How Additional Learning Needs is changing

What’s changing?

From September 2021 the new Additional Learning Needs (ALN) system has begun to replace the previous Special Educational Needs (SEN) system. When the ALN system is introduced you will notice the following changes to what things are called:

• Special Educational Needs (SEN) becomes Additional Learning Needs (ALN)

• Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCos) become Additional Learning Needs Co-ordinators (ALNCos)

• Special Educational Provision (SEP) becomes Additional Learning Provision (ALP)

• plans such as Individual Education Plans (IEPs), Statements and Learning and Skills Plans (LSPs) will be replaced with a new plan called an Individual Development Plan (IDP)

Some things have not changed. If a child or young person has SEN they are also likely to have ALN. And it means the special education provision children and young people get to help them learn at nursery, school or college because they have SEN will continue, if it is still required, but it will now be called additional learning provision. A child or young person will only require an IDP if they require ALP. 

When will children and young people move to the new system?

Welsh Government have changed the timescale of implementation so that nurseries, schools and local authorities now have until August 2025 to move to the ALN system. 

Dates of when children and young people will move to the new system are available on the Welsh Government website.

How will children and young people move to the new system?

The new ALN system emphasises increased collaboration, and the importance of providing support and information to ensure that children, young people and their families participate as fully as possible in decisions that affect them. This is why schools or local authorities will work with you, your child and other professionals following the person-centred approach to decide how best to meet your child’s needs.

Most children or young people will move from the SEN system to the ALN system when their local authority nursery, local authority school or local authority gives them an IDP notice.

An IDP notice means a nursery, school or local authority has decided a child or young person has ALN and an IDP will be made for them.

It is likely that children or young people who had SEN with provision via early years action plus or school action plus will have ALN.

On occasion, a child or young person who had SEN will be given a notice called a no IDP notice. A no IDP notice means the nursery, school or local authority has decided the learner does not have ALN and an IDP will not be made for them. For example, children or young people may be given a no IDP notice because their needs have changed and they no longer need additional learning provision.