Alternative provision covers all school age pupils attending a school not maintained by an authority for whom the authority is paying full tuition fees, or educated otherwise than in schools and Pupil Referral Units, under arrangements made by the authority.
In addition pupils are referred to alternative provision under arrangements by schools but we do not collect data on these numbers.
The information on pupils in Pupil Referral Units and in alternative provision as at January of each year is shown in the following table. Many pupils stay only a short time in Pupil Referral Units or other alternative provision and so the total annual number of pupils who receive some alternative provision is higher, but we do not collect this information.
Number of pupils in pupil referral units Number of pupils in alternative provision2 England 1999 8,260 27,260 2000 8,480 28,360 2001 9,290 33,600 2002 9,960 31,980 2003 12,010 33,150 2004 13,040 32,630 2005 14,470 30,570 2006 15,240 25,250 2007 15,160 23,850 2008 16,095 20,900 1 Excludes dually registered pupils. 2 Alternative provision covers all school age pupils attending a school not maintained by an authority for whom the authority is paying full tuition fees, or educated otherwise than in schools and Pupil Referral Units, under arrangements made by the authority. Note: Pupil numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: School Census and Form 8B