Teaching Assistant Hours in an IDP: What Wales Parents Need to Know

Your child's IDP says they will receive "teaching assistant support." But it doesn't say how many hours. It doesn't say when. It doesn't say whether that TA has any relevant training. And every time you ask the school for specifics, you get a different answer.

This is not a minor gap. Under the Welsh ALN Code 2021, the lack of quantified TA hours in an IDP is one of the most common — and most consequential — failures in the entire system.

Why Hours Have to Be Written Into the IDP

The Additional Learning Needs Code for Wales 2021 requires that Section 2B of every IDP contains a description of the Additional Learning Provision (ALP) that is specifically described and quantified. The ALP must state:

• What support will be provided
• How much of it (exact hours or frequency)
• How often it is delivered
• Who is responsible for delivering it

"Access to TA support when needed" is not ALP. It is a phrase that protects the school's budget while giving your child nothing enforceable. A school that writes this cannot be held to account when the TA is absent, redirected to another child, or simply unavailable during the lesson your child struggles most in.

For teaching assistant hours specifically, the plan must name the number of hours per week and describe what those hours consist of — whether that is 1:1 literacy support, communication aid use, behaviour regulation, personal care, or in-class scribing.

What "1:1 Support" Actually Means in Legal Terms

The IDP should distinguish between:

1:1 support — the TA is working exclusively with your child during those hours. Nobody else. This is the most protective form of ALP for children with high-complexity needs.

In-class TA support — the TA is in the classroom but may be assisting other children as well. This counts as ALP but is less intensive and should not be conflated with 1:1 time.

Whole-class support — the TA supports the whole class environment. This is generally not Additional Learning Provision at all — it falls within what the ALN Code calls "ordinarily available inclusive practice," which any mainstream classroom is expected to provide.

When you read Section 2B, check which of these the IDP is actually describing. A plan that says "1:1 support" but delivers in-class TA time shared across three children is delivering far less than it implies — and you have grounds to challenge it.

Why Schools Resist Specifying TA Hours

The pressure to keep IDP language vague is primarily financial. TA staffing is the single largest controllable cost in a school's ALN budget. Once specific hours are written into a legally binding IDP, the school must fund and deliver them — or face legal consequences. Schools operating under constrained delegated ALN budgets routinely receive refusals from their local authority to increase spending, which creates a systemic pressure to underspecify provision.

Audit Wales found that council expenditure on ALN increased by 34% in real terms between 2018-19 and 2025-26, yet the majority of schools still report serious budget gaps between what children need and what they can fund from their delegated resources. The result is that ALNCos draft IDPs around what they can deliver, not around what the child's needs actually require.

This pressure does not change your child's legal entitlement. If the ALN Code says the ALP must be quantified, the school is legally required to quantify it — even if that means going back to the LA for additional resources.

How to Push Back When the IDP Doesn't Specify Hours

If you receive a draft IDP where TA provision is described without specific hours, do not accept it as final. You have a legal right to review the draft before it is made final, and you should use that opportunity.

Write formally to the ALNCo and request that Section 2B be revised to include:

• The exact number of hours of TA support per week
• Whether any portion of that time is 1:1 or shared
• The name or role of the person delivering the support
• What the TA will be supporting the child with during those hours

Reference Section 2B of the ALN Code 2021 explicitly. Make it clear you understand the "specified and quantified" requirement and that you expect the draft to meet it before you agree to the plan being finalised.

If the school refuses, or finalises the IDP with vague language, escalate formally. Request the Local Authority reconsider the adequacy of the ALP. If the LA upholds the school's position, you can appeal to the Education Tribunal for Wales. The ETW will scrutinise whether the specific hours were justified by evidence — and it is the school's burden to show they were.

What the Evidence Should Look Like

To argue for specific TA hours, you need an evidence base. The stronger your evidence, the harder it is for the school to resist quantification.

The most persuasive evidence includes:

• A report from an Educational Psychologist (HCPC-registered) recommending the specific frequency and intensity of support
• Direct written recommendations from a Speech and Language Therapist or Occupational Therapist stating how much dedicated TA time is required to implement their therapy targets
• School data showing the child's outcomes deteriorate in sessions without dedicated TA support
• Written communication from class teachers confirming they cannot adequately support the child's needs through differentiated classroom teaching alone

An independent EP report is particularly powerful. The Upper Tribunal's ruling in Cardiff Council v X & Anor established that tribunals will scrutinise the empirical basis for the specific hours mapped into Section 2B — and parents with strong independent evidence regularly secure more TA hours at tribunal than schools initially offered.

If Hours Have Already Been Cut

If your child previously had a Statement of SEN and is being transferred to a new IDP — or if an existing IDP is being reviewed and the school is proposing to reduce TA hours — you have additional legal protection. During the transition from old SEN systems to the new ALN framework, local authorities were legally bound to "have regard to" the previous level of provision when drafting the IDP.

Any reduction in TA hours must be supported by clinical evidence showing that the child's needs have genuinely reduced. A budget shortfall at the LA or school level is not a lawful justification for cutting specified hours. If hours are being cut without clinical justification, challenge it in writing before the revised IDP is finalised.

The Wales IDP & ALN Blueprint includes template letters for challenging both vague TA provisions in first drafts and unexplained reductions in existing IDP hours — with the exact legal references you need to make schools and local authorities take the challenge seriously.

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