Individual Development Plan Wales: What Happens When You Home Educate

One of the most common questions from Welsh families considering withdrawal is what happens to their child's Individual Development Plan when they leave school. It is also one of the most poorly answered questions in existing guidance, most of which is written for England or references the old SEN framework that no longer exists in Wales.

This post covers what the IDP is, what legally happens to it when you deregister from a mainstream school, and what the local authority is actually required to do — including situations where you cannot deliver the required Additional Learning Provision at home yourself.

What an IDP Is and Isn't

An Individual Development Plan (IDP) is the statutory document created under the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 for learners in Wales who have additional learning needs (ALN) that require specialist provision. It replaced the old Statement of Special Educational Needs. That transition completed in August 2025 — Statements of SEN no longer exist in Wales.

An IDP is not the same as an EHCP. If you see references to EHCPs in a guide or template you're using, that guide was written for England and does not reflect Welsh law. The two systems have different legal bases, different terminology, different timescales, and different rights of appeal.

An IDP describes the child's ALN, the additional learning provision (ALP) required to meet those needs, and who is responsible for delivering each element of that provision. Schools maintain IDPs for children whose needs can be addressed within a school setting. The local authority maintains IDPs where the required provision goes beyond what a single school can deliver — for example, where a child is placed in a special school or requires input that spans education, health, and care systems.

What Happens to an IDP When You Deregister

When a parent deregisters a child with a school-maintained IDP from a mainstream Welsh school, the deregistration process itself is the same as for any other child. You write to the headteacher invoking Regulation 8(1)(d) of the Education (Pupil Registration) (Wales) Regulations 2010. The school must deregister immediately. Having an IDP does not give the school grounds to delay or refuse deregistration.

But the IDP does not simply disappear. Under the ALN Code for Wales, the school must notify the local authority and formally initiate the transfer of IDP responsibility. The local authority then reviews whether:

1. The child continues to have ALN that requires specialist provision — i.e., whether an LA-maintained IDP is needed.
2. If yes, what provision is required, and whether the home-educating parent can deliver it.
3. If the parent cannot deliver the required ALP, what alternative arrangements the LA needs to make.

This is not a rubber stamp. The LA may determine that, in a home education context, the child's needs can be met through different means than when they were in school. They may also determine that significant specialist provision is still required and must be funded or arranged by the LA.

The LA's Statutory Duty Regarding ALP