Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress his Department has made on building an evidence base for improving outcomes for children in alternative provision under his Department’s Alternative Provision Innovation Fund since September 2017 .

In March 2018, the Department launched an alternative provision (AP) Innovation Fund of £4 million focused on developing effective practice for improving outcomes for children who attend AP. The Fund will run from 2018 until 2020.

The Department is currently assessing bids and will publicly announce the outcomes of the grant application process in due course. The successful bids will be independently evaluated, which will inform our evidence base on effective practice in AP.