EOTAS: Education Otherwise Than At School, Explained

Updated 4 July 2026 · Legal citations verified against legislation.gov.uk

Most children with an EHC plan are educated in a school. But the law recognises that for a small group of children, school itself is the barrier: not one particular school, but school as a setting. For those children, section 61 of the Children and Families Act 2014 allows the local authority to arrange special educational provision somewhere else entirely. This is EOTAS, education otherwise than at school. It is one of the least understood corners of the SEND system and one of the most important for families whose child cannot currently manage a classroom at all.

What section 61 actually says

Section 61 gives the local authority a power, with two built-in conditions. The council may arrange for special educational provision to be made otherwise than in a school or post-16 institution only if it is satisfied that it would be inappropriate for the provision to be made in such a setting, and before reaching that view it must consult the parent (or the young person, once they are past compulsory school age and exercising the rights themselves).

Notice what the test is about. The question is not whether a school could physically take your child, or whether a school exists with a space in it. The question is whether, for this child at this point, it would be inappropriate for the provision they need to be delivered in a school setting. That is a judgement about the child, made on evidence, not a judgement about school availability.

EOTAS is not home education

This distinction matters more than any other in this article, because families under pressure are sometimes nudged towards the wrong one.

• Elective home education is a choice parents make. You take your child off a school roll, you decide what education looks like and you pay for it. The responsibility sits with you.
• EOTAS is the opposite arrangement. The local authority has accepted that a school setting would be inappropriate, so the authority arranges the package and the authority funds it. The EHC plan continues, annual reviews continue and the legal duty to deliver what the plan specifies stays exactly where it belongs: with the council.

Once EOTAS provision is written into section F of the plan, section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014 requires the local authority to secure it. That duty falls away only where a parent has made suitable alternative arrangements themselves, which is what elective home education amounts to. So think carefully before deregistering a child in crisis: doing so can convert an enforceable package into a private undertaking you fund alone. A council cannot require you to home educate, and choosing not to is not obstruction. If you are weighing the two routes, our guide to EHC plans and home education covers the elective side in detail.

When families pursue EOTAS

There is no fixed list in the legislation, and that is the point: section 61 is an individual judgement. In practice, families tend to reach for EOTAS in situations like these:

• A child whose anxiety and distress around school have built to the point where attempts to attend repeatedly break down, despite genuine efforts by everyone involved. Our guide to EHCPs for anxiety and school avoidance describes how this pattern develops.
• A child whose health needs mean a school day, in any school, is not currently manageable.
• A child whose placements have broken down one after another, where pressing on with the same model again is plainly not working.
• A child waiting for a suitable specialist placement, where the choice in the meantime is between EOTAS and nothing.

EOTAS can be a bridge back towards a setting or a longer arrangement. Either way it is a lawful form of education, not a last resort to be rationed.

What evidence supports "inappropriate"

Because section 61 turns on the word inappropriate, your evidence needs to speak to that word directly. The strongest cases tend to combine:

• Professional advice: reports from an educational psychologist, CAMHS, a paediatrician or a therapist explaining why a school setting cannot currently meet the child's needs, not just describing the needs themselves.
• The history, dated: which settings and arrangements have been tried, what adjustments were made, what part-time timetables looked like and what happened each time. A factual timeline is far more persuasive than a summary.
• The impact: what attending, or attempting to attend, does to your child's health, sleep, eating and functioning, recorded as it happens rather than reconstructed later.

Keep the argument anchored to the child. "No local school will offer a place" is a placement problem. "For this child, at this time, provision delivered in a school setting would be inappropriate, and here is the evidence" is a section 61 case.

How EOTAS is recorded in the plan

There is no separate EOTAS section in an EHC plan. The package itself belongs in section F, the special educational provision, and it should be described the way all section F provision must be: specific, detailed and quantified, saying what will be delivered, by whom, how often and at what level of expertise. Vague wording like "access to tuition" is not enforceable, and with EOTAS there is no school around the child to paper over the gaps. Our guide to what good section F provision looks like shows the standard to hold out for.

Where a plan provides for education otherwise than at school, section I will not name a school. That is lawful and correct in an EOTAS plan. It is also worth knowing that under section 51(2) of the Children and Families Act 2014 you can appeal about the special educational provision in section F, the school named in section I or the fact that no school is named, so disagreements about an EOTAS package have a clear legal route.

The practical route and your rights along the way

EOTAS is usually raised during an EHC needs assessment or at an annual review, in writing, with the evidence attached. Remember the consultation duty runs in your favour: the council must consult you before arranging provision otherwise than at school, and your views about why a school setting would be inappropriate belong on the record.

Two further rights are worth using. First, if you ask for a personal budget, section 49 of the Children and Families Act 2014 says the local authority must prepare one: an amount identified to secure provision in the plan, worked out with the family involved, with direct payments possible under the regulations. Many families find this the most workable way to run an EOTAS package day to day. Second, if the council refuses and you disagree with what the final plan says, appeals about a plan's contents go to the First-tier Tribunal on form SEND35, with no fee, within 2 months of the decision letter or 1 month of a mediation certificate, whichever is later.

Frequently asked questions