Suffolk Alternative Provision Tier One (Outreach) Service

Suffolk County Council (SCC) have awarded a contract for an Alternative Provision Tier One (Outreach) Service for an initial two-year period. Whilst the contract was signed on 29 September 2026, the contract commenced on 01 September 2026.

The service involves delivering targeted early support within mainstream schools, supporting children across all Key Stages 1 - 4, to address emerging needs promptly. The goal is to provide assistance before challenges escalate for children, reducing the likelihood of exclusion, maximising engagement and participation in learning and promoting inclusion with the mainstream educational environment.

Timely outreach support and robust intervention with Children and Young People (CYP) to ensure they can succeed and remain in mainstream education will raise education attainment and skill levels. This is important as these CYP are often our most vulnerable in our communities and failure to secure a good quality educational offer can often lead to a reliance upon other services such as social care or mental health providers.

The CYP who will be referred, and who will access the Tier 1 Outreach support, will have complex needs that will require the provider to tailor their approach to the individual needs of the young person. This will involve working in partnership with other agencies, schools and stakeholders as well as parents/carers and the young people themselves to ensure best outcomes.

The primary objective of Tier 1 AP is to provide specific support around barriers to learning and enable pupils to remain in their referring school. The Special Educational Needs/Alternative Provision Service Development Team has a core focus on commissioning high quality educational provision for vulnerable and disadvantaged learners as well as ensuring that this cohort of pupils can make progress based on age, ability and prior achievement through easy access to a robust 'Local Offer' as set out in the SEND reforms (Special Education Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years).

Historically there has been a significant increase in the number of young people permanently excluded across all Key Stages. Suffolk County Council has a continued commitment to provide the right intervention at the right time.

As such, this Tier 1 AP Outreach programme can have a key impact to avoid exclusion. The contract value in this notice includes the optional 24-month extension period.