EOTAS Is Under Review: What SEND Parents Need to Know About the Government’s Latest Proposals

For some children and young people with SEND, attending a school building is simply not currently possible.

This can happen for many reasons. A child may experience severe anxiety, sensory overwhelm, significant mental health difficulties, medical needs, repeated placement breakdowns or needs that cannot appropriately be met within a school setting.

For some families, Education Otherwise Than At School, commonly known as EOTAS, becomes an important part of the conversation.

Now, EOTAS is under national review.

In July 2026, the Department for Education launched a separate consultation looking specifically at children and young people who receive education outside of school. This sits alongside the Government’s wider SEND reforms and could influence how EOTAS and other forms of education outside school operate in the future.

For families whose children are unable to access school, this is an important development.

What Is the Government Consulting On?

The consultation covers children and young people who:

• receive special educational provision through an EOTAS arrangement
• are unable to attend school and receive alternative provision because of health needs
• receive alternative provision through accredited online education providers

The Government says it wants to consider how support can be improved, responsibilities made clearer and provision better quality-assured. It is also looking at outcomes, progression and, where appropriate, reintegration into school.

The Department for Education has specifically invited parents and carers, children and young people, schools, colleges, local authorities and SEND organisations to contribute their views.

What Is EOTAS?

EOTAS means Education Otherwise Than At School.

It is important not to confuse EOTAS with elective home education.

With elective home education, a parent chooses to take responsibility for educating their child at home.

EOTAS is different.

For a child or young person with an EHCP, an EOTAS arrangement may be made where it would be inappropriate for their special educational provision to be delivered in a school or other educational institution.

Depending on the individual child, an EOTAS package could involve education at home or elsewhere and may include different forms of teaching, therapeutic provision or specialist support.

It should be based around the child or young person’s individual needs rather than simply becoming somewhere to place a child because their school placement has broken down.

Why Is EOTAS Being Looked At Now?

The Government says its wider SEND reforms are intended to identify and respond to needs earlier so that fewer children experience placement breakdown or spend long periods outside education.

However, it also recognises that some children and young people will still require EOTAS.

That distinction matters.

There is an understandable desire to prevent children unnecessarily falling out of education.

But preventing unnecessary absence from school is not the same as assuming that every child can or should return to a school environment.

For some children, education outside school may be necessary because of the severity or complexity of their needs.

The focus must therefore remain on what is appropriate for the individual child, rather than simply where education is delivered.

National Standards for EOTAS Could Be Introduced

One of the areas being considered is whether national standards should apply to EOTAS provision.

The Government says it wants EOTAS to be:

• safe
• high quality
• regularly reviewed
• focused on helping children and young people make progress
• linked to meaningful outcomes

It is also consulting on whether local authorities should have a greater role in ensuring those standards are met.

Greater consistency could potentially be positive for families.

The quality of education outside school should not depend on where a child lives.

However, national standards must still leave enough flexibility for genuinely individual packages.

A child who cannot tolerate a classroom environment because of sensory overload may need something very different from a young person receiving education outside school because of a physical health condition.

Quality should not become confused with uniformity.

What About Returning Children to School?

One area likely to concern some parents is the emphasis on progression and reintegration.

The Government’s parent information explains that transition arrangements could support a return to school where this is appropriate and achievable. It also states that there would be no fixed time limit on these arrangements and that children should not simply be moved without consideration of their individual needs.

Those words are important.

Reintegration can be positive for some children.

For others, it may be inappropriate.

A successful EOTAS package should not automatically be regarded as temporary simply because education is taking place outside a school building.

The question should always be:

What educational arrangement can actually meet this child or young person’s needs?

Not:

How quickly can we get them back into school?

EOTAS Should Not Become the Answer to Failed SEN Support

There is another side to this discussion.

Children should not have to reach crisis point before appropriate support is provided.

Some children spend months or even years struggling within mainstream education before their placement eventually collapses.

Parents may have repeatedly raised:

• anxiety
• sensory distress
• masking
• meltdowns after school
• reduced attendance
• emotionally based school avoidance
• exclusions
• difficulty entering the school building
• deteriorating mental health
• unmet communication needs

By the time education outside school is discussed, the child may already associate education with distress.

The wider SEND reforms say that earlier intervention is intended to reduce placement breakdowns and long periods outside education.

If that ambition is going to work, schools must be properly equipped to respond before children reach crisis.

How Does This Fit With the Wider SEND Reforms?

EOTAS is only one part of a much larger proposed change to the SEND system.

The Government has proposed a future model involving:

• a stronger universal SEND offer within mainstream education
• National Inclusion Standards
• Individual Support Plans
• Targeted and Targeted Plus support
• specialist Inclusion Bases within mainstream settings
• Specialist Provision Packages for children with more complex needs
• changes to the future role and operation of EHCPs

The Government currently proposes that, in the future, EHCPs would be linked to children and young people requiring nationally defined Specialist Provision Packages. However, these are proposals for future reform, not the current SEND system.

The Government has indicated that assessment under the proposed new system would not begin until September 2029 and that there would be no change to support currently received through EHCPs before at least September 2030.

That is an important distinction for parents.

Your Child’s Current Rights Have Not Suddenly Disappeared

Families may understandably feel anxious when reading about SEND reform.

However, proposed reforms and consultations do not automatically change the law that applies to children today.

If your child currently has an EHCP, the local authority remains responsible for securing the special educational provision specified within it.

If you believe your child may require an EHC needs assessment, you can still request one under the existing legal framework.

And if you believe it would be inappropriate for your child’s special educational provision to be delivered within a school or other educational institution, EOTAS can still be considered within the current system.

Parents should therefore be cautious when hearing statements such as:

“EHCPs are being removed.”

“EOTAS is ending.”

“Every SEND child will have to attend mainstream.”

These statements do not accurately describe the current position.

The SEND system may be heading towards significant reform, but proposed future changes should not be confused with children’s rights today.

What Should Parents Be Watching?

As the EOTAS consultation develops, there are several important questions for families.

Will new national standards improve quality without restricting individualised provision?

How will decisions be made about when reintegration is appropriate?

Will children whose needs genuinely prevent them accessing school continue to have meaningful access to EOTAS?

How will therapeutic provision be treated?

How will the voices of children and young people be included?

What safeguards will exist where parents and local authorities disagree?

And perhaps most importantly:

Will reform make it easier for children to receive the right education, or simply create another threshold families have to fight to meet?

These are questions worth watching closely.

The NLH View

No child should have to repeatedly break down in order for adults to recognise that their educational environment is not working.

For some children, better SEND support within mainstream education may make an enormous difference.

For others, specialist education will remain necessary.

And for a smaller group, education outside a school setting may be the most appropriate way for them to learn, recover and make progress.

Inclusion should never mean forcing a child to remain in an environment they cannot access.

Equally, EOTAS should not become a substitute for properly funded SEN Support, specialist provision or timely intervention.

The starting point must always be the individual child:

What are their needs?

What are the barriers preventing them from accessing education?

What provision do they require to make progress?

And:

Where can that provision realistically and safely be delivered?

As SEND reform continues, families need to be part of these conversations because decisions about education outside school will directly affect some of the children whose voices are already the easiest for the system to overlook.

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This article reflects the position in England as of August 2026 and provides general information only. SEND reform proposals may change as consultation and legislation progress and should not be treated as individual legal advice.