[2025] UKUT 068 (AAC)

References in this Decision to statutory provisions are to the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 (“the 2018 Act”), unless otherwise appears.

Although some provisions of the Education Act 1996 (“the 1996 Act”) remain in place, since 23 August 2022, the regime governing the identification of, and provision for, children with ALN in Wales is primarily set out in the 2018 Act and the Additional Learning Needs Code for Wales 2021 (“the ALN Code”) made by the Welsh Ministers under section 4(1). When exercising functions under the 2018 Act, local authorities must have regard to the ALN Code (section 4(3)(a)).

Under the 2018 Act, a person has ALN “if he or she has a learning difficulty or disability (whether the learning difficulty or disability arises from a medical condition or not) which calls for additional learning provision” (section 2(1)); and a child of school age has “a learning difficulty or disability if he or she either (a) has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or (b) has a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities for education… of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream maintained schools…” (section 2(2)).

A local authority must decide if a child has ALN where it comes to its attention or appears to it that that child may do so (section 13). If it decides that the child does have ALN, then it must prepare and maintain an IDP for that child (section 14(1)(a) and (2)(a)), which is a document which must include (i) a description of the child’s ALN, and (ii) a description of the additional learning provision which the child’s learning difficulty or disability calls for (section 10(a) and (b)). “Additional learning provision” (“ALP”) means “… educational… provision that is additional to, or different from, that made generally for others of the same age in… mainstream maintained schools in Wales…” (section 3(1)(a)).

Paragraph 23.5 of the ALN Code requires an IDP to be in the standard form at Annex A of the Code, which has ten parts. The material sections for the purposes of this appeal are in Part 2, namely Section 2B (description and delivery of the child’s ALP) and Section 2D (places at a named school/institution or board/lodging).