ALNCo Wales: What the ALN Co-ordinator Does and How to Work With Them

In England, the SENCO is the person you go to when your child needs extra support. In Wales, that role no longer exists — at least not by that name. The Additional Learning Needs Co-ordinator, or ALNCo, has replaced the SENCO in all Welsh maintained schools and further education institutions. The role carries heavier statutory responsibilities than the old SENCO ever did, and understanding exactly what those responsibilities are makes you a more effective advocate for your child.

What Is an ALNCo?

Every maintained school in Wales must designate an ALNCo. In large secondary schools, this is typically a senior member of staff with a dedicated timetable allocation. In small primary schools, it may be the headteacher themselves, combined with other duties.

The ALNCo's role is defined by the ALNET Act 2018 and the ALN Code 2021. Their core legal responsibilities include:

• Managing the school's identification of learners who may have ALN
• Coordinating the preparation, maintenance, and review of school-maintained IDPs
• Ensuring all staff working with a pupil understand their ALN and the provision in the IDP
• Liaising with the local authority when a case may require LA involvement
• Coordinating with external professionals — educational psychologists, therapists, CAMHS — when their input is needed for IDP preparation
• Ensuring that adjustments to the school environment are made to support learners
• Overseeing the annual review cycle for all school-maintained IDPs

The ALNCo is your primary point of contact for everything related to your child's IDP. They receive the formal written requests you send invoking Section 11 of the ALNET Act. They coordinate the 35-day IDP preparation process. They chair the Person-Centred Practice meetings that inform the plan.

How the ALNCo Differs from the Old SENCO Role

Under the old SEN system, a SENCO's role was primarily advisory. They coordinated support, maintained IEPs (which were not legally binding), and liaised with external services. When parents disagreed with provision, the SENCO had no statutory obligations that could be enforced through a legal process.

The ALNCo role carries direct legal accountability. If the school fails to prepare an IDP within 35 school days, fails to include specified and quantified provision in Section 2B, or fails to conduct an annual review, the ALNCo and the school's governing body can be held accountable through the local authority and ultimately the Education Tribunal for Wales.

This is why the ALNCo's job is more demanding than the old SENCO role — and why some schools have struggled with the transition. The number of qualified, experienced ALNCos in Wales is constrained, and the sheer administrative burden of the new statutory process has been flagged by Audit Wales as a significant capacity risk.

The ALNCo Is Not Your Adversary — But They Face Real Constraints

One of the most important things for parents to understand is that most ALNCos are not acting in bad faith when they produce a vague IDP or push back on a request for assessment. They are typically working under three simultaneous pressures:

Financial pressure. Every item of provision written into Section 2B of an IDP must be delivered and funded by the school. A school's delegated ALN budget is finite. An ALNCo who writes "27.5 hours of 1:1 TA support per week" into an IDP has just committed the school to roughly the salary cost of a part-time TA for that child alone. Schools with thirty pupils with IDPs face severe budget strain.

Capacity pressure. The ALNCo may be managing dozens of IDPs, coordinating with multiple external professionals, attending review meetings, and trying to do all of this while also having a teaching timetable. Administrative drift on timelines is common not because the ALNCo is ignoring the law but because there are not enough hours in the working week.

Institutional caution. Schools are advised by local authorities and solicitors to avoid over-specifying provision in IDPs because it creates enforceable legal commitments. An ALNCo may be following internal templates specifically designed to limit specific commitments.

None of these pressures changes your child's legal entitlements. But understanding them helps you approach the ALNCo more effectively: as someone who needs your evidence, your specific requests, and your formal written correspondence to justify committing resources on your child's behalf.

How to Communicate With the ALNCo Effectively

Always follow up verbally with written confirmation. If the ALNCo tells you something in a meeting or on the phone — that they will seek an assessment, that a certain provision will be in the IDP, that a review has been scheduled — follow up with a brief email confirming what was discussed. This creates a paper trail and prevents important commitments from being "forgotten."

Be specific in your requests. Instead of saying "we need more support for my child," say "I am requesting that Section 2B of the IDP includes X hours of Y provision per week, delivered by Z." Give the ALNCo the language you need them to use.

Reference the statutory framework. Emails that cite Section 11, the ALN Code Chapter 23, and statutory timelines are taken more seriously than general requests. An email that says "I am formally requesting you exercise the school's duty to decide under Section 11 of the ALNET Act 2018" starts a statutory clock. An email that says "please can you have a look at my child" does not.

Use SNAP Cymru as a support. SNAP Cymru (0808 8010 608) provides free independent ALN advice to parents across Wales. They can advise you on how to communicate with the ALNCo and provide template letters to invoke statutory processes. They face significant demand and response times can be long, but they are a valuable resource.

Keep records of everything. Log the date of every communication, what was said, and what was agreed. If the ALNCo misses a statutory deadline or fails to deliver on a commitment in the IDP, your log is the foundation of any formal complaint or Tribunal submission.

When the ALNCo Cannot Help: Escalating to the Local Authority

If the ALNCo has refused to identify your child as having ALN, has produced an inadequate IDP despite your written objections, or has missed statutory timelines, the next step is not another meeting with the ALNCo. It is a formal written request to the local authority.

The LA has the power to reconsider the school's decision, take over maintenance of the IDP if the school's provision is insufficient, and ultimately direct the school to comply. If the LA also fails to act appropriately, the Education Tribunal for Wales has jurisdiction to order compliance.

The Wales IDP & ALN Blueprint includes the specific letter templates for escalating from school to LA and from LA to Tribunal, along with the exact statutory references that make those letters legally effective.

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