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🧩 SEND Appeals Guide

Can I Appeal an Additional Learning Needs Decision in Wales?

Additional learning needs, individual development plans, council reconsideration and appeals to the Education Tribunal for Wales.

✅ Last verified: 24 September 2026 📚 Sources: listed at the end, each checked on the date shown 🇬🇧 Wales

💬 Check your own situation

Describe what has happened. The checker answers only from this guide, plus what you tell it, and says so if something is not covered.

Check a SEND Decision →

Who this guide is for

Parents and carers in Wales, children, and young people under 25, who disagree with a decision about additional learning needs (ALN) or an individual development plan (IDP). It explains the ALN system, how to ask the council to reconsider a school's decision, and appeals to the Education Tribunal for Wales.

What this guide does not cover

⚖ At a glance

  • Wales uses the additional learning needs (ALN) system, set up by the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018. Learners with ALN get an individual development plan (IDP).
  • A school must decide whether a learner has ALN, and if so give them an IDP, within 35 school days.
  • You cannot appeal a school's decision to the tribunal. First ask the council to reconsider it.
  • You can appeal a council's or a college's decision to the Education Tribunal for Wales. The tribunal says you have 8 weeks from the date the council told you about its final decision in a letter.
  • The tribunal's decisions are binding: the council must follow its orders.

The questions that decide the answer

  1. Is the school or council in Wales? Yes: this guide. England, Scotland and Northern Ireland have different systems and their own guides.
  2. Who made the decision? The school: ask the council to reconsider it. The council or a further education college: you can appeal to the tribunal.
  3. What is the decision about? Whether the learner has ALN, whether a young person needs an IDP, what the IDP says, or ending the IDP. These can be appealed (see below).
  4. When did the council tell you its final decision in a letter? The 8 weeks counts from that date.

What counts as additional learning needs

A person has additional learning needs if they have a learning difficulty or disability (whether or not it comes from a medical condition) which calls for additional learning provision. Additional learning provision is support that is different from, or extra to, what is generally given to learners of the same age.

When the school made the decision

There is no right of appeal to the tribunal against a decision made by a school alone. You can ask the council to reconsider:

Council guidance says the council has up to 7 weeks to reconsider. If you disagree with the council's decision, you can then appeal to the tribunal.

What you can appeal to the Education Tribunal for Wales

Children, their parents and young people (over compulsory school age and under 25) can appeal.

The time limit for appealing

The tribunal says you have 8 weeks to appeal, starting from the date the council told you about its final decision in a letter. Council guidance says that if you use the council's disagreement resolution service, the time for appealing is extended by a further 8 weeks: check your decision letter or ask the tribunal before relying on this. The tribunal can allow a late appeal, but it does not have to: explain why you are late.

What the tribunal can do

The tribunal can dismiss the appeal, or it can order, for example, that the learner has ALN, that an IDP is prepared, or that an IDP is revised. Its orders are binding. Most orders must be carried out by the council within 7 weeks.

"I think the school is discriminating because of my child's disability"

Children, their parents and young people can make a claim of disability discrimination in school to the Education Tribunal for Wales. Claims against further education colleges go to the county court. This guide does not cover the time limit for a claim: ask the tribunal or Citizens Advice (Wales).

Deadlines

Money figures

This guide gives no money figures.

Where to go for help

The decision letter: it explains your right to ask for a reconsideration or to appeal.

Your council: it must arrange free, impartial information and advice about ALN, and access to independent advocacy.

Education Tribunal for Wales: educationtribunal.gov.wales has the appeal guidance and forms.

Citizens Advice (Wales): 0800 702 2020

Traps

📜 Sources (checked 24 September 2026)

  • gov.wales: A guide about the rights of children, their parents and young people under the ALN system (appeals to the Education Tribunal for Wales, no appeal on a school decision alone, council information, advice and advocacy).
  • legislation.gov.uk: Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018, explanatory notes to sections 26, 27 and 70 (council reconsideration of school decisions and plans; appeals only against councils and colleges).
  • Education Tribunal for Wales: ETW01 "What is an appeal" (8 weeks from the council letter), home page (ALN appeals, disability discrimination claims in schools, binding decisions), published decision ALN 02/2025-26 (section 2 definition, section 70(2)(l), late appeal permitted, ETW Regulations 2021 reg 10).
  • Senedd Research brief on petition P-06-1406 (ALN Code: 35 school days; most tribunal orders within 7 weeks; tribunal powers).
  • Council ALN guidance (Conwy, Wrexham, Cardiff) and Contact IDP fact sheet: council reconsideration up to 7 weeks; appeal time extended by 8 weeks if disagreement resolution is used.
  • Citizens Advice (Wales) number reused from earlier guides (checked 24 September 2026).
  • Education Tribunal for Wales: ETW04 appeal case statement guidance (8 weeks from the date the council told you its final decision in a letter; using the council disagreement resolution service extends the time to apply by 8 weeks, 16 weeks in all); Education Tribunal for Wales Regulations 2021 (WSI 2021/406) contents: regulation 10, period within which proceedings must be commenced. Checked 26 September 2026.
⚠ Important disclaimer: This guide covers additional learning needs decisions and appeals in Wales as at 24 September 2026. General legal information only, not legal advice. ukworkrights.co.uk — Not a law firm.

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