There is a moment that arrives in a lot of families, and it usually arrives quietly. School has stopped working. Not dramatically — sometimes there is no single incident to point at. Attendance has slipped. Mornings have become a negotiation. The support that was promised has not materialised, or it has, and it is not touching the problem.
And then somebody — a SENCO, another parent, someone in a Facebook group — says one of three things:
“You should ask for EOTAS.” · “Have you thought about home educating?” · “The school needs to apply for more funding.”
These sound like three versions of the same advice. They are not. They are three legally distinct routes with three different answers to the only question that ends up mattering: who is responsible for arranging your child’s education, and who pays for it?
Families get moved onto the wrong one all the time. Usually the expensive one. This guide is an attempt to make the difference clear before that happens.
The one-minute version
| High needs funding | EOTAS | Elective home education | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where your child learns | In school, with more support | Outside school | At home |
| Who arranges it | The school | The local authority | You |
| Who pays | The local authority | The local authority | You |
| What happens to the EHCP | Stays, fully delivered | Stays, delivered differently | Stays on paper; LA duty to deliver generally falls away |
| Child stays on a school roll | Yes | Not necessarily | No — deregistered |
| Easy to reverse | n/a | Reviewed at annual review | Often much harder than expected |
If you read nothing else, read the bottom two rows of the middle and right-hand columns. That is where families lose years.
Route one: stay in school, with the funding that should follow the need
Before anything else, it is worth asking whether school could work — if the support actually matched the need. Quite often it could. What is missing is not a different building. It is money attached to a specific, evidenced requirement.
That money is high needs funding, and in a mainstream school it is usually described in three parts:
- Element 1 — core per-pupil funding. Every child attracts it.
- Element 2 — the school’s notional SEN budget. Schools are generally expected to have committed around the first £6,000 of a pupil’s additional support costs from here.
- Element 3 — pupil-specific top-up funding, paid by the local authority where a child’s needs cost more than Elements 1 and 2 cover.
Element 3 is what people mean when they say “the school needs to apply for more funding”. And here is the part that decides outcomes:
The threshold mainstream schools are generally expected to have committed from their own notional SEN budget before top-up funding is considered. Above that, the band awarded is set against the local authority’s own funding matrix — and assigned from what the EHCP documents, not from what staff observe.
Funding follows the paperwork. If the plan describes your child vaguely — “access to”, “opportunities for”, “as appropriate” — the band comes out low, and the support stays thin. Not because anyone disbelieves you. Because there is nothing there a panel can price.
This is why the most useful thing a family can often do is not escalate, but evidence: get the barriers formally assessed, and get the provision written in hours and specialisms rather than adjectives. More on high needs funding and Element 3 here.
Route two: EOTAS — the local authority arranges it, and pays
Sometimes school genuinely is the wrong setting. Not fixable with more hours of teaching assistant time. Wrong.
In that case there is a specific legal route. Under section 61 of the Children and Families Act 2014, a local authority may arrange special educational provision otherwise than in a school or college, where it is satisfied it would be inappropriate for that provision to be made in a school. That is EOTAS — Education Otherwise Than At School.
The critical features, and the reason EOTAS is so often what a family actually needed:
- The local authority arranges it. Not you.
- The local authority funds it — usually through an EOTAS allocation or an EHCP Personal Budget.
- The EHCP stays live and the duty to deliver what it specifies stays with the council.
- It is reviewed at annual review like any other provision, so it can change as your child changes.
A common misconception is that EOTAS is all-or-nothing. It is not. In AM and SP v Wokingham Borough Council [2026] UKUT 327 (AAC), the Upper Tribunal confirmed that section 61 applies where any part of a child’s provision would be inappropriate in a school setting, and to that part only — so part-school, part-EOTAS arrangements are lawful. We broke that ruling down here.
EOTAS is not giving up on your child’s education. It is the local authority accepting that a classroom is the wrong place for this child, right now, and funding something that works instead.
Route three: elective home education — your decision, your responsibility
Elective home education is a parent choosing to take on responsibility for their child’s education. For many families it is a positive, deliberate choice, and children thrive on it.
But it is a fundamentally different legal position from the other two, and this is the sentence that matters most in this entire guide:
Where a parent makes suitable arrangements to educate their child at home, the local authority’s duty to secure the special educational provision in the EHCP generally falls away.
The plan does not vanish. It stays, and it must still be reviewed annually. But the funded delivery usually stops, because you have told the authority you are handling it.
Two further practical points families are routinely not told:
- If your child is on roll at a mainstream school, you can deregister without the local authority’s agreement.
- If your child is on roll at a special school, you need the local authority’s consent first.
The mistake that costs families the most
Here is how it tends to go.
A child is in crisis. School is not meeting need. The family is exhausted and nobody is moving. Someone suggests home education as a way out, and it is framed as taking control — which, emotionally, it absolutely is. The deregistration letter goes in. The relief is immediate and real.
And then, a few months later, the family realises they have taken on the full cost and full delivery of an education for a child with significant needs, alone — when the local authority could have been required to arrange and fund it under section 61.
Getting back from there is possible, but it is slow, and the family is negotiating from a much weaker position than before they signed.
If you are being nudged towards deregistration by a school or a local authority officer, pause. Ask explicitly whether EOTAS has been considered, and ask for the answer in writing.
