This page deals with elective home education in Wales where a child has special educational needs and has an Individual Development Plan. This page refers to the ALN Act; the ALN Code; the Pupil Registration Regulations Wales; and the Elective Home Education Guidance Wales (all linked at the foot of the page)
In Wales, statements of special educational needs are now being replaced by Individual Development Plans or IDPs. Special educational needs [SEN] is now called Additional Learning Needs or ALN. Section 10 of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 has a summary of IDPs.
There are no new statements; all new Plans are IDPs although some older statements are still in force. September 2025 is the current deadline for transferring existing statements to IDPs. Parents and children can also request to be moved to the new ALN system without waiting to be transferred.
School IDP
The biggest difference between statements (or EHCPs in England) and IDPs is that most IDPs are created and maintained by schools, rather than the local authority.
In most cases it is the school which will initially decide whether a pupil has ALN and hence whether an IDP is required. The school then creates an IDP for the child. The local authority will not necessarily have a copy of the school IDP; paragraph 11.27 of the ALN Code suggests that there have to be particular circumstances before the LA would keep a copy of an Individual Development Plan – “11.27 The consequence of the local authority being required to maintain the IDP is that the local authority will need to keep a copy of it”
Crucially for home educators, school IDPs no longer exist if the child stops being a pupil at the school (see paragraph 29.3 (c) of the ALN Code) and responsibility does not automatically transfer to the local authority in the same way as it might if the LA had to arrange EOTAS [Education Otherwise Than In School] (See chapter 28 of the ALN Code )
When thinking about getting a new IDP to replace the school IDP home educating parents will have to judge whether it will bring support or just more monitoring. See for example this job ad for Elective Home Education Additional Learning Needs Coordinator from Swansea in June 2024 which describes “person centred IDP review meetings to ensure parents are providing a package of education that is meeting their child’s additional learning needs and their child is making progress” and also “Monitoring and evaluating learners’ responses and progress against the objectives of the IDP and ALP.”
Deregistering From School
The rules governing deregistration from school are the Pupil Registration Regulations Wales 2010 [LINK] Regulation 8. (1) (d) says
” … that the pupil has ceased to attend the school and the proprietor has received written notification from the parent that the pupil is receiving education otherwise than at school.” [Pupil Registration Regulations]
This is not affected by the child’s having an IDP (or a statement of SEN) unless the school is a special school where consent is required as per paragraph 8. (2) below
” … the name of a child who has under arrangements made by a local authority become a registered pupil at a special school must not be removed from the admission register of that school without the consent of that authority or, if that authority refuse to give consent, without a direction of the Welsh Ministers.” [Pupil Registration Regulations]
The specific situation of deregistration from school for home education where the child has a school IDP is not covered in the ALN Code.
A home educating parent wanting the IDP to continue might point to the previous school IDP as showing that the child had ALN, and ask the local authority to consider creating a new IDP, because although as stated above most IDPs are created and maintained by schools, it is also possible for local authorities to create their own IDPs.
While not specifically mentioning home education, paragraphs 28.35 -36 of the ALN code cover the situation where “there is not a transfer of a duty to maintain an IDP, but a child or young person recently had one”:
“28.36. Where the … local authority knows that the child or young person recently had an IDP, the … local authority should take into account that previous IDP (and any other related information) where it is available to it. Unless the child or young person’s circumstances have changed significantly, the provision of the previous IDP ought to enable swifter decision making and a new IDP that is prepared more quickly. Similarly, if a child or young person moves from England to Wales having had an EHC plan whilst living in England, the provisions of the EHC plan can help inform the preparation of any IDP for the child or young person …” [ALN Code]
The ALN Code also says that in certain circumstances local authorities have a duty to decide whether a child has ALN.
“13.3. Where it is brought to its attention, or otherwise appears to a local authority, that a child for whom it is responsible may have ALN, the local authority must decide whether or not the child has ALN …
13.4. The possibility that a child may have ALN might be brought to the attention of a local authority in a number of ways. There might be a direct approach from the child, their parent or other family member …” [ALN Code]
This is echoed in the Elective Home Education Guidance Wales 2023
“2.13 Where it is brought to its attention or otherwise appears to a local authority that a home educated child (other than a looked after child) for whom it is responsible, may have ALN, the local authority must decide whether or not the child has ALN and, if it decides that the child has ALN, prepare and maintain an IDP and secure the additional learning provision (ALP) described in that plan (section 18.21 of the Additional Learning Needs Code (ALN Code).” [EHE Guidance]
The Parents Handbook page has a model letter for requesting an ALN assessment; Annex B link HERE via THIS PAGE.
Local Authority Monitoring
The ALN Code has more to say about LA IDPs, seeming to suggest firstly that the local authority might provide extras but also ultimately that a child might have to go to school to receive the ALP.
“18.23 A local authority preparing or reviewing an IDP for a home educated child, should work with the child and child’s parent to identify the appropriate ALP and then secure it. This involves identifying the type of ALP called for by the child’s needs and whether the parent will be able to deliver it (either directly or by arranging for someone else to deliver it). Subsequently, if the parent is to deliver it as part of the child’s home education, in order to secure the ALP set out in the IDP, the local authority will need to satisfy itself that it is being delivered. Where parents are not able to provide all of the ALP called for by the child’s needs, the local authority will need to consider how the ALP can be secured. There may be various ways of doing this. For example, in some instances, it could be through extra provision arranged by the local authority to supplement the education being provided by the parent at home, or it could be the provision of training to help the parent deliver the required ALP at home. In other cases, the local authority may need to exercise its education functions to secure education for the child at a particular school” [ALN Code]
The above paragraph from the ALN Code appears again in the Elective Home Education Guidance Wales paragraph 2.14.
References
- Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 [LINK]
- Additional Learning Needs Code [LINK]
- Pupil Registration Regulations 2010 Wales [LINK]
- Elective Home Education Guidance Wales 2023 [LINK]