Joining the dots: why alternative education pathways matter and why procurement must play its part

The other morning, as I sat in the car waiting for torrential rain to ease, one of my lovely clients rang with some good news. We’re both ‘join‑the‑dots’ people (he definitely is, whereas I think I am!), and as we often do, we quickly found ourselves in conversation about why seamless pathways for children and young people with SEND and those in, or at risk of, Alternative Provision (AP) really matter.

If we want better outcomes, we must stop viewing children’s lives as a sequence of disconnected stages. For them, life isn’t early years to primary to secondary to post‑16 to post‑19. It’s one continuous journey. Yet sometimes our systems behave as if those transitions are cliff‑edges.

Needs are usually identified early, but vital information can often disappear or get lost during transitions. A child can receive brilliant early years support, only to arrive in reception and have everything ‘start again’. That loss of continuity wastes precious time and can allow small gaps to widen. Later, in primary school, early behavioural signs or unmet SEN may go unrecognised. Without the right support, children can be pushed unnecessarily toward AP. And we know AP and SEND support should never be treated as separate ‘systems’ as they so frequently serve the same young people. 

The transition cliff-edges: post‑16 and 19–25

Then there’s the move at 16, and potentially again at 19. These are some of the most fragile moments in a young person’s life. Support can often fall away overnight, and that is for a variety of complex reasons. Pathways are perhaps not always planned early enough, funding is never enough and our educational providers are stretched to the limit across all areas of their work. At times FE providers and employers may not be properly involved until too late. For young people with SEND or AP backgrounds, these transitions can be the point at which disengagement becomes almost inevitable.

The rise in NEET numbers in England is heart-breaking (I believe circa 900,000 based on ONS November 2025 stats). But NEET status rarely emerges from a single event, it’s the cumulative result of lots of things of course, including sometimes disconnected transitions alongside the broader pressures of life. 

To be clear, I am not being critical of our schools and colleges who are valiantly pushing for reform and funding to ensure all our young people get the best support and that transitions are carefully, delicately and compassionately managed.

Transcending systems: designing for life

Connected to the above, I have been learning recently about relational public services and relational tech. What we might need is one coherent, life‑course pathway with shared data, shared planning, shared accountability, and services commissioned around the learner, not the institution. In other words, more purpose over process. Relational tech is a whole new article in itself.

When early years settings, schools, alternative providers and SEN providers, FE providers, and employers, and most importantly all the parents and young people plan together, the ‘system’ itself fades into the background, and the young person’s journey begins to make sense. We have seen the same thing in other areas of public service transformation: no orchestra conducts itself. Harmony comes only when all the players are in on (and engaged in) the conversation.

Relational public services

Much of this aligns beautifully with the work of Toby Lowe and the Human Learning Systems (HLS) approach. Having being introduced to it, I’m a huge fan of Toby’s thinking, because he articulates something vital, that complex human outcomes aren’t achieved through rigid targets. They’re achieved through relationships, through learning, and through systems built around people, not organisational boundaries. Children and young people do not live in ‘SEND systems’ or ‘AP systems’ or ‘FE systems’.  They live in their own lives. Our jobs as educators, lawyers, commissioners, and human beings is to design support around those precious lives.

Where procurement fits into this - and why it matters

You may wonder how all this links to my work, and the observations above are through some of the things I see working across early years to further education. I’m a lawyer, and procurement is one of my legal disciplines. Over time, I’ve come to see procurement as one of the most powerful tools we have, one capable of enabling real change and creating true public value. 

At Stone King, we are working with organisations to champion new approaches to commissioning people‑focused services including SEND and children’s residential services. To quote my colleague Sandra Hamilton who is leading and deeply immersed in this work: “We need to shift from market purchasing to system stewardship, understanding social value as the core purpose of these publicly funded systems, and recognising the inherent social value of the VCSFEs sector." 

Turning to ensuring a fair and inclusive economy for all and not just the few, that got Sandra and I talking about how some countries directly link disability employment to public sector tendering. In some countries, businesses must support people with special education needs to win public contracts. 

Transforming public services 

At Stone King, our transforming public services team led by Sandra Hamilton supports commissioners seeking to maximise the social policy flexibilities permitted under UK procurement law. Linked to the employability point above, one little used flexibility is Section 32 of the Procurement Act 2023.

Section 32 of the Procurement Act 2023 gives the public sector the power to reserve certain public contracts so that only ‘supported employment providers’ can bid. This is a targeted inclusion measure to improve opportunities for people facing disadvantage and barriers to employment. A contract is reserved when participation is restricted to a specific category of suppliers, in this case, supported employment providers Under Section 32(4), a supported employment provider must:

• Employ or provide employment‑related support to disabled or disadvantaged people, and;
• Have at least 30% of its workforce made up of disabled or disadvantaged individuals.

An interesting nuance that Sandra helpfully brought to my attention is that the PA23 intentionally leaves ‘disadvantaged’ undefined to allow flexibility for evolving social policy (e.g. long‑term unemployed individuals, carers, single parents, etc). The policy intent is of course to enable procurement to improve employment prospects for people facing structural barriers and ensure continuity with pre-existing policy (previous ‘Reserved Contract’ rules under EU‑derived regulations), but with updated, UK‑specific terminology.

For Sandra and I, a joined‑up inclusion pathway isn’t just about education. It’s a human issue; an economic issue, it’s a commissioning/procurement matter, it is a workforce issue, it’s a societal issue. 

It is about transforming lives - creating an economy that benefits all rather than just a few.  

If you would like to know more about Stone King’s work in public service transformation, you can find out more here: https://www.stoneking.co.uk/our-people/sandra-hamilton. Equally we have a dedicated team of experts specialising in SEND and Alternative Provision.