Children and young people of statutory school age who are
temporarily unable to attend school may have short-term educational
programmes arranged for them by the Education Other Than At
School (EOTAS) Service.
These pupils may be referred to the EOTAS
Service because they:
- Have medical needs
- Have mental health difficulties
- Are pregnant or have recently given birth
- Are excluded
Young people who are likely to be absent from
school for more than 15 school days may be referred to the EOTAS
Service for medical reasons. They may be
ill, injured, recovering from surgery or
operations or experiencing mental health
difficulties.
In such cases, referrals from schools or
professionals such as education welfare officers,
need to be supported with written medical confirmation, usually
from a consultant or, in mental health cases, an involved mental
health worker. Provision for these pupils will usually take the
form of individual or small group tuition.
When young women are unable to attend school
because they are in the later stages of pregnancy
or are recovering from having given birth, they may be provided
with individual or small group tuition.
When young people are permanently
excluded from school, the EOTAS Service is responsible for
providing them with full-time alternative education
programmes. The nature of these programmes will depend upon
the age of the pupil involved but it will frequently involve a
combination of individual/small group tuition and attendance at a
youth award programme or at vocational provision. We also
work with schools preventatively, when young people on their roll
are deemed to be at risk of permanent exclusion.
The teaching input arranged by the EOTAS
Service will usually take place in venues outside the home. Tutors
will teach pupils in their own homes only if their medical
condition does not allow them to attend external venues. In these
cases, it will be the parents’ responsibility to ensure that a
second responsible adult is present at all times. ‘Home’
tuition should not be confused with elective home
education, where a parent chooses to provide
suitable education, rather than have their child
attend school.
In order to keep the young person in touch
with the curriculum they would be experiencing if they were in
school, our approach is to seek details from their current or last
school and to use this information to draw up an Individual
Learning Plan (ILP) for the pupil. This will incorporate a
range of objectives for the pupil to work towards and will provide
the tutor(s) with a starting point for their teaching sessions.
Thereafter, it will be reviewed and new objectives will be agreed,
as appropriate.
The EOTAS Service also has
responsibility for
- advising parents, school staff, involved
professionals on the exclusion process and monitoring relevant
patterns and trends in Northumberland schools
- monitoring the suitability of education
where parents choose to ‘home educate’ their child themselves
- monitoring children missing or at risk of
missing education.
