Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support providers of education outside mainstream schooling.

Local authorities and schools are best placed to assess the level of demand for education outside of mainstream schools, in line with the needs of their pupils.

Where pupil referral units meet local demand the Department for Education is supporting them to become alternative provision academies. In addition, the free schools programme is giving local communities and exceptional school leaders the freedom to establish new and innovative alternative provision free schools in areas where they are needed. To date we have opened 29 alternative provision free schools and there are a further 13 currently approved to open in the future. 87% of alternative provision free schools that have been inspected by Ofsted have been rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.