North Wales MS Mark Isherwood today told the Welsh Government that the Additional Learning Needs (ALN) system in Wales is failing families.
Calling on the Cabinet Secretary for Education to provide an update on the Welsh Government’s Additional Learning Needs reforms, Mr Isherwood said that children and their parents are being failed by the new system.
Speaking in the Senedd Chamber, he said:
“Last year, the ALN Reform Wales campaign told me that the new system is just not working, that they had received countless stories of children missed or left behind by the new system, that children and parents were being blamed and punished, and that trauma was coming from school because teachers and schools were not being trained and supported.
“A year ago, National Education Union Cymru stated that although they broadly welcomed the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 and their members want to be focusing on children and their learning, ‘the system is forcing teachers away from the classroom’.
“This year, the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers Cymru told me that, despite supporting the principles behind the legislation, effective interventions are only possible if education professionals are not spending precious time completing paperwork, that December's Estyn report had highlighted major concerns with the Act's implementation, and that people needed to know how they could contribute to the Welsh Government's Legislative Review, which I believe is now closed.
“Given that major reforms to Special Educational Needs provision are expected in England, with the UK Government looking at what happened with the ALN reforms in Wales, what will you be telling them about
this?”
In her response, the Cabinet Secretary said that the “reforms are benefiting many learners and families”, and that “Estyn's recent review reported improvements in ALN provision and some really good practice across Wales”.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Isherwood said:
“To put the Cabinet Secretary’s comments in context, I was told that December’s ESTYN report acknowledges that the Act is being implemented with a lack of parity across Wales; that Additional Learning Needs Co-ordinators (ALNCos) need staff support, but staff have no time to support individual interventions, especially in secondary schools; and that the Statutory ALN Code for Wales does not detail that multi-agency partnership is needed and how it should work.”