Off-site direction should only be used where in-school interventions and/or outreach have been unsuccessful or are deemed inappropriate and should only be used to arrange a temporary stay in AP. Off-site direction may only be used as a way to improve future behaviour and not as a sanction or punishment for past misconduct.
Off-site direction is when a governing board of a maintained school requires a pupil to attend somewhere off-site to receive education that is intended to improve their behaviour. Whilst the legislation does not apply to academies, they can arrange off site provision for such purposes under their general powers. Where interventions or outreach support have not been successful in improving a child or young person’s behaviour, off-site direction should be used to arrange short-term temporary support in another mainstream school or AP. During the off-site direction, pupils must be dual registered.
Review meetings should take place between the school, parents, the pupil, and other agencies e.g., a pupil’s social worker, CAMHS, Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH) and Youth Offending Teams (YOTs), the local authority (if a pupil has an EHC plan) to establish agreed monitoring points to discuss the pupil’s ongoing behaviour. These reviews should be recorded and frequent enough to provide assurance that the off-site direction is achieving its objectives via monitoring points.
Managed moves should be a permanent move, voluntary and agreed with all parties involved, including the parents and the admission authority of the new school. Where a pupil has an EHC plan, the relevant statutory duties on the new school and local authority will apply. If the current school is contemplating a managed move, it should contact the authority at an early stage. If the local authority, both schools and parents are in agreement that there should indeed be a managed move, the local authority will need to follow the statutory procedures for amending a plan.