This is Part two of yesterday’s article about EOTAS, the out of school EHCP package that’s been completely ignored in the SEND proposals of the Schools’s White Paper. One of the biggest concerns about the reforms outlined in the Government’s Schools White Paper is the clear erosion of parent’s legal powers to fight for what their children need and deserve. As the Save Our Children’s Rights (SOCR) campaign consistently points out, ‘aspirations are not the same as legally enforceable protections’. For most families, EOTAS packages are already hard fought for, despite the clear life-changing benefits. Without the legal levers to hold local authorities accountable, parents seeking EOTAS in the future will be left powerless and children will be left without the support they need to thrive.
Failing to protect EOTAS is a false economy by the Save Our Children’s Rights campaign team
In Part 2, we pick up at point 4— taking a closer look at the life-changing impact of an EOTAS package and clearly outline what they want to see from the Government in terms of the proposed reforms.
4. The “Yellow Brick Road” Fallacy: Why Reintegration Isn’t the Goal
The government’s reform assumes a “Yellow Brick Road”. Given the absence of EOTAS, we’ve looked at the proposal’s position on Alternative Provision. AP is intended as a place where needs are ‘assessed and addressed’ in a time-limited manner. When a child is “fixed”, they are returned to a mainstream classroom. Those requiring longer-term support will be moved to a ‘more sustainable educational placement’. This is a dangerous misunderstanding of neurodivergence, and of the need for EOTAS.
“My child tried and tried to keep going to school. Sunday evenings and every morning became so traumatic because she was so anxious about it. Beyond anxious. After a while, school suggested she try Alternative Provision, and she did, but the goal was always for her to go back to school. It felt like she was being set up to fail, and she was already feeling so vulnerable. It seemed like I was watching her fall to pieces in front of my eyes. Eventually EOTAS was considered, and this is what gradually brought her back to us. I don’t know what would have happened without it – but getting here should never have been such a fight.”
Parent
- Doing Well ≠ Ready to Return: If a child is thriving in EOTAS, it is because the environment is right. Forcing them back into the environment that broke them is not “progress”; it is a recipe for a secondary, often more severe, collapse.
- EOTAS as a Permanent Destination: For some, EOTAS is the only way they will ever access an education. This must be respected as a valid, high-quality educational pathway, not a “temporary fix.” For some, this is “as long as necessary”.
Case Study
The wording below is taken from a letter written by a CAMHS Consultant Psychologist about B, a 15yo who suffered from severe OCD and suicidal ideation, which developed after traumatic experiences in both mainstream and specialist schools.
“B has experienced a trauma trigger when people ‘look professional’ and when in environments that ‘look like school’ or ‘feel like school’. We have observed that B needs relational connections fostered through a patient and curious approach, taken very carefully at B’s pace, with familiarity and consistency, thereby creating a felt sense of physical and emotional safety.
CAMHS Psychologist
A high level of repetition is needed to make patterned connections and to internalise and build clear expectations of himself and the adults who support him. They need a sense of reward and positive self-worth, prioritising fun and pleasure first to avoid a feeling of a forced agenda and for B to build a positive sense of themself. This is essential in protecting B’s mental wellbeing.
It is also essential that B and their family co‑produce interventions. B needs to focus on the short term, today and this week and be supported to build their communication and emotional regulation through the curiosity of others and guided discovery. Initially this will need to be one to one intervention with the aim of slowly building up B’s capacity and tolerance of more demands socially, emotionally, and environmentally. This level of need, based around a trauma recovery approach, is needed in order for B’s future to be safeguarded and as a foundation to rebuild many missed stages in B’s social, emotional, physical, and learning.
The importance of time and flexibility in delivery:
B had managed to access some of their EOTAS package initially, but then their intrusive thoughts became too much and they stopped picking up the phone and asked tutors to leave the house. The final straw was when a Maths tutor talked about taking a GCSE.
The EOTAS team and parents worked together to devise a low demand support plan. For weeks key tutors still came to the house and sat in a different room to B, they wrote and drew in exercise books to show B they were still there and wanted to communicate when B was ready. After many weeks B started to write and draw messages back. Slowly they started re-engaging with activities again. Two years on, thanks to EOTAS, they are able to leave the house with their tutor and are about to sit their first GCSE in Computer Science.
5. Legal and Systemic Failure: The Accountability Gap
The White Paper seeks to remove the legal levers families use to secure support.
- The 98.7% Failure Rate: Local Authorities lose almost every SEND Tribunal case because the law is currently clear. Instead of fixing their own lack of compliance, the government is proposing to change the law, significantly reducing the power of the Tribunal to make decisions about the support or placement a child needs.
- Invisibility in Reform: By failing to mention EOTAS, the government is effectively attempting to “wish away” the most complex children to balance the books. We are using the word Complex with some irony, since the definition of Complex by the government will have a lot of bearing on how the SEND reforms will work for this cohort. The omission of this growing cohort of children may be due to a lack of real understanding of the timelines and causes which led to these children’s school distress.
6. The Economic and Social Cost of Failure
When Local Authorities (LAs) deny EOTAS (Education Other Than At School) to save immediate costs, they inadvertently trigger a cascade of much higher long-term expenses. Failing to provide EOTAS is a false economy.
1. The Crisis Intervention Spiral
Without EOTAS, the “Sanctuary Cohort” remains trapped in environments that actively deteriorate their mental health.
- Tier 4 Admissions: The cost of a single week in an inpatient Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Tier 4 unit can exceed £5,000. Often, these admissions are the direct result of “school-induced” trauma that could have been prevented with a more suitable and cost effective EOTAS package.