None of which means do not home educate. Plenty of families choose it clear-eyed and never look back. It means choose it — rather than arriving at it because it was the only door anyone pointed at. More on home educating a child with SEND here.
What all three routes have in common
Three different legal mechanisms. One shared dependency.
Every one of them turns on how well your child’s needs are documented:
- High needs funding — the band is assigned from what the EHCP describes. Vague plan, low band.
- EOTAS — you need evidence that school provision would be inappropriate, not merely that it is currently unsatisfactory. That is a specific evidential bar.
- Home education — a local authority can make informal enquiries about whether your child is receiving a suitable full-time education. Having a professional picture of their starting point and their progress answers that question in one document.
Which is why the work is nearly always the same work, whichever route you end up on: find out precisely where your child is, why they are stuck, and what would actually move them — and get it written in language a panel, a tribunal or a council officer recognises.
Where we fit in
Lauren Robson is a qualified specialist educator and an approved education supplier to Kent County Council, working with families at exactly this decision point. Across all three routes, that means:
- Independent assessment — a Gap Analysis Assessment showing how your child learns, where the gaps are and why, against the national curriculum. No 12–18 month waiting list. The evidence base for any of the three routes.
- EOTAS provision — complete packages built around the individual child, mapped to the EHCP, with written progress reporting to parents and the local authority. Funded via EHCP Personal Budget or EOTAS allocation.
- Home education support — assessment, a provision plan you can actually teach from, and written progress evidence for local authority enquiries and annual reviews.
- Funding evidence — quantified provision recommendations written the way local authority panels expect to read them, for parents and for schools evidencing Element 3 top-up.
“She has turned my ADHD/autistic son around within a few months since being home schooled. He has gone from a child who didn’t want to learn at all, due to his primary school not meeting his needs, to suddenly showing his actual capabilities AND enjoying learning!!”
“Lauren has been teaching my son for around a year now & the change in him has been nothing short of amazing! Thanks to Lauren he will soon enter back into full time education. Something I didn’t think possible before Lauren entered into his life.”
Whichever route your child ends up on, arriving with a clear, evidenced picture of them is never wasted. It is the one thing that keeps working for you, whatever the council decides next.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between EOTAS and home education?
EOTAS is special educational provision the local authority arranges and funds outside a school, under section 61 of the Children and Families Act 2014, because it accepts school is inappropriate for that child. Elective home education is a parent’s own decision to take responsibility for educating their child, which the parent arranges and funds. Both can look like a child learning at home. Who holds the legal duty and who pays are completely different.
If I deregister my child, does the local authority still have to fund their EHCP provision?
Generally no. Where a parent makes suitable arrangements to educate their child at home, the local authority’s duty to secure the special educational provision set out in the EHCP falls away. The plan remains and must still be reviewed annually, but the funded delivery usually stops. This is the single most expensive misunderstanding families make, and it is very hard to undo quickly.
What is high needs funding and Element 3 top-up?
High needs funding is money local authorities hold in their high needs block for children with significant SEND. In mainstream schools it is described in three elements: Element 1 is core per-pupil funding, Element 2 is the school’s notional SEN budget, and Element 3 is pupil-specific top-up funding paid by the local authority where a child’s needs cost more than the school can meet. Element 3 is awarded against the local authority’s banding matrix, based on what the EHCP documents.
Can my child have EOTAS part-time and stay at school part-time?
Yes. The Upper Tribunal confirmed in AM and SP v Wokingham Borough Council [2026] UKUT 327 (AAC) that section 61 applies where any part of a child’s provision would be inappropriate in a school setting, and to that part only. Hybrid arrangements combining some school attendance with some EOTAS provision are lawful.
Do I need an EHCP to get high needs funding or EOTAS?
For EOTAS, yes in practice: section 61 provision is set out in an EHCP. For Element 3 top-up funding it is normally yes too, because the plan is what describes the needs and provision the funding pays for. Some local authorities operate limited routes without a plan, but these vary. Where no plan is in place, the usual first step is an EHC needs assessment request supported by strong independent evidence.
Which route is right for my child?
It depends on whether school could work with the right support, whether the local authority accepts school is inappropriate, and what you want to be responsible for. If support in school would fix it, pursue high needs funding. If school is genuinely inappropriate and you need provision funded, pursue EOTAS. Choose elective home education because you want to educate your child yourself — not because you are trying to escape a school problem that EOTAS would solve.
This article is general information for families about EOTAS, elective home education and high needs funding. It is a plain-English summary, not legal advice, and Education With Lauren does not run appeals or represent families at SEND Tribunal. Before deregistering a child with an EHCP, take free specialist advice. If you want to talk through which route fits your child, a free 15-minute call is a good place to start.
Sources and further help
- Children and Families Act 2014, section 61 — special educational provision otherwise than in schools, post-16 institutions or early years settings
- AM and SP v Wokingham Borough Council [2026] UKUT 327 (AAC) — Upper Tribunal, published 11 September 2026
- SEND Code of Practice 2015 — Department for Education / Department of Health & Social Care
- High needs funding operational guidance — Department for Education, GOV.UK
- Elective home education: guidance for parents — Department for Education
- IPSEA — free legal advice on SEND law, ipsea.org.uk
- SOS!SEN — free independent advice, sossen.org.uk
- Information, Advice and Support Kent (IASK)