AP’s - The importance of knowing: Who you help? Why you help? and How you help?

As an alternative provision, do you know who you help, how and why?

I guess most providers would answer yes but I think there is a real value in taking some time to think this through as an AP. How well can you articulate this? How clearly and sharply is it defined?

There is a definite strength in being able to sharply define this for your setting. That definition is important for both registered and unregistered provisions. It’s particularly helpful for those just starting out on their AP journey. I have worked with lots of people just starting up an AP and I encourage them to go through this thought process before they start. It’s also a useful exercise for those who are more established to review how focussed they are on their key objectives.

Defining what you do:

If someone asks what kind of young person you see the most success with or who you are aiming to help what would your answer be?

The best AP’s have a real awareness of, not just which type of young person they can help but also how they are achieving it. They also have a clear grasp of the aims of their provision, some look to help their young people to re-engage, some to achieve qualifications, some to deal with trauma or anxiety. Can you answer the following questions clearly for your setting?

1)        Which young people have you seen the most success with?

2)        What did success look like for them?

3)        What did you to that helped them achieve that success?

Are you brave enough to turn down requests for places based on who you know you can help and where the skills of your staff team lie? Making sure that an AP fits the needs of a young person and can deliver a successful outcome for them is how we’d like the sector to work. Admittedly the lack of places or financial constraint means this isn’t always the case but from an AP leaders point of view – defining what we do and remaining true to that can help.

It can help to build a statement about your setting that at its most simple looks something like this:

We help…(what are the needs of your target young people?)…to…….(what goals are you aiming for?)…….through…….(what is your approach?).

For example, “We work with KS4 pupils on the edge of exclusion to move successfully to their next place of education through a trauma-informed, relational approach.”

Or “We help young people struggling to access education due to anxiety to develop strategies to be able to re-engage with mainstream through access to counsellors, an inspiring curriculum and equine therapy.”

You can write several paragraphs around these definitions or keep it as simple as the statements above. The very best examples I have seen and the most important aspect, I think, is the clarity of the statements and how well the setting focusses on these.

Know who you want to help.

Know what your objectives are for your young people.

Know how what mechanisms you use to deliver these.

Why is it important to define yourself so clearly as a provision? I think there are several reasons that it is a helpful thing to do:

·      The Ofsted framework – if you are a registered alternative provision then the framework is clear, APs will be inspected against the objectives they have for their pupils. The Inspection Handbook says “alternative providers may have different objectives in their work related to the reasons why a pupil is placed in alternative provision, the needs of the pupil, the duration of placements and the proportion of time that pupils stay with the provider each week. For instance, in a PRU that provides short-term placements for excluded pupils or those at risk of exclusion, the core work may emphasise specific improvements in pupils’ attitudes, behaviour and/or attendance alongside their academic/vocational/technical achievement or be aiming to reintegrate pupils into mainstream schools. Alternative providers may also offer services to schools and other educational settings to help them support children with additional needs in their settings. Inspectors will evaluate schools’ success in these areas, while bearing in mind that we expect high academic/vocational/technical aspirations for all pupils.”

Defining exactly what your objectives are for the young people you work with leaves you able to evidence progress and success in those areas. It can also free you up from feeling like you need to chase evidence of progress in all other areas. A provision whose key objectives are helping to re-engage pupils who were on the edge of exclusion can measure attendance and behavioural data as key indicators of success rather than just the academic data a mainstream school may rely on.

·      Targeting resources – none of us work with indefinite budgets or time. Defining closely who you work with and how helps to target resources. Is your CPD focussed on meeting the needs of your specific cohort? Is your budget spent on resources to address those needs? Is your timetable strategic in achieving the objectives you have for your young people?

·      Building curriculum – if the objectives for young people are really defined then curriculum planning flows backwards from these. If you’re working with an objective of changing behaviours, then you need to teach students how to deal with conflict and how to understand and process emotions. If you’re working towards particular qualifications or take students with particular interests, then your literacy and numeracy work can be designed to link in with these.

·      Addressing needs – if the needs of your cohort are clearly defined then you can make sure that your provision clearly meets those needs. Your young people have struggled to access mainstream education and there were reasons for that. Addressing those reasons can run through your daily structures, the teaching, the curriculum, pastoral support - every area of what you deliver. Specialising in the kind of needs you address mean that you can focus clearly in helping reduce the barriers around these.

·      Improving safeguarding – a clearly defined cohort can come with specific safeguarding needs you can make sure are addressed through your curriculum and pastoral support. An AP that works with young people on the edge of the criminal justice system may need interventions around knife crime and CCE. One working with students struggling with trauma may need more focussed sessions on self-harm for example.

·      Demonstrating progress – if you have clearly defined the objectives for your provision, you know when you’re being successful. If you aim to get young people into their next place of education at post-16 then you can clearly measure if it is happening. If the results aren’t right, you can adapt what you do to hit those objectives – is it better careers guidance, improved relationships with a local college or interview practice for example?

·      Developing staff – being focussed on the profile of your cohort and the way you reach them allows you to build a staff team around this. If you’re working in a trauma-informed way, then you spend resource recruiting or training staff to work with an understanding of trauma. If you work with autistic young people, then you can build your specialism and knowledge for this.

·      Inspiring commissioners – Helping commissioners to have a really clear idea of the who, what and how for your provision helps to reassure them that they are making good decisions for their students. A clearly defined purpose can also be backed up by evidence of examples of success. As a previous commissioner of places, it’s more appealing to send a young person to somewhere that specialises in addressing their needs than generic ‘alternative provision’ placements.

I always suggest that the Alternative Provision leaders I work with go through a process to clearly define those questions I mentioned earlier:

Who do you work with?

What does success look like for them?

How do we achieve that?

I think answering these and keeping these as a focus as an AP progresses really helps, it underpins everything from the structure of the day, to curriculum, to how you train your staff.

I hope this prompts some helpful thought. To keep informed with our updates join our subscriber list here: