When a child is educated outside school, the paperwork can end up outside everyone's line of sight too.
A school may hold attendance information. The local authority may hold the decision and funding trail. A provider may hold daily progress records. Parents may be the only people who can explain what is actually happening. That arrangement can continue for months without anyone holding one current account of education, support, responsibility and next steps.
The Department for Education's new consultation on education otherwise than at school puts that problem under scrutiny. Published on 10 July 2026, it asks how England should improve support, clarify responsibilities and strengthen quality assurance for children and young people educated outside school. It closes at 11:59pm on 18 September 2026.
Schools and trusts do not need to predict the consultation outcome. They can tighten the records that make current arrangements safer now.
What does the 2026 EOTAS consultation cover?
The consultation asks how support could improve, who should be responsible for what, and how provision could be quality assured. It also considers progression and reintegration where appropriate.
EOTAS, health-related absence and online alternative provision are not interchangeable labels. The legal basis, commissioning route and expected destination may differ. A good school record should state which arrangement applies rather than hiding several situations under "not in school".
What should schools do while the consultation is open?
The short answer is simple: identify every pupil whose education is taking place partly or wholly outside the normal school day, then check whether the school can explain the arrangement from one current record.
That record should show the basis for the arrangement, who commissioned it, what education and SEND provision is being delivered, who checks quality, how the pupil and family are involved, and what happens next. It should link to source documents rather than rely on a spreadsheet comment or a colleague's memory.
These seven checks give schools a practical starting point.
1. Record the basis for the arrangement
Start with the decision, not the timetable.
The record should make clear whether the pupil has an EOTAS arrangement, receives alternative provision because of health needs, uses an online provider, remains on a school roll with a reduced or adapted offer, or has another agreed arrangement. Staff should not have to infer this from attendance codes or provider invoices.
Include:
- the decision date and decision maker
- the legal or policy basis recorded by the commissioning body
- the pupil's roll status
- the start date and expected review point
- links to the EHCP, support plan, medical evidence or commissioning decision that applies
- any parts of the arrangement that remain disputed or unresolved
This prevents a temporary response from quietly becoming an undefined long-term placement.
2. Name who owns each action
"The local authority is dealing with it" is not an action plan.
Split responsibility into specific tasks. Who commissions the education? Who sends the provider current SEND information? Who checks attendance and engagement? Who responds when sessions are missed? Who reviews safeguarding information? Who convenes the next meeting? Who speaks to the family?
Use names or roles, dates and a clear status. If ownership changes, keep the history and update the current owner.
This is where patchwork systems fail. An email thread can prove that several people discussed an issue without proving that anyone took responsibility for it.
MeritDocs brings documents, versions, assignments and review context into one governed workflow. For a pupil educated outside school, that means the source material and the current document can remain connected while staff can see who owns the next step.
3. Keep the SEND provision specific
A placement or provider name does not describe provision.
The record should state what support is being delivered, by whom, how often and for what intended outcome. Where an EHCP applies, schools and local authorities must be able to compare the actual offer with the provision specified in the plan. For pupils at SEN Support, the assess, plan, do, review cycle still needs usable evidence.
Avoid phrases such as "online package in place" or "specialist support arranged" without detail. Record the frequency, format, staffing, reasonable adjustments, communication arrangements and any provision that has not started.
The SEND Code of Practice remains the statutory framework. A new reform consultation does not pause existing duties or remove the need for professional judgement.
4. Separate attendance, access and engagement
A pupil can log in without accessing suitable education. They can attend a session without being able to participate. They can miss provision because transport, anxiety, health or sensory barriers have not been resolved.
Record these as separate questions:
- Was the education available?
- Could the pupil access it?
- Did the pupil attend or log in?
- What level of engagement was observed?
- What barrier was reported when access broke down?
- What changed as a result?
For children unable to attend because of health needs, the DfE's statutory guidance on arranging education explains the local authority duty to ensure they receive a good education. School records should help the relevant people act, not turn health-related absence into a string of unexplained marks.
5. Build a quality assurance trail
The consultation explicitly asks how provision can be better quality assured. Schools should be ready to show more than a contract and a start date.
A proportionate record might include:
- checks completed before the placement or service started
- the provider's named contact and safeguarding arrangements
- curriculum or programme information
- attendance and engagement reports
- work samples or progress information
- pupil and parent feedback
- incidents, concerns and complaints
- actions agreed after monitoring
- the date and outcome of the latest review
Quality assurance does not mean collecting a mountain of documents. It means keeping enough evidence to answer a harder question: is this arrangement suitable for this pupil, and what did we do when the evidence suggested otherwise?
6. Preserve pupil and parent voice without polishing it away
Children educated outside school often experience a long chain of decisions made about them. Their own account can disappear beneath professional summaries.
Keep direct quotations as quotations. Distinguish the pupil's view, the parent's report, a provider observation and a professional opinion. Do not merge them into one smooth paragraph.
For example, "I can manage the first lesson but I panic when the camera has to go on" tells staff something specific. Rewriting it as "the pupil experiences anxiety with online learning" removes the point at which access breaks down.
MeritDocs can help staff build a structured needs profile from recorded evidence while preserving source voice and avoiding unsupported inference. Staff review and confirm what belongs in the live record. The gain is a clearer account, not an artificial sense of certainty.
7. Treat reintegration as a reviewed plan, not a hopeful date
The consultation includes progression and reintegration where appropriate. Reintegration should never be the automatic goal for every pupil, but where it is agreed, the plan needs more than a proposed return date.
Record:
- what the pupil and family want
- what "successful reintegration" would mean in this case
- the starting timetable or contact
- support before, during and after each step
- likely barriers and agreed responses
- who can pause or change the plan
- review dates and evidence used at each review
- what will happen if reintegration is not currently suitable
A plan should change when evidence changes. Staff need to see the previous baseline, the adjustment made and the reason for it.
A compact EOTAS records checklist
A school or trust should be able to answer all of these questions for each affected pupil:
- What arrangement is in place, and on what basis?
- Who commissioned it?
- Who owns each live action?
- What education and SEND provision is actually being delivered?
- What is not yet in place?
- How are attendance, access and engagement recorded separately?
- When was quality last checked, and what changed afterwards?
- Are pupil and parent views clearly attributed?
- Is reintegration being considered, ruled out or actively planned?
- When is the next review, and who must attend?
If the answers sit across several inboxes, the arrangement is harder to oversee than it needs to be.
Does the consultation change current duties now?
No. Existing statutory duties, EHCP arrangements, safeguarding responsibilities and guidance continue to apply while reform is being considered. EOTAS is also different from elective home education, which is initiated by parents. Schools should use the correct term and record the basis clearly.
Fix the record before the policy lands
The consultation may lead to clearer national arrangements. It cannot repair a school's fragmented record by itself.
MeritDocs helps schools keep SEND documents, source evidence, review context and current versions in one controlled workflow. That makes it easier to show what has been agreed and what still needs attention without pretending that software can decide the right provision.
For schools, the practical response is to make every outside-school arrangement explainable now. If responsibility, provision or next steps cannot be found quickly, that is the place to start.