Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on implementation of the recommendations of the report by Charlie Taylor, Improving Alternative Provision, published in March 2012.

Nick Gibb

The Department accepted the recommendations made by Charlie Taylor in ‘Improving Alternative Provision (AP)’, and has made a number of changes in response.

We have put in place the framework for Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) to convert to AP academies and for high quality independent providers to become AP free schools. PRUs now have greater autonomy over their staffing and budgets as a result. We have revised the funding system for AP to support more informed decisions on the best AP for individual pupils.

We have ensured that Initial Teacher Training placements can now be delivered by PRUs, AP academies and AP free schools. Schools’ use of AP is now a greater focus of school inspection. We have also removed restrictions over the use of maintained schools’ power to direct pupils to be educated offsite for the purposes of improving their behaviour. We have published stronger statutory guidance on the use of AP and the education of pupils unable to attend school because of health needs.

Since the review, the Department has undertaken further research into the AP system, working with local authorities, head teachers of AP or special schools, and reviewing international evidence.

The Department announced in the White Paper published on 17 March 2016, ‘Education Excellence Everywhere’, that we will be taking further steps to build on the recommendations made in Charlie Taylor’s review in order to meet our vision for a world class system of AP. This paper is available on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/educational-excellence-everywhere.

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