Improving Life Chances and Making Hope Possible Through Education

Description

Presentation title: Changing futures: Using alternative provision to address inequality and school disengagement in England
Abstract
In recent years, rates of persistent and severe absence from school in England have been significantly high, resulting in concerning levels of school exclusion. Social disadvantage has been shown to play a role in this, as it can have an adverse effect on learning opportunities, leading to a rise in disaffection with compulsory learning environments and perpetuating social and educational inequalities. School disengagement thus continues to dominate the landscape. To address this, alternative provision (AP) can offer bespoke packages of learning and a deeper understanding of the difficulties many young people face. Whilst AP has demonstrated much success in a wide variety of regions, however, it remains a neglected and misunderstood area of education, overlooked by policymakers and undervalued as a valid learning pathway. This paper looks at emerging findings from an ongoing research project into AP in the north-west of England and highlights pedagogical approaches that have enabled successful re-engagement in learning. Drawing on interview data from a range of stakeholders working with young people in AP, as well as the voices of the young people themselves, we explore a variety of pedagogical approaches that have been found to have successfully addressed disaffection and disengagement. We position AP as an undervalued area of education that needs reconsideration at national policy level, and we argue that whilst some progress has been made in addressing social disadvantage through AP, many disengaged young people continue to be marginalised for their backgrounds and blamed for their (constrained) learning choices.

Period	17 Jun 2026
Event type	Conference
Degree of Recognition	National