Supporting young people to make decisions about additonal learning needs (ALN) and their individual development plan (IDP).
Your school or college additional learning needs coordinator will provide information about how decisions about additional learning needs are made. They can explain all about the IDP, who will maintain it, and your rights including your right to consent or object to ALN decisions and your IDP. In some cases a local authority, like Conwy, might also be involved in these discussions, and you will have a named person to contact.
Your named person will give information and help to ensure that you are able to understand the possible consequence of decisions so that you can make an informed decision about your ALN and IDP.
They will ask you:
- what you think about your IDP
- if you agree with the plan
- if you consent to the plan going ahead
- who are you happy to share your information with.
If the young person does not consent to a decision about ALN being made or a plan being prepared or maintained the school or local authority must take all reasonable steps to secure the additional learning provision (ALP) called for by the young person’s ALN. This means the extra help needed to help the young person learn.
Everybody involved must do everything they can to help the young person to make their own decision.
Where the young person is not able to make decisions about their individual development plan, parents can act as their “representative”. Where this is the case it is important to involve the young person as much as possible in decisions being made, taking into account their thoughts, wishes and feelings before making a decision on their behalf.
If the young person or their representative needs support to express their views and wishes and exercise their rights, they can ask an advocate to help. An advocate is someone who speaks up for someone else. They can make sure people know what children and young people think and how they are feeling.
Local authorities have partnership services which give independent support to families and any young person can access the support of an independent advocate to support them throughout the transition process. Find out more information about these on the SNAP Cymru website.
For more information about young people’s right to consent visit the Mencap website.
If you are worried that you need more help than you are getting at school or college, speak to the school’s additional learning needs coordinator or the college’s ALN team.
What happens after leaving school?
Most young people who have additional learning needs attend a further education (FE) college course or training programme when they leave school. This will continue to be the case and they will be supported to transition successfully. Wherever possible, young people should be able to attend their post-16 education and training locally.
FE colleges in Wales provide a wide range of courses to meet the needs of learners. Young people with an ALN entering college will usually have their needs met through provision that is available to all learners. This is called universal provision. Learners who can achieve their desired education or training outcomes through universal provision will not need an IDP.
Learners who will need additional learning provision will transfer from school to college with their IDP and the college will work with each young person to make sure the support is appropriate for them within their chosen course. Colleges provide a wide range of ALP to meet the needs of most learners. For more information on college provision, visit the ALN Pathfinder website.
In a very small number of cases, where a learner’s needs are particularly complex, a maintained school or further education college may not be able to meet these needs. In these cases, the local authority will seek an appropriate placement to help the young person to achieve their desired outcomes. In these cases, the needs will have been identified early (from year 9 onwards) and the process discussed with a local authority officer within the child’s IDP reviews.