Education Otherwise than at School plans

EOTAS means your child learns full time, but not in a school.

It might not be right for your child to do full-time hours at first, but we try to help every child get a full time education. We can discuss and review your child's plan work towards this.

EOTAS for children aged 5 to 16

In West Sussex, full time learning means your child learns:

• for between 22.5 and 25 hours each week, over 190 days of the academic year (usually 39 weeks)
• a wide range of subjects, as they would at school, unless the EHCP states something different

Learning does not have to happen during normal school hours.  

EOTAS for young people aged 16 and over

In West Sussex, full time learning means your child:

• learns for around 580 hours per year (19 hours per week), over about 31 weeks in a year
• works towards their goals for the future

EOTAS is a change of placement on your child's EHCP. Speak to your special needs officer (SNO) for help if you want to ask for EOTAS. They are able to support you. It would be helpful to do this before your child's annual review. 

The people at review meetings include:

• professionals who work the child
• the child's parent or carer
• the child

Your SNO will talk to their manager about your request for EOTAS. If there is evidence to support making the change, we send the request to the Resourcing and Considerations panel. They decide what happens next or give advice.

When we agree to a change of placement to EOTAS we will:

• look at the child's needs in an 'allocations and mapping' meeting
• create a plan that meets the child's needs called an 'offer of provision'
• send amendment notice that explains the change to the EHCP and gives more information about the EOTAS the child will receive
• give the child a contact person from the EOTAS or Elective Home Education (EHE) team to help with the change
• make sure a special needs officer contacts you about the EOTAS provision

We review EOTAS once a year, just like we do for EHCPs. We will ask for further guidance from the Resourcing and Considerations Panel where:

• there is evidence that the child's placement should change, perhaps to a school or college
• the child's parent or carer wants a change of placement
• the child needs more help with their education

The panel includes educational psychologists and members of the Special Educational Needs Assessment Team (SENAT).

Whilst the county council must decide what is suitable education, we also consider what you and your child want. We will work with you to arrange education that meets the needs of your child's EHCP.

We will:

• ask parents, carers and children what they want
• provide specialist help to plan EOTAS
• always try to use providers we already work with (who have gone through the commissioning process)

Using a provider we have not approved

Sometimes, you might want to use a provider that we do not already work with. If we cannot find a suitable approved provider, we will look at your request and decide if we can use the one you suggest.

EOTAS can be complicated and often involves more than one provider.

If there is a problem that we cannot fix by talking to you, we will set up a 'provision discussion' meeting. The parent or carer, the child and the SNO will attend the meeting. If the young person is over the age of 18, they can work with their SNO by themselves.  

If you want to change the EOTAS plan or you do not agree with the offer, you need to think about:

• how much notice the current provider needs
• making time to talk with the new provider
• if the new provider is available
• the time needed to make a decision

SENAT will try to make the agreed changes as quickly as they can.