- Social Care Involvement: When a child is out of school without a plan, families often face “Section 17” (Child in Need) investigations. The administrative and staffing cost of these legal processes often outstrips the cost of the educational provision itself.
2. Acting sooner can reduce costs
In our experience, delaying acting when it is clear that the school is an inappropriate environment for a child results in greater harm and trauma. This then means that they require even more specialist and bespoke provision, and for a longer period of time – both of which come at a cost. Acting more quickly to change the environment can reduce or prevent harm, leading to a child who is well and more able to engage with peers and group activities.
3. Credible Outcomes
EOTAS is an investment in future independence.
- NEET Prevention: Given key risk factors for becoming NEET include having SEND, a limiting disability, poor mental health and no academic qualification above level 1, children who “crash out” of school without an EOTAS bridge may be far more likely to become NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training).
- The ROI of Safety: By providing a safe, EOTAS-based path to GCSEs and A-Levels, or outcomes which are important to these young people, we ensure they can enter the workforce or establish their own path, pay taxes, and contribute their unique strengths to the economy. EOTAS done well gives young people the chance to create outcomes that work for them, when their other alternative was no outcome because school was not working, or non-elective Home Education.
Conclusion: A Plan Without Enforceable Provision is Not Protection
Currently, some of our most vulnerable learners have a lifeline in being able to access their education in a way that is suitable to their often very complex needs. Those who have, or are attempting to get an EOTAS package for their child, know that the path is not easy. It is generally only achievable by navigating the legal system, utilising their legal right to ask the Tribunal to review the evidence and make decisions, and enforcing those decisions through starting Judicial Review proceedings. Without these protections, we are concerned about the outcomes for these children. A document (like the proposed Individual Support Plan) is not enough without a clear, enforceable duty to deliver the provision within it. ISPs being school based and devised, would have no-one to produce one if a child is no longer registered at a school e.g. during a phase transition. There would also be no means of complaint in such circumstances.
Ignoring the problem, as the government appear to be intentionally doing, will not make it go away. It is essential that we maintain the right to appropriate educational provision, even for those children who are unable, by virtue of their special educational needs and disabilities, to access education in a school.
We call on the government to:
- Formally Recognise EOTAS in the National SEND reform.
- Protect Individualised Funding: Ensure provision is driven by the child’s assessed needs, not Standardised Packages.
- Maintain Legislative Protections: Commit to retaining the legal basis for education other than in school when it is deemed inappropriate for special educational provision to be delivered in school
- Uphold Accountability: Maintain the power of the Independent Tribunal to name EOTAS where school is inappropriate.
A large proportion of the Children who need EOTAS do so as a result of unmet needs with resulting trauma and burnout. There is nothing reassuring in the proposed National SEND reform that would mean this cohort would be supported any better. The proposals are reliant on schools and professionals acknowledging the sometimes quite subtle needs much earlier. These are the children who are all too often described as being “fine in school” until they are unable to attend anymore. Where do these children – the SENbetweeners – who don’t fit into a mainstream or quite often even a specialist school setting go? What these children need is an earlier statutory assessment and professionals accepting and acknowledging earlier that they need something different to be able to access education.
Our children exist. We will not be made invisible.
Authors
This article was jointly created by: Cathy Wassell (Founder, CEO, Autistic Girls Network and The Haven), Claire Brenner, Megan Booth (volunteer, SOSSEN), Joanna Gibbs and Milly Allinson (SENSational Tutors), Louise Parker Engels (Define Fine), Joanne Feaster, and Dee Nic Sitric (AUDHD, CEO of Autism Champions CIC).
Edited by Jenny Ellery
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Key Content
- Beyond EHCPs: Why Inclusion Needs More Than a Document
- The Unacceptable Truth: 20 SEND legal rights at risk from the Government’s SEND reforms
- How health and family support systems are failing children starting school
- WEBINAR RECORDING! The implications for children’s legal rights to EHCPs and EOTAS of the Government’s SEND proposals
- When things go right: Shining a light on SEND Practitioners making a positive impact [Giveaway!]
- From suspicion to support: why the Government’s child protection reforms matter for disabled children
- Have your say on the future of transport for disabled children and young people
- Unison voices major concerns over SEND reform health plans for sick and disabled children out of school in the EOTAS consultation
- Top Tips for the EOTAS & EHCP consultation: Protect your child’s rights to statutory SEND support
- Navigating constraints: Why a former PCF chair thinks the current model is missing the mark for families
- Dear Secretary of State for Education, Lucy Powell: an Open Letter from Special Needs Jungle and SEND legal charity SOS!SEN
- Research: Disabled young people define inclusive education as “learning in the place that’s right for them”
- The Unacceptable Truth: 20 SEND legal rights at risk from the Government’s SEND reforms
- WEBINAR RECORDING! The implications for children’s legal rights to EHCPs and EOTAS of the Government’s SEND proposals
- Unison voices major concerns over SEND reform health plans for sick and disabled children out of school in the EOTAS consultation
- Top Tips for the EOTAS & EHCP consultation: Protect your child’s rights to statutory SEND support
- What might the SEND reform proposals mean for specialist tutors, alternative provision and EOTAS?
- When Home-to-School Transport Doesn’t Fit: The Reality of Section 19 EOTAS
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- Join the May 9th #SaveOurChildrensRights SEND Protest in London or a regional location - April 22, 2026
- Part 2: The Invisible Lifeline: Why EOTAS is Non-Negotiable for the ‘Sanctuary Cohort’ - April 10, 2026
- The Invisible Lifeline: Why EOTAS is non-negotiable for the ‘Sanctuary Cohort’ Part 1 - April 9, 2026
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