Recording Alternative Provision placement details

This article provides guidance for schools on how to record Alternative Provision placements for students in the School Census. It outlines the necessary permissions, steps to set up providers, and how to add placement details for students, including full-time or part-time attendance. It emphasises that only off-site provisions need to be recorded and provides instructions for managing student profiles and linked organisations.

Schools must record details of Alternative Provision placements for the Autumn, Spring and Summer School Census. For more information from the DfE about what data is required and when, please see the DfE's Census Data Items guidance.

Top Tip: You only need to record this where the provision is off the school site. On-site provision should not be returned in the Census.

Permissions

• School: General Admin: Administer - Manage alternative provisions.
• Staff Profile: Contact Details: Administer - Add contact details or postal addresses for institutions.
• School: Data Returns: Administer - Edit linked organisation UKPRNs.
• Student Profile: Identity: Administer All Students - Amend an alternative provision on student profiles.
• Student: School History: Administer All Students - Add an alternative provision or update the education and employment history section on student profiles

If you don't have permission, you'll need to ask your admin team to give you permission using these instructions.

Schools that have sent students to an Alternative Provision placement

Please note that the information is not required for nursery students.

For schools that are sending students to Alternative Provision placements at other schools, you'll need to record details of the placements for each student for whom a placement has been arranged.

A student can have one or many alternative provision placements, which can be full or part-time. The school census will output details of the placements the student was attending during the date range of the data collection.
 

At another school

Setting up your Alternative Provision providers

To be able to add a placement for a student, you must first add details of the provider to your system. 

To do this, go to School > Linked Organisations > Educational Institutions, then:

• Either add a new school by clicking the Create New Educational Institution button
• Or, update the details of an existing profile by clicking on it and changing the details on the next screen

Top Tip: To help you differentiate institutions that have the same name, you can add an Address, Email, Telephone number, URN and UKPRN.

Recording an Alternative Provision placement

To record an Alternative Provision placement for a student: 

• Go to the Education & Employment Status History section of the student's profile. (Note: Depending on your school setup, this section may be titled Education History instead.)
• Click +Add 
• Select Add Alternative Provision Placement on the pop-up

• On the slide over, select the location of the placement (this is the institution, if you do not see the one you need, refer to the previous section of this guide, Setting up your Alternative Provision providers

• If the placement is not at an educational institution, you can select the Setting type.

• Add a placement reason.

• Add the date range the student will be attending the placement for - this will automatically include any active SEN statuses. 

• Then select whether the student will attend the placement Full-Time or Part-Time - sessions (number of AM and PM periods, max 10) per week are only needed if the student is part-time at the placement.

  

• Click Save
   

At a company

Setting up the company

To be able to add a placement for a student, you must first add details of the company to your system. To do this:

• Go to School > Linked Organisations > Companies and:
   
  • Either add a new company using the green Add New Company button 
  • Or update the details of an existing profile by clicking on it and making cahnge son the next page

Also, make sure you have recorded a Company Number and Postcode.

Once created, click on the company and click More.

You can then add the postal address.

Recording an Alternative Provision placement

To record an Alternative Provision placement for a student.

• Go to the Education & Employment Status History section of the student's profile (Note: Depending on your school setup, this section may be titled Education History instead)
• Click +Add 
• Select Add Alternative Provision Placement on the pop-up

• In the slide over, select the location of the placement (this is the company, for details on adding a company, see the previous Setting up the company section

• As the setting is a company, select the Setting type.

• Add a placement reason.

• Add the date range the student will be attending the placement for - this will automatically include any active SEN statuses. 
• Select whether the student will attend the placement Full-Time or Part-Time - sessions (number of AM and PM periods, max 10) per week are only needed if the student is part-time at the placement.

• Click Save

Schools providing Alternative Provision placements

Although this area of Arbor is available for all UK DfE schools, it should be used only by schools that offer Alternative Provision.

Adding Alternative Placement details for a student 

When a student joins your Alternative Provision with an enrolment status of C (single registration), F (FE college) or O (Other provider), you should add the information outlined below to their student profile. 

Go to the Enrolment area and click on the enrolment in your school. Click Edit.

Add in a date of entry and the reason they joined, then click Save Changes.