ALN Transition Planning Wales: Moving Schools and Post-16 Rights

Every major transition in a child's education carries the risk of support falling through the cracks. For children with ALN in Wales, transitions are regulated by specific provisions in the ALN Code 2021 — but regulation only protects your child if you know it exists and act on it early enough.

Two transitions matter most: the move from primary to secondary school, and the move from school to post-16 education. Both carry legal requirements that go far beyond simply telling the new school about your child's IDP.

Transition Within Wales: IDP Portability

Before getting to the critical transitions, it is worth noting the basic rule: IDPs are fully portable within Wales. If your family moves from one Welsh local authority to another — Cardiff to Gwynedd, Swansea to Monmouthshire — the receiving school or local authority inherits the statutory duty to maintain the existing IDP. There is no gap in coverage, no reassessment from scratch, and no requirement to produce a new plan.

In practice, the receiving school must be sent copies of the IDP and all supporting documentation as part of the move. Write to both the sending and receiving ALNCos in advance to ensure the IDP transfers smoothly and that the statutory review meeting includes relevant staff from the new setting.

Primary to Secondary Transition

The ALN Code 2021 sets out specific transition planning requirements for children moving from primary to secondary school. The planning must begin early — it cannot be left until Year 6.

What must happen and when:

• Year 5 Annual Review: This review must include explicit discussion of secondary school transition. The review must consider what type of secondary provision the child needs, including whether they require a mainstream school, a specialist resource base within a mainstream school, or a specialist school placement.
• By 15 February of Year 6: The IDP must be updated to formally name the secondary school. This deadline exists to allow parents the time to visit and consider secondary options before the place is locked in.
• Year 6 Annual Review: Should confirm the named school and ensure all transfer documentation — the IDP, all supporting reports, and a transition profile — is prepared and shared with the secondary school before the summer term ends.

If your child is in Year 4 or Year 5 and their annual review has not mentioned secondary school transition planning at all, raise it formally in writing with the ALNCo. Ask specifically: "What process will the school follow to ensure transition planning starts in Year 5 and that the IDP names a secondary school by 15 February of Year 6?"

Managing the switch in provision at secondary school:

Secondary schools have different structures — multiple subject teachers rather than one class teacher, different sensory environments, significantly less protected time with any one adult. A provision level that worked at primary may need to be updated for secondary. The Year 6 review is the opportunity to revise Section 2B to reflect what secondary school support should look like, not simply copy the existing primary provisions across.

Equally, some secondary schools attempt to reduce provision when a child transfers, arguing that the secondary context is different. Challenge any reduction: the burden is on the school to demonstrate that the child's needs have changed, not simply that the setting has.

Post-16 Transition: From School to Further Education

The ALNET Act 2018 extends IDP coverage to age 25, including Further Education Institutions (FEIs). This is one of the strongest features of the Welsh ALN framework — post-16 learners who need ALP at college retain statutory entitlement to an IDP, and the college assumes the legal duty to maintain it.

What must happen from Year 9 onwards:

The ALN Code requires that transition planning to post-16 provision be integrated into the annual review process from Year 9 onwards. This is not a box-ticking exercise. Annual reviews for Year 9+ learners should involve:

• Careers Wales representatives
• Youth engagement workers
• Representatives from potential Further Education Institutions
• Any relevant social care or health professionals

The goal is to ensure the young person can make an informed, evidence-based choice about post-16 pathways — college, sixth form, specialist post-16 provision, apprenticeship, supported employment — and that whatever they choose, the ALN support is in place before they arrive.

If your child is in Year 9 or above and their annual review has not involved Careers Wales or any FEI representatives, write to the ALNCo citing the ALN Code's post-16 transition requirements and requesting that the review be reconvened with appropriate attendance.

When a young person moves to an FEI:

The IDP transfers to the college. The FEI's ALN officer (their equivalent of the ALNCo) assumes the duty to maintain the plan and secure the provision specified in it. Unlike the move from primary to secondary, the college environment is significantly different from a school environment, and provision needs to be renegotiated to reflect the college context.

Before the young person starts college, arrange a transition planning meeting that includes both the school ALNCo and the college ALN officer. The IDP should be revised — not simply transferred — to specify what ALP will look like in the college setting.

What if the young person chooses not to attend an FEI?

If the young person moves directly from school into employment, an apprenticeship, or a combination of activities, the IDP may cease at that point. However, if they later enrol in education up to age 25, their ALN entitlement is preserved and an IDP can be prepared or reinstated.

Moving from England to Wales: Transition at Any Stage

If your child is mid-primary, mid-secondary, or approaching post-16 when you move from England to Wales, the transition creates the specific cross-border issues covered in our article on EHCPs in Wales. In brief: the English EHCP does not transfer automatically, and you should begin the Welsh IDP process as early as possible before the move to minimise the period of unprotected support.

For families in this situation facing a concurrent school transition — for example, moving to Wales at the end of Year 6 — you may be managing two simultaneous processes: the EHCP-to-IDP transition and the primary-to-secondary transition. Write to both the new secondary school's ALNCo and the local authority simultaneously, and ask explicitly how both processes will be coordinated.

The Wales IDP & ALN Blueprint covers transition planning in detail with checklists for Year 5–6 transition preparation, post-16 planning from Year 9, and the specific steps needed when crossing from England to Wales with an existing plan in place.

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