Additional Learning Needs

What is ALN?

(1) A person has additional learning needs if he or she has a learning difficulty or disability (whether the learning difficulty or disability arises from a medical condition or otherwise) which calls for additional learning provision.

(2) A child of compulsory school age or person over that age has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she— has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or has a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities for education or training of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream maintained schools or mainstream institutions in the further education sector.

(3) A child under compulsory school age has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she is, or would be if no additional learning provision were made, likely to be within subsection (2) when of compulsory school age.

(4) A person does not have a learning difficulty or disability solely because the language (or form of language) in which he or she is or will be taught is different from a language (or form of language) which is or has been used at home.

Children and young people with ALN need extra support to learn. This would be because they:

• find it harder to learn than other children of the same age have a disability that means they cannot use
• find it difficult to use, facilities for learning in the local nursery, school, PRU or college

Some children and young people who need extra help in nursery, school, pupil referral unit (PRU) or college do not have an ALN. This may be children or young people who just need some help catching up.

The extra support given to children with ALN to help them learn is called ALP. This must be written into a support plan called an IDP.

Additional learning provision for a child aged under 3 means educational provision of any kind.

Additional learning provision for a person aged 3 or over is education or training usually in a nursery, school, PRU or college that is additional to, or different from, what is made available to most children of the same age.

This means that ALP is support that is made available usually in nursery, schools, PRUs or colleges but most children or young people of the same age do not need to use this support to make progress. ALP can be delivered by teachers, teaching assistants or tutors.

It can also be delivered by specialist services like a speech and language therapist or teachers of the deaf.