How to Make an ALN Complaint in Wales Against a School or Local Authority

Filing an ALN complaint in Wales is not the same as appealing an ALN decision. Complaints and appeals serve different purposes, and using the wrong one wastes time and delays support for your child. This guide explains when to complain, how to do it correctly, and where to escalate if the complaint is ignored.

Complaints vs. Appeals: The Critical Distinction

Appeals go to the Education Tribunal for Wales (ETW) and challenge the legal merits of decisions — whether your child has ALN, whether an IDP is required, what provision the IDP should contain, or which school should be named.

Complaints go to the school, the LA, or the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW) and address how the process was handled — missed statutory deadlines, failure to deliver provision that's already in an IDP, inadequate communication, or procedural maladministration.

If your local authority produced an IDP within its 12-week window but you disagree with what's in it, that's an appeal matter. If the LA took 20 weeks and produced nothing, that's a complaint matter.

Trying to appeal procedural failures to the ETW, or trying to complain about IDP content to the Ombudsman, will result in your case being rejected. Knowing which route fits your situation is the first step.

Complaining About a School

Schools in Wales are required to have a formal complaints procedure. Copies of this must be available to parents on request.

When making a formal school complaint:

• Write to the headteacher first (unless the headteacher is the subject of the complaint, in which case write to the chair of governors)
• Be specific — describe each failure with dates, what should have happened, what actually happened, and how this has affected your child
• Set out what you want as a resolution
• Request a formal written response within the school's published timescales (typically 20 school days)

Keep copies of everything. If the school's response is inadequate, escalate to the governing body.

Schools are frequently complained about for:

• Failing to make an ALN decision within the 35-day statutory window
• Producing an IDP that uses vague, unenforceable language rather than "quantified and specific" provision
• Failing to deliver provision that is already written into the IDP
• Subjecting a child with ALN to disciplinary measures (exclusions, reduced timetables) without appropriate support

Complaining About a Local Authority

For LA-maintained IDPs, or where the school has passed the dispute to the LA, your complaint goes to the LA's formal complaints process.

In Wales, local authorities are required by the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 to have a complaints process. The LA must respond within a set timescale (typically 10 working days for an initial response, 25 working days for a full investigation).

Common LA complaints include:

• Failing to complete a reconsideration within the 7-week statutory window
• Failing to prepare an LA-maintained IDP within 12 weeks of a referral
• Not delivering ALP specified in a finalized LA-maintained IDP
• Failing to notify parents of their appeal rights after a decision

Escalating to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales

If you have exhausted the school's or LA's internal complaints procedure and the response is unsatisfactory — or if the body has failed to respond within its published timescales — you can complain to the PSOW.

The PSOW investigates maladministration and service failure by public bodies in Wales. For ALN matters, this includes:

• Repeated failure to adhere to statutory timelines
• Failure to secure or deliver provision written into a finalized IDP
• Mishandling of the internal complaints procedure itself

The PSOW will not assess whether the LA's original ALN decision was correct — that's the ETW's role. But if the LA's decision was correct yet they failed to implement it, the Ombudsman is the right route.

If the PSOW upholds your complaint, it can issue binding recommendations including financial compensation to reimburse private therapies you paid for during the period of LA failure.

Complaining About an ALNCo or School Staff Member

If your concern is specifically about the conduct of an individual member of staff — including the ALNCo — this is handled through the school's HR and complaints procedure rather than through the ALN statutory framework.

Document the specific conduct, describe the impact on your child, and include it in your formal complaint to the headteacher. If the conduct rises to the level of professional misconduct, the matter can be referred to the Education Workforce Council (EWC), the professional regulator for teachers and support staff in Wales.

Getting Support With Your Complaint

SNAP Cymru (helpline: 0808 801 0608) can support you through the complaints process — helping you draft letters, attending meetings, and advising on whether your situation is a complaint or an appeal. Their support is free.

If your dispute is heading toward the ETW, the complaints letters you have already sent form part of your evidence trail — they demonstrate that you tried to resolve things at the school and LA level before escalating. A well-documented complaint history strengthens an appeal.

The Wales ALN Dispute Playbook includes template complaint letters for both school and LA situations, along with guidance on building the paper trail that supports a subsequent ETW appeal. Get the full toolkit at /uk/wales/advocacy/.

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