Education Other Than At School (EOTAS)
EOTAS is for children and young people with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) who cannot be educated in a school setting.
This can be for lots of different reasons, such as physical and mental health difficulties.
It may be necessary for the child or young person to receive education outside of a school setting.
This means the child or young person would not be on roll at a school or post-16 setting and the special educational provision could happen at home or another unregistered educational setting.
EOTAS can only be agreed with us by:
- the EHC needs assessment
- a reassessment of needs (EHC needs reassessment)
- the EHCP annual review.
Some examples of types of EOTAS are:
- online schooling
- hospital schooling
- tuition at home or tuition centres.
We must consider a request from the parent or carer and decide if EOTAS is appropriate. This decision will be based on evidence that EOTAS is necessary as it would be inappropriate for the provision to be made in an educational setting such as a school or post-16 setting.
If you're considering requesting EOTAS please discuss this with your child's SENCo and your SEND Case Officer.
EOTAS is different from elective home education (EHE). Parents and carers who choose to home educate are responsible for making their own suitable arrangements for their child's educational provision.
More about home education.
Education of children and young people with medical needs
Schools may need support for pupils who are unable to attend full-time school due to their medical needs. This happens when it's expected a child will be away from school for 15 days or more either in total or over the year.
Support is available for pupils who are temporarily unable to attend school and who:
- are physically ill
- are injured
- have mental health problems
- are pregnant and suffering from ill health.
The Inclusion team fulfils our statutory and strategic responsibilities to support pupils of school age who are unable to attend school, due to a medical condition.
The team will arrange an appropriate educational offer for the pupil, as their health condition allows. This provision is made to be a short-term provision for children with medical needs.
All referrals to the Medical Education team must come directly from the child’s school by contacting eotas@medway.gov.uk.
Schools must complete a referral form and provide medical evidence in line with the updated medical needs policy and most recent statutory guidance.
Further information
More information can be found on the GOV.UK website and in our Medical Needs policy document.
To find out more, email the Inclusion team at eotas@medway.gov.uk.