The Department for Education (DfE) has launched a national consultation on Education Otherwise Than at School (EOTAS), giving families, professionals and organisations the opportunity to help shape how children and young people who receive EOTAS are supported in the future.
At Medway Parent Carer Forum (MPCF), we know that the voices of parent carers are essential. That’s why we’ll be gathering feedback from our members over the coming weeks and submitting a collective response that reflects the experiences of families across Medway.
What is EOTAS?
The Department for Education explains EOTAS as education provided outside of a school or college for children and young people whose special educational needs mean that their education cannot be appropriately delivered in a school setting.
As part of the consultation, the Government states:
“We want all children to be happy learning in the way that suits them best. Some children and young people with special educational needs do not always get this chance. They can learn in places outside a school or college. This is called Education Otherwise Than At School, or EOTAS for short.”
The consultation aims to gather views on proposed changes and will also help inform future research into whether children and young people receiving EOTAS are accessing the right support and achieving positive outcomes.
How MPCF is gathering your views
Rather than asking members to complete the full Government consultation, we will be sharing two short surveys with our forum members over the coming weeks.
We’ve chosen to use the easy-read version of the consultation, breaking it down into smaller, more manageable sections. We hope this will make the questions easier to understand and give parent carers the opportunity to consider each topic in more detail before sharing their views.
Once all responses have been collected, MPCF will submit a collective response to the Government consultation, ensuring the experiences and opinions of Medway parent carers are represented.
What will the surveys ask about?
The consultation covers a wide range of important topics, including:
- Supporting children and young people to return to school where appropriate.
- Who should be responsible for planning, delivering and reviewing EOTAS provision.
- The role of online and remote education.
- The support currently available to children, young people and parent carers.
- Support for children and young people with health needs.
- Whether children with health needs are receiving support early enough.
- What is working well within the current system and where improvements are needed.
Whether your family has direct experience of EOTAS or not, your views on these topics are valuable and will help us provide informed feedback.
Take Part
If you’d like to contribute to MPCF’s response, please complete our surveys using the links below:
Part 1 Survey:
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/kzRhntFr8B
Part 2 Survey:
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/fjJN3wwQN8
The Government’s consultation closes on 18 September, so we’d encourage you to share your views as soon as possible.
Together, we can ensure the voices of Medway parent carers help shape future support for children and young people with SEND.