Alternative provision and offending: Are there any connections?

This blog by Dr Liliana Belkin, an ADR UK fellow working with the Ministry of Justice-Department for Education (MoJ-DfE) linked dataset, explores the potential links between alternative provision and youth offending, and reflects on how better data can inform fairer and more inclusive education systems.

What is alternative provision?

Alternative provision (AP) is education for pupils who are unable to attend mainstream school. Young people attend AP for a range of reasons – including exclusion or because mainstream settings haven’t supported them effectively.

In England, AP includes a wide variety of settings: Pupil Referral Units, AP academies, AP free schools, and other provisions such as one-to-one tuition and vocational programmes.

It’s a diverse sector, and while research has documented many examples of good practice and positive pupil experiences, the lack of consistent oversight and quality assurance has raised concerns about pupils’ wellbeing and their educational/social outcomes.

One area of concern is the link between exclusion and youth offending. Because excluded pupils are most likely to attend AP, this has led to growing interest in whether AP itself has any relationship to offending.

What are the connections between school experiences and life paths?

According to 2024/25 statistics from the DfE, 16,600 pupils in England have either their sole or main registration in  in state-funded AP, up 4.9% from 2023/24. There are also 11,100 dual subsidiary enrolments in state-funded AP schools.

These numbers reflect young people on unique and often complex life trajectories. Attending AP can be experienced as either a disruption or a turning point, with wide-ranging ripple effects. For some, it can be a chance for new opportunities, positive self-development, and social connection. For others, it may result in greater isolation, weaker educational and employment outcomes, and increased risk of involvement in crime.

Why does this matter?

Pupils in AP are represented by high proportions of:

• young people with special educational needs and disabilities
• young people with social care involvement 
• boys from working-class backgrounds
• pupils who are eligible for free school meals

In terms of racial/ethnic disproportionality, Black Caribbean, Mixed Black Caribbean and white, Traveller of Irish Heritage and Gypsy/Roma pupils are overrepresented in AP settings. Consequently, AP settings often serve more marginalised young people.

Despite negative portrayals, the AP sector plays a vital role in our education system. It can offer young people who are excluded or considered ‘difficult’ a second chance — and for many, a more suitable setting for young people who have not ‘flourished’ in mainstream schools.

Yet, this raises important questions about social justice: is AP becoming a parallel system that funnels marginalised pupils out of the mainstream? To answer that, we need to better understand how AP affects life outcomes — particularly whether it offers a pathway out of risk, or reinforces existing disadvantage.

What do I hope to find out?

There’s strong evidence linking disrupted education with youth offending. We also know pupils in AP often face poorer post-16 outcomes. But the relationship between AP itself and offending is still unclear.

If young people in AP are already experiencing multiple forms of disadvantage, is it this broader disadvantage — rather than AP itself — that increases the risk of offending? Or, could AP play a protective role, offering a more supportive environment that helps young people avoid offending or reoffending?

To explore these questions, I’ll be using the MoJ-DfE linked dataset to analyse patterns of offending among young people born between 1993 and 2000, comparing those who attended AP with those who remained in mainstream education.

This work could reveal key protective factors within AP that might be replicated in mainstream settings. It could also help identify specific risk factors that call for earlier or more targeted interventions.

Through this research, I hope to contribute to our understanding of the connections between AP and offending. This can better inform practices that may mitigate negative outcomes for young people with ‘disrupted’ educational journeys.

Find out more about Liliana’s project.

Read more about the MoJ-DfE linked dataset.