P-06-1406 Financial penalties for Local Education Authorities who do no comply with timeframes for ALN - Correspondence from the Petitioner to the Committee, 11.03.24

Dear Mr Seargent, 

Thank you for the review of our petition regarding the lack of penalties for LA’s missing out on the legal timeframes for ALN consideration.  

I have read Mr Miles’ response. There is no need for a lengthy reply to this situation. The issue is clear and simple. LA’s allow themselves ‘ extensions ‘ on the time scales of completing the process. There is no penalty to them for not meeting these legal time frames and this leaves families with no support and no ability to further appeal to Education Tribunal Wales in a timely manner should they need to do so. There was a similar issue with the SEN process and therefore this is not an issue with the implementation phase of a new system, but a lack of care for the children and families going through the process. It makes no difference to the LA’s whether they meet the deadline or not as ’nothing’ happens to them. For the families and children, however, this causes further delay in support. In my own case it was 8 months from ALN determination to decision for my daughter.  

We request that there are penalties to the LA’s for not meeting the timeframes.  

 Regards

 Victoria Lightbown on behalf of the members of ALN Reform Wales.