Has your child or young person with SEND accessed Alternative Provision in the last 12 to 18 months?
We have recently been invited to join two different groups focusing on Alternative Provision, and we’d love to hear from any parent carers who might be interested in getting more involved in this area of our work.
It will not involve a significant time commitment – one or two meetings every couple of months – and the ESPCF team will provide you with as much support as you need, including coming along to some meetings with you (which should be online). No previous experience is required, and you will also be offered payment for your time. Ideally, we’d like two parent carers for this work: one for each group – details of these are below.
If you have a read of the following information and think you might be interested in finding out more, please do get in touch. There is no expectation of commitment at this stage – just an informal chat about what might be involved.
Why Alternative Provision?
As you may know, Alternative Provision (AP) is one area of the Department for Education’s SEND reform plans, and East Sussex is involved in testing these out.
AP is also the focus of two groups in East Sussex: one is a sub-group of the East Sussex SEND Strategy Governance Board, and the other is a group recently set up by the council’s new AP provider, London South East Academies Trust.
The aim of both the groups, in general terms, is to improve the whole experience of Alternative Provision for children and young people. And while the name of the groups might make it all sound rather formal, the actual work will be talking about the important stuff: what works, what are the barriers, where are the gaps in provision, what are families saying about AP, is the provision helping to ensure children and young people are able to access suitable education etc.
What is Alternative Provision (AP)?
East Sussex County Council’s definition is available on page 7 of its AP policy. But in day-to-day terms, Alternative Provision could look like:
- One-to-one education at home
- Forest school
- Small-group tuition or activities, e.g. outdoor skills, working towards vocational qualifications
- Accessing a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU)
Alternative Provision is arranged and funded either by the council or the school. More information is available on East Sussex County Council’s website for schools and East Sussex 1Space, which is the council’s services directory:
Finding Alternative Provision (czone website)
1Space – Alternative Provision listings
More about the groups
Group one is a sub-group of the SEND Strategy Governance Board and meets online once every half term (six times per year). It looks at the planning and the range of AP in the county, including looking at:
- feedback from families about their experiences of AP
- where there are gaps in provision
- data about the outcomes for children who have accessed AP to understand how well it is working/its impact
- the use of the AP directory
- quality assurance of AP providers commissioned by the council
Group two is called the ‘East Sussex Academy Alternative Provision Board’. It has been established by the council’s new AP provider (from September 2025), which is the London South East Academies Trust. The purpose of this group is to make sure there is successful 14-16 AP provision across East Sussex, and also to monitor transition and progress from AP providers into further education colleges in East Sussex.
The group will look at ways to ensure there is:
- early identification of need
- a transparent and efficient referral system
- better transitions for children and young people between different schools or other settings, or different AP providers
- effective communication between everyone: the AP providers, schools, colleges, and most importantly with the families
- good support and guidance for pupils
Please don’t worry about absorbing all the information in one go. What we’d really like is for you to get in touch if your child or young person has accessed Alternative Provision and you are interested in finding out more about representing parent carer experiences in this area. That’s it. And we’ll go from there!