ALN Parent Rights Wales: What You Are Legally Entitled to Under the ALNET Act

Parents navigating the Welsh ALN system often feel as though they are asking for favours — making polite requests, waiting to be told what the school has decided, hoping the local authority will eventually do the right thing. That framing is wrong, and it is damaging to your child's outcomes.

The ALNET Act 2018 and the ALN Code 2021 create specific, enforceable rights for parents and families. The school does not hold all the power. Understanding exactly what you are legally entitled to changes every interaction.

The Right to Request an ALN Assessment

You have the right to formally request that a school or local authority decide whether your child has ALN. This right is established by Sections 11 and 13 of the ALNET Act 2018.

Submitting a written request citing these provisions forces the school to either:

• Confirm your child has ALN and prepare an IDP within 35 school days, or
• Issue a formal "No ALN Notice" with written reasons

A verbal brush-off — "we don't think your child needs an IDP at this stage" — does not fulfil the school's legal obligation. It must be in writing, and it must state the reasons. If you receive a verbal refusal, write to the school formally asking them to confirm their decision in writing within 5 working days.

The Right to Participate in IDP Preparation

The ALN Code 2021 mandates that IDP preparation uses Person-Centred Practice. This means you and your child must be meaningfully involved in drafting the plan — not simply consulted after the fact and handed a document to sign.

Your specific rights in this process include:

• Being invited to participate in the Person-Centred Practice meeting
• Having your views, wishes, and feelings formally recorded in the plan
• Contributing evidence from your own observations and from any professional reports you have commissioned
• Reviewing a draft IDP before it is finalised and submitting written objections

If the school presents you with a completed IDP at a meeting and asks you to sign it on the spot, you are not obligated to sign. You are entitled to take the draft home, review it against the ALN Code requirements, and submit written objections before the plan is finalised.

The Right to Challenge IDP Contents

Sections 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D of an IDP are all statutorily appealable. If you believe:

• Section 2A inaccurately describes your child's learning difficulties
• Section 2B does not specify and quantify provision in the way the ALN Code requires
• Section 2C fails to include health provision your child has been assessed as needing
• Section 2D names the wrong institution or fails to name a specialist provision you are requesting

...you have the right to challenge those sections through the formal dispute pathway, and ultimately to appeal to the Education Tribunal for Wales.

This right applies not only when the school refuses to prepare an IDP, but also when an IDP exists but is inadequate. A poorly written IDP is a valid basis for appeal.

The Right to an Early Review

An IDP must be reviewed at least annually. But you do not have to wait for the annual review if circumstances change or if current provision is failing to produce progress.

You have the statutory right to request an early review at any time by writing to the ALNCo or local authority (depending on who maintains the IDP). State in writing why you believe an earlier review is needed — for example, that the provision in Section 2B is not being delivered, that your child's needs have changed significantly, or that new clinical evidence warrants a reconsideration of the plan.

There is no minimum interval between reviews if you can demonstrate that changed circumstances warrant one.

The Right to Reconsideration by the Local Authority

If the school issues a "No ALN Notice" or produces an IDP you believe is inadequate and refuses to revise it, you have the right to request LA reconsideration under Section 68 of the ALNET Act. The LA has 7 weeks to review the school's decision and either uphold it or override it.

This is a formal legal right, not a request for the LA to have an informal word with the school. Submit your reconsideration request in writing to the director of education (or ALN lead) at the local authority, state the specific decisions you are challenging, and include your evidence.

The Right to Dispute Resolution Services

Every local authority in Wales must provide access to independent Dispute Resolution Services (DRS) for families in dispute with schools or the LA over ALN matters. This is a statutory requirement under the ALNET Act.

DRS involves a neutral third-party mediator facilitating structured discussions aimed at resolving disputes without formal Tribunal proceedings. It is free to families.

Importantly: participating in DRS is voluntary. You cannot be forced to attend. Declining DRS does not affect your right to appeal to the ETW. And even if you attend DRS and it does not resolve the dispute, you retain your full Tribunal appeal rights.

If the LA has not offered DRS as part of the dispute process, you can demand it. Write to the LA and cite the ALNET Act's DRS provisions.

The Right to an Independent Advocate

Children and young people with ALN have a statutory right to an independent advocate to support them in expressing their views during DRS meetings and Education Tribunal for Wales hearings. This right is established by the ALNET Act and applies regardless of age — though in practice it is most commonly exercised by older children and young people.

Parents themselves are also entitled to bring a supporter or representative to meetings. This can be a friend, family member, or professional ALN advocate. If you are using an independent advocate from an organisation like SNAP Cymru, they can attend IDP meetings and DRS sessions with you.

The Right to Appeal to the Education Tribunal for Wales

Once local options are exhausted — school has refused to act, LA has upheld that refusal — parents have the absolute right to appeal to the Education Tribunal for Wales. The ETW is an independent judicial body and its decisions are binding on local authorities and schools.

Filing a Tribunal appeal is not an act of aggression. It is a legal right created by the ALNET Act for exactly the situations where the normal process has broken down.

What Rights Parents Do Not Have

Being clear about the scope of your rights prevents frustration when boundaries are reached:

• You cannot specify exactly how provision is delivered — only what and how much. If the IDP says "45 minutes of SaLT weekly," you cannot dictate the specific therapist or the specific room.
• You cannot demand a specific placement at a named specialist school purely on preference — placement decisions must be based on the child's needs and whether the proposed placement meets those needs.
• You cannot require the school to provide services that clearly fall outside the scope of ALP — private tutoring, extracurricular activities, or provision the school has no legal obligation to fund.

Knowing the boundaries is as important as knowing the entitlements. It prevents you from spending time and energy on arguments that have no legal basis while missing the arguments that do.

The Wales IDP & ALN Blueprint translates every right described above into practical steps: the exact written requests to send, the correct statutory references to cite, and the escalation path when each step does not produce the required result.

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