Equality Act and Disability Rights in Welsh Schools: What Parents Need to Know

Parents navigating the Welsh ALN system are operating within several overlapping legal frameworks simultaneously. Understanding how the Equality Act 2010, the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018, the ALN Code for Wales, and the Children's Commissioner's oversight powers work together — and when to use each — can significantly change what you can demand and who you can demand it from.

The ALN Act 2018: The Primary Framework

The Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 (ALNET) is the primary legislation governing special education in Wales. It replaced the old SEN framework with the ALN system, extended statutory protections from age 0 to 25, and made Individual Development Plans the statutory tool for all children with ALN.

Key parent rights under the ALN Act include:

The right to request an ALN determination. Parents can formally request that a school determine whether their child has ALN. Once on notice, schools have 35 school days to make a determination and issue an IDP if appropriate.

The right to LA reconsideration. If a school issues a decision you disagree with — No ALN, No IDP, or an inadequate IDP — you have a statutory right to request the LA reconsider that decision under Section 32 of the Act.

The right to appeal to the ETW. If the LA's reconsideration does not resolve the dispute, parents have the right to appeal to the Education Tribunal for Wales on specific grounds including the contents of the IDP, the description of ALN, and the provision specified.

The right to Welsh-medium provision. If your child's ALP needs to be delivered through the medium of Welsh, the ALN Act places a statutory duty on schools, LAs, and health bodies to take "all reasonable steps" to secure that provision.

The right to participation. The ALN Code requires that children and young people's views, wishes, and feelings are central to all decisions about their education. Schools must demonstrate they have genuinely consulted the child, not simply noted their preferences on a form.

The Equality Act 2010: Disability Discrimination in Schools

The Equality Act 2010 applies across Wales and England. It creates specific legal duties for schools in relation to disabled pupils — and disability is interpreted broadly: it includes any physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term effect on daily activities. Many children with ALN will also be disabled under the Equality Act's definition.

Schools have three main duties under the Equality Act:

Not to discriminate. Schools must not treat disabled pupils less favourably than non-disabled pupils in a way that cannot be objectively justified. This applies to admissions, exclusions, provision of education, and access to services.

Not to harass or victimise. Applying disciplinary sanctions that disproportionately affect disabled pupils, or ignoring the needs that drive challenging behaviour, can constitute harassment.

To make reasonable adjustments. Schools must make reasonable adjustments to avoid putting disabled pupils at a substantial disadvantage. This duty is anticipatory — schools should have adjustments in place before a disabled child arrives, not just when a specific child requires them.

The Equality Act and exclusions: If a school excludes a child for behaviour that is a direct manifestation of their disability, and the school has failed to make reasonable adjustments or deliver IDP provision that would have addressed that behaviour, the exclusion may constitute disability discrimination. This argument can be raised in governing body exclusion hearings.

How to use the Equality Act alongside the ALN Act: The two frameworks work together. The ALN Act addresses what provision your child needs. The Equality Act addresses how the school treats your child in relation to their disability. You can cite both when challenging a school's decisions — they are not mutually exclusive.

The Children's Commissioner for Wales

The Children's Commissioner for Wales is an independent statutory office that promotes and protects the rights of children and young people in Wales. Their work is grounded in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Commissioner's ALN-specific work includes:

Rights advice and assistance: The Commissioner's office can provide advice to individual children and young people (and in some cases their families) about their rights under Welsh law, including ALN rights.

Investigation of systemic failures: The Commissioner investigates patterns of failure that affect many children. They have published significant reports on Welsh-medium ALN provision and the use of reduced timetables and informal exclusions for children with ALN — both of which have been characterised as systemic injustices.

When to contact the Children's Commissioner: The Commissioner is not a complaints route for individual IDP disputes — those go through the LA reconsideration and ETW route. But if you are experiencing a problem that appears to be a systematic policy failure in your local authority (for example, a pattern of refusing IDPs for children with autism, or an LA-wide shortage of Welsh-medium specialist provision), the Commissioner is an appropriate organisation to contact.

Engaging a Senedd Member (MS)

Members of the Senedd can be powerful allies in entrenched systemic disputes. MSs cannot intervene in individual, ongoing ETW cases (judicial independence prevents this). But they can:

• Write directly to the local Director of Education about concerns regarding an LA's ALN practices
• Raise specific ALN policy failures with the relevant Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary
• Escalate aggregate failures — such as chronic Section 20 delays affecting multiple families — to the Senedd's Children, Young People and Education Committee

If your dispute has stalled at the LA level and you are encountering what appears to be a systemic failure rather than an individual error, contacting your MS in parallel with other escalation routes can apply political pressure that complements the legal processes.

Putting It Together: Which Route for Which Problem?

The Wales ALN Dispute Playbook covers each of these routes in detail, with template letters and a step-by-step escalation guide for each scenario. Get the complete toolkit at /uk/wales/advocacy/.

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