Olive Academies was established in 2013. Our alternative provision academies support children and young people who have experienced difficulty in learning in mainstream schools and have either been permanently excluded or are at risk of it. We currently have 5 academies in 4 different local authorities across London and the East of England.  This will soon increase to 6 across 5 local authorities and in addition we are opening a new AP independent school and a new AP free school. 

Olive Academies believes that there should be a continuum of inclusive practice that is able to meet the needs of all children and young people and that alternative provision has an important part to play on that continuum both in terms of supporting mainstream settings to develop inclusive practice and thereby reduce the number of permanent exclusions including for children and young people with SEND and support individuals to be able to transition back into mainstream, move to a more suitable specialist placement or transition into post-16 settings.

Fig 1: Olive Academies Continuum of Inclusive Practice

In response to this call for evidence to find short term actions to stabilise the SEND system and develop long term sustainability of the SEND system to support and improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND we believe that Olive Academies and other high quality AP MATs have a  critical role in building the capacity in mainstream settings as they move to being more inclusive and able to cater for more children and young people with SEND.  All leaders in Olive Academies have significant experience of leading and improving schools in mainstream settings and this is the case in other high quality AP providers.  This means that we are ideally placed to add value and have a significant impact on the effectiveness of the system.

Support for children and young people with SEND

Over recent years there has been a marked increase in the number of children and young people entering our academies with an increased level of SEND need.  Most of the pupils in our academies have a SEND need, usually SEMH, however not exclusively so.  There are an increased number of pupils being referred who already have an EHCP and a mainstream or specialist setting has not been found, or they are referred for an EHC assessment by one of our academies as a result of significant levels of unidentified needs over many years at the point of referral.  In response to the increased level of need we have further developed our provision both in terms of the curriculum offer and the therapeutic approaches and a strong focus on work force development.  In our academies we have developed an inclusive curriculum and therapeutic practices that have a combined effect of improving attendance and behaviour and increased the number of pupils reintegrating into mainstream or transitioning to another suitable placement or into post-16 education.  Many of these practices could be shared with mainstream schools in the drive to improve inclusion across the system.

We believe that inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools and early years settings can be improved to achieve consistent, high quality SEND support through several developments including the development of the inspection framework with inclusion firmly embedded across all strands, a review of school performance measures, the development of a more inclusive mainstream curriculum, a significant level of workforce training and increased funding.  We believe that Olive Academies and similar high-quality AP can make a significant contribution to this through playing a significant role in building capacity. The key issue is ensuring that more children and young people are educated successfully in mainstream settings and that these schools adapt to become more inclusive and meet the needs of the children and young people in their care.  AP providers such as Olive Academies have the relevant knowledge and experience to share across the system.

The working definition of inclusion developed by Ofsted and part of its recent consultation is helpful because it sets out the expectations for all settings. It was developed with the support of Ofsted’s Inclusion Reference Group which was co-chaired by the CEO of Olive Academies.  High quality AP providers such as Olive Academies can support the system in becoming more inclusive.  We have demonstrated this through our work with MATs and schools.

The SEND and AP Improvement Plan (DfE 2023) set out a blueprint for improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND and to improve experiences for their families. Critical to improvements to AP is to move the time and resource ‘upstream’ (see fig 2) and to refocus efforts on targeted support in and with mainstream schools, which is the essence of the offer of AP outreach that several local authorities have commissioned from Olive Academies.

Fig 2: The Three-tier Model for Alternative Provision (DfE 2023)

The Olive AP Outreach Continuum (see fig 3) is informed by pilot AP outreach programmes in 2017 – 19 in Suffolk, together with AP outreach developed by Olive Academies elsewhere in the East of England. We currently have outreach commissioned by 3 of the 4 local authorities in which we have academies, and this will soon be across the 4th.  There is evidence from all of these projects that the schools have become more inclusive and children and young people have remined in a mainstream setting and in many cases not been excluded or had a permanent exclusion rescinded.  The continuum aligns with the DfE’s model (fig 1) and can be applied at all key stages and across a wide range of settings.  This model is flexible and can be adapted to suit the needs.

Fig 3: The Olive AP Outreach Continuum

The implementation of the tiered model and the outreach continuum can be applied at the individual school level however we think this needs to be more ambitious and implemented in groups of schools including MATs or within local authority areas.  In effect there needs to be a culture of change at a system level where different aspects are aligned to have significant impact and stem the flow of pupils exiting mainstream settings. The AP sector including Olive Academies could support with developing strategic planning, leadership and management practices, a more inclusive curriculum and workforce training and development.

Olive Academies has an established track record of working in partnership with local authorities on developing their systems and commissioning models; MATs and schools on developing their inclusive practice and reducing the number of exclusions and encouraging external agencies to work together for the benefit of children and young people with SEND.  The trust also currently plays a key role focusing on Alternative Provision as part of the REACh consortium which is commissioned by the DfE to deliver the Change Programme.