate the education being provided, which the setting receives directly from the local authority or sometimes the school that commissions each placement; and
• Locally negotiated funding: this represents a more flexible model, allowing academy trusts, schools and local authorities to agree service level agreements with alternative provision providers.

Key messages in the updated alternative provision guidance

The new Guidance makes it clear that academy trusts, schools and local authorities should take proactive measures to ensure high quality alternative provision is put into place where appropriate to the child’s needs, undertaking robust due diligence.

Re-integration of pupils into their own school is another key message in the Guidance, with a need for clear plans for the pupil’s return to mainstream schooling or transition into post-16 education.

The Guidance also states that alternative provision should not be used in place of special school provision where there is a shortage of specialist places.

Academy trusts will need to ensure that decisions on the use of alternative provision are carefully considered and well documented, both in terms of the quality of the provision and its suitability for the assessed needs of a particular child.  

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The information in this article is necessarily of a general nature. The law stated is correct at the date (stated above) this article was first posted to our website.

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