Education Otherwise

The law says :-Section 61 of the Children & Families Act 

(1) A Local Authority in England may arrange for any special educational provision that it has decided is necessary for a child or young person for whom it is responsible to be made otherwise than in a school or post-16 institution or a place at which relevant early years education is provided.

(2) An authority may do so only if satisfied that it would inappropriate for the provision to be made in a school or post-16 institution or at such a place.

(3) Before doing so, the authority must consult the child’s parents or the young person.

If a child has an Education Health and Care plan (EHCP) and you choose to electively home educate, the local authority no longer has a legal duty to secure any special educational provision set out in the EHC plan, because you are deemed to be making your own suitable alternative arrangements.

If, however, the local authority (LA) deems school or college to be inappropriate for your child or young person, the LA can arrange for your child’s special educational provision to be delivered somewhere other than in a school, college or early years setting.  The LA would then be responsible for continuing to secure and fund that provision.

A parent may need to educate their child at home because there is no viable alternative due to their child’s particular needs, whether medical or otherwise. This is different to elective home education because the parent has not chosen or ‘elected’ to educate them at home.  Instead, it is known as ‘education otherwise than in a setting’ (“EOTAS”) or ‘education otherwise’.

It would generally be preferable to have an EHC plan Specifying ‘education otherwise than at school’ as this means the LA must ensure the special educational provision (this is permitted under section 61 of the Children and Families Act 2014).

What are some examples of EOTAS?

• Online schooling
• Home tuition
• Other tuition centres
• Hospital schooling

It is also worth remembering that anything which educates or trains a child or young person is to be treated as special educational provision. For a young person in particular, such education or training could take place in a non-educational setting.

How does the LA decide that EOTAS is relevant?

 They must decide that it is necessary to make special educational provision that is not in a school, post-16 institution (such as a college), or an early years setting.

1. They do this if they are satisfied that a school, post-16 institution, or early years setting would be inappropriate for the child or young person.
2. The LA must consult with the parent or young person.

 What makes an educational setting ‘inappropriate’?

 This has been considered in the case of TM v London Borough of Hounslow, which confirmed that the full effect of the word ‘inappropriate’ must be considered, and that the LA must determine whether a school setting would ‘not be suitable’ or ‘not be proper’.

 The LA would have to take into account all the circumstances:

 These circumstances might include, without giving any exhaustive list, (which must depend on the facts of the case) consideration of the following matters:

• the child’s background and medical history
• the particular educational needs of the child
• the facilities that can be provided by a school
• the facilities that could be provided other than in a school
• the comparative cost of the possible alternatives to the child’s educational provisions
• the child’s reaction to education provisions, either at a school or elsewhere
• the parents’ wishes

 It is essential that Section F (the provision for the child or young person) of the EHCP specifies the  EOTAS package which will be delivered.

The local authority will not name an ‘appropriate’ school or a type of school in Section I where it has been decided a child should have education otherwise than at school (EOTAS) because it has already been decided that it would be inappropriate for the provision in the EHCP to be made at a school. (The home address of the child or young person would also not be included in Section I). 

Parents/young people will need to argue that the reference to EOTAS should be specified in section F as well as what the package contains.