Alternative Provision Panel (APP)
The alternative provision panel meets weekly during school term time to discuss, agree, and review all alternative provision arrangements in place for children across Staffordshire.
The panel’s membership is made up of professionals from across children services and is chaired by a senior manager.
The panel will take account of the child’s capacity to engage with education and will determine how much education to request through is commissioning process.
The panel has several different forms of provision alongside the school offer it can provide including use of:
- AV1 robot - more information is available on the No Isolation website.
- Online learning
- Tuition providers
- Virtual classrooms (Year 10 and Year 11)
Schools must work closely with tuition providers, online providers, and virtual classroom tutors to support the child. Schools to receive regular updates so that they can K code when then the tutor has completed a session with the child. Schools cannot pre-code and if a child does not attend a session, then usual codes apply.
Maths and English is provided, and schools must ensure work for other subjects can be accessed by the student if they are well enough to complete this as well. Schools should be completing regular safe and well visits and also keeping the child attached to school by inviting to events or allowing them to watch assemblies, sports events etc. online from home. The AV1 is especially useful for his and allows children to speak with their friends and maintain their own social connections.
To support reintegration the panel may request that tuition takes place outside of the child’s home, or on the school premises. The level of provision provided will be reviewed at regular intervals, so that any adjustments to the provision can be made.
The allocated EWO will inform the school referrer and parents, following the initial panel meeting to state what provision has been agreed and when it will be reviewed. A Team around the School / review meeting will need to be arranged prior to the next APP review date so the EWO will book this date in and explain when the agreed provision will start.
AV1 provision can start as soon at the AV1 is taken to the school by the EWO.
Other forms of tuition usually start three to four weeks after the APP decision as we are required to use a dynamic processing system to secure providers. It is important that the child receives support from the school in accessing education during this period so that they are not left without education. This is the school’s responsibility to ensure that this is provided.
The panel may also disagree that there is a requirement to put Section 19 provision in place initially or that it is to be continued after the next review. This is a Staffordshire County Council decision but if additional information is provided, then the decision can be re-reviewed by the panel to assess if this changes their original decision.
