Bore Da a Croeso / Good morning and welcome to the first session of today’s Policy Forum for Wales Seminar on Additional Learning Needs in Wales.
In addition to Chairing a number of Assembly Cross Party Groups, including those on Disability and on Autism, I was a Member of the Committee which produced the reports that provided the foundation for the Additional
Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 or ALN Act.
I also have lived experience as a parent who had to fight for my child’s Statement 17 years ago in order to access the special language unit otherwise denied to him – and who then had to use the Statement to force the Local Authority to meet its statutory duties to my child.
I am therefore very conscious of the need for this Act to work.
In the Second Assembly, the Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning Committee found that the current ‘process can be adversarial, frustrating, stressful and complicated for parents’ and ‘an unequal system’ where ‘more vocal and able parents are able to utilise the system more than others’.
My mail bag is inundated with correspondence from parents whose children’s needs are not being currently met
-including Autistic parents who have been battling with their Local Authority and Health Board on behalf of their autistic children
– where the autism awareness claimed by public bodies was contradicted by their continued failure to identify and meet my constituents’ communication needs as autistic people
– despite their stated need to discuss “the continued lack of effective advocates, needs assessment, effective joint working by Health, Social Services and education”.
Last week, I questioned the First Minister about school exclusions of pupils with Additional learning Needs, referring to the Court Ruling in August that all schools must ensure that they have made appropriate adjustments for autistic children or those with other disabilities before they can resort to exclusion.
The First Minister replied that “Clearly, schools will have to take note of the court ruling. We are upskilling the workforce so that they're able to meet the needs of learners with ALN. That includes developing a professional learning offer for teachers, and funding to train educational psychologists and specialist teachers of the sensory impaired.”
As the Autistic community states, however, training must move from Autism ‘awareness’ to real Autism Acceptance, and incorporate people with lived experience of autism.
The National Deaf Children Society, has states that “developing strong communication in the early years between families and their children is crucial for establishing a firm foundation for educational and social development, adding that “unfortunately, families across Wales struggle to access opportunities to learn BSL”.
They believe that families with deaf children should be offered sign language classes through the Individual Development Plans – or IDPs.
The ALN Act will bring an end to the current distinction between school led interventions and local authority issued Statements - integrating the separate legislative arrangements that exist for pupils in schools and post-16 students in colleges, and making provision for universal, statutory IDPs for all children and young people with ALN.
It is anticipated that the Act will be implemented, through a mandatory phased approach, between September 2020 and August 2023.
Statements will be converted into IDPs between September 2020 and August 2022 – with other plans being converted over three years to August 2023.
The Act requires Welsh Ministers to issue an ALN Code.
The Welsh Government have described the draft Code as ‘a work in progress’. They will need to consult on a draft of the Code first and then lay it for Assembly Members’ approval.
The Act renames the existing Special Educational Needs Tribunal for Wales as the Education Tribunal for Wales.
Although a governing body or local authority must comply with an order made by the Tribunal, this does not extend to health bodies.
In response to concerns regarding this raised during the scrutiny of the draft Bill, the Welsh Government inserted, through amendment, a power for the Tribunal to require health bodies to give evidence regarding a case of ALN and for the Tribunal to issue non-binding recommendations to an NHS body.
The Welsh Government states that ‘anyone exercising functions under the Act or the Code will need to involve children and young people at every stage of the process, with their views, wishes and feelings listened to’.
The code will therefore need to fully embrace Co-production - with professionals and pupils or students working side by side to remedy deficiencies in the current special needs system in Wales.