Education Participation Advisory Service

The Education Participation Advisory Service (EPAS) is a service made up of four specialist teams

The Education Participation Advisory Service (EPAS) is a service made up of four specialist teams. 

What we provide

EPAS’ remit is to act as a champion for children’s education and ensure that all children of statutory school age have access to and are attending suitable full-time education.

The service provides support, advice, guidance and challenges to children, their families, schools and education providers along with the other agencies and services to address barriers that may prevent children from accessing their education. To fulfil this function, EPAS is the lead agency across several areas.

For more information please see our What is the education participation advisory service (EPAS) leaflet.

You can also download our team structure

Advisory Team for Vulnerable Children in Education (VCE)

The VCE team works with schools, settings, parents/carers to support children’s outcomes if they have:

  • a child who has received a ‘no to assess’ or a ‘no to issue’ at an Education Health Care (EHC) panel. Officers facilitate Way Forward meetings
  • a child who is in a mainstream school but the Education Health Care (EHC) panel have identified that a specialist provision would better meet the child's needs and they are consulting with suitable provisions
  • children at risk of permanent exclusion or have been in receipt of several suspensions. We work proactively with schools and families to prevent children and young people from suspensions and permanent exclusion by addressing the cause of the behaviour and use solution focused approaches - Exclusion from School | solihull.gov.uk 
  • a child who has been permanently excluded.  We will source the education that will be provided 6 days after the permanent exclusion (6th day provision) and monitor it - Exclusion from School | solihull.gov.uk  
  • any aspect of Alternative Provision they would like advice and guidance on - Alternative provisions
  • queries about the Youth Justice Service -Solihull Youth Justice Service

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Attendance and EHE Advisory Team (A&E)

The A&E Team provide advice and guidance in relation to:

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Child Employment and Exclusions team (CEE)

The CEE team provide advice and guidance:

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Attendance Enforcement Team (AET)

The AET team provide:

•    advice and guidance alongside implementing the legal processes in relation to non-school attendance - School attendance

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Pupil Tracking

The Statutory Processes and Operations Team oversees the movement of children in education. This involves ensuring children have been put on roll at the school they have been allocated and ensuring they have a destination school when they leave.

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