Overseas educational supportability

What you need to know about Overseas Educational Supportability assessments

Before an overseas assignment is confirmed, you will need ’Confirmation of Educational supportability‘ for any children, aged 0 to 18 years of age, before proceeding with a move overseas. This is part of an Assessment of Support Needs which is conducted for the accompanying family, which covers health, medical and social care needs.

Supportability must be confirmed before progressing with the assignment

It is important to be aware that assessments of supportability for overseas assignments may take up to 6 months to complete. You should not progress with other aspects of your assignment, e.g. booking removals, withdrawing children from schools/specialist support, giving notice on spousal employment or even serving unaccompanied, until the supportability process is complete.

Additional needs

Where additional Special Educational Needs and/or Disability (SEND) requirements or social care involvement have been identified, further information may be requested. This information is vital to help the MOD fully understand children’s needs before they move overseas. Failure to complete the relevant forms properly or provide all requested information in a timely manner may lead to further delays.

Short notice postings

It is recognised that there will be exceptional cases and some short notice postings are unavoidable. However, any genuine short notice assignments will require confirmation and a formal request for prioritisation from the service person’s gaining Unit.

Complex cases

If complex cases emerge during the summer period when schools are closed, DCS will be unable to gather essential details and supportability assessment may have to be paused until the start of the new term. Local Command availability to convene multi-agency assessment (MASO) panels may also be affected during summer stand down periods.

MOD Policy

MOD Policy is contained within the Overseas Accompanied Service Assessments (GOV.UK)

Your assignment location will determine who carries out the educational clearance process:

Area supported by a DCS School – Where a child is potentially moving to an overseas area supported by an MOD provided DCS school or setting, the school or settings will support this process directly – please contact the appropriate DCS school/setting in the first instance.

Area without DCS School – Where a child is potentially moving to an overseas area not supported by an MOD provided DCS school or setting, the OES team will support this process directly – please contact [email protected].

Preparing for the Assessment Process: children with additional needs

If your child has additional needs, we advise contacting the OEST as early as possible to discuss your particular circumstances. You can contact them at any time for advice and do not need an assignment order to discuss a possible location.

If your child has any additional needs, however minor, or you have external professionals working with your child or family, you will need to allow plenty of time for the supportability process to complete.

Avoid delays

OEST have shared that the single factor which causes the most delays with assessment process is the collecting of paperwork related to a child’s needs. For example, these could be in-school support plans, EHCPs (or devolved nation equivalent), diagnosis letters or assessments by professionals such as speech and language therapists, social workers or educational psychologists.

If you are considering an overseas assignment, we would suggest starting to collating paperwork as early as possible. For clarity on the paperwork required for your individual circumstances, OEST are happy to talk through the information required to confirm supportability.

Pre-confirmation of supportability

Children’s needs can change significantly over time (younger children especially), so assessments of support needs are usually carried out within 6 months of an assignment. In exceptional circumstances, and depending on the information provided by parents, DCS may be able to provide a pre-confirmation where, for example, a language course is required in preparation for the assignment. A pre-confirmation may also be considered where there are concerns on securing a place at an international school where there are a limited number of places available.

If you believe that you have exceptional circumstances for OEST to consider a pre-confirmation of supportability, they will need written confirmation from either your career manager of Chain of Command in the new overseas location to provide details as to why a pre-confirmation is needed. This does not replace the usual supportability process and you must reengage with the OEST within the 6-month window for the final DCS Confirmation of Supportability.  Please be aware, if your child has significant needs, it is unlikely that a pre-confirmation will be possible and you will asked to resubmit within the 6 month window.