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Alternative provision is education for children and young people who are unable to be provided for in mainstream or in a special school. Local authorities are required by law to make provision for all children of compulsory school age who have been permanently excluded from school or who are otherwise without a school place. Alternative provision is also used by schools for pupils who remain on the school roll, but who need specialist help with learning, behavioural or other difficulties.

At any one time just under 1 per cent of pupils (70,000) are in some form of alternative provision: many placements are short term, so the numbers of students passing through alternative provision in any one year are about double this, in other words approximately 135,000 pupils.

The great majority of alternative provision placements are of secondary age pupils. About one third of placements are in the 450 local authority-run Pupil Referral Units; the other two thirds are in other forms of alternative provision commissioned by local authorities and schools. Other alternative provision includes placements in further education; in private and voluntary sector provision and in independent schools.

The statistics available for pupils in Pupil Referral Units tell us that 75% have special educational needs, 91% are aged 11-15, and 69% are boys.

Only 1 per cent of 15 year olds in Pupil Referral Units achieved 5 GCSEs at grades A* to C or equivalent; 11.3 per cent achieved 5 or more grades A*- to G; and 82.1 per cent achieved 1 or more qualifications. This compares with 45.8 percent; 90.5 per cent and 97.8 per cent in mainstream schools. While there has been some slight improvement over time, these outcomes remain very poor.

We must raise our expectations for these young people. The level of underachievement diminishes their future opportunities and is strongly associated with poor job prospects and poor life chances. We recognise that many of the young people for whom alternative provision caters are among the most challenging of their generation. Many will have struggled to keep up at school and arrive in alternative provision with very low prior attainment.

We know that 75 per cent of pupils in Pupil Referral Units have special educational needs. Many of these will have social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, which may mask underlying learning difficulties or a disability. While there is some good and some outstanding alternative provision, there are systemic weaknesses.

LNAT Papers - Questions

1.    All of the following are statements of opinion except:

(a) Young people should do better at school than they are at present.

(b) Boys are more difficult to educate than girls.

(e) The majority of children in Pupil referral units have special needs.

(e) The educational system in the UK is in great need of reform.

(e) Academic underachievement leads to criminal behaviour.

2.    What is the writer's main argument?

(a) The requirements of children with special educational needs are often overlooked.

(b) Local authorities need to do more to help children who have been excluded from school.

(c) Independent schools manage the alternate provision better than state schools.

(d) The present shortcomings in the Alternative provision need to be addressed.

(e) GSCE results for 15 year olds should be higher.

3.    Which of these do you think is an assumption of the writer?

(a) The statistics quoted in the passage are probably erroneously understated.

(b) The burden of improving the present state of affairs rest with the government.

(c) Children are personally responsible for their own poor performance at school.

(d) The situation described in the article will get worse before it gets better.

(e) Parents should do more to help their children.

Answers and Explanations