Working with Social Finance in support of their Maximising Access to Education programme, we designed and built an Alternative Provision directory for Gloucestershire — giving schools and teachers a clear, accessible view of the provision available to young people, and enabling closer coordination between schools and the local authority in managing and commissioning that provision.
Alternative Provision — education arranged for pupils who cannot attend mainstream school, or who benefit from specialist support alongside it — is often fragmented in how it is organised and communicated. Provision is available from a wide range of organisations and settings, but schools frequently lack a reliable picture of what exists, whether it is appropriate for a particular young person, or how to access it. At the same time, local authorities have limited visibility of how provision is being used and where gaps exist. The result is a system that works less well than it should for the young people at its centre.
Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Provision directory | A comprehensive, up-to-date directory of Alternative Provision available across the county — searchable by type, age range, location, and need |
| School-facing interface | A simple, accessible interface for teachers and SENCOs to explore provision options for individual young people, with clear information about eligibility and referral routes |
| Referral and coordination tools | Digital workflows enabling schools to request and manage placements, and the local authority to coordinate and track provision across the system |
| Local authority oversight | A management view giving the local authority visibility of demand, placement activity, and gaps in provision — supporting more strategic commissioning decisions |
| Provider administration | Self-service tools for providers to maintain their own listings, keeping the directory accurate without relying on a central update process |
Connecting schools to the right provision
The platform's central function is a provision directory — a structured, searchable view of every Alternative Provision setting available across Gloucestershire, maintained and kept current by providers themselves. For a teacher or SENCO trying to identify the right support for a young person, this replaces a fragmented landscape of spreadsheets, word-of-mouth, and outdated lists with a single, reliable point of reference.
The directory is designed around how schools actually make these decisions — not just what provision exists, but whether it is appropriate for a particular young person, available at the right time, and accessible from the school's location. Detailed provider profiles and clear eligibility information reduce the time it takes to identify suitable options and increase confidence in the choices being made.
Better partnership between schools and the local authority
The platform was designed explicitly to improve the working relationship between schools and the local authority — not just as an information resource, but as a coordination tool. Schools can use the platform to request and manage placements, with workflows that route those requests appropriately and give the local authority clear oversight of how provision is being used across the system.
For the local authority, this visibility is genuinely new. Rather than assembling a picture of Alternative Provision from disparate sources after the fact, commissioners and place leads can see demand and placement activity in close to real time — identifying where provision is stretched, where gaps are emerging, and where investment or development is needed.
Part of a broader programme
This work sits within Social Finance's Maximising Access to Education programme — an initiative focused on improving outcomes for young people at risk of missing education, including those who are excluded, at risk of exclusion, or struggling to access mainstream settings. The platform we built is one component of a wider effort to make the system around these young people more coherent, more responsive, and more joined-up.
If you are working in education, local government, or a programme focused on improving outcomes for young people and want to understand how better data and coordination infrastructure can help, we would love to hear from you.