ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we explore aspects of alternative provision (AP), education settings that provide short-term support for young people in England excluded from or unable to be placed in ‘regular’ schools. Belief in APs flexible forms of education and their supposed reformative potential has apparently never been so strong. Yet many permanent school exclusions occur when access to resources in regular schools also remains important for increasing young people’s capacities for social participation and improving their social positioning in a competitive service-dominated labour market. Placed in separate AP, young disabled men from poor backgrounds may be denied access to school resources and the potential acquisition of other valuable capitals. This may compound their later struggle to find paid work. Taking a broad notion of welfare that emphasises agency and participation, we suggest that APs may be failing in their task of supporting and extending young people’s agency and meeting social justice goals. The emergence of AP raises important questions about what welfare might mean for young men placed in these provisions.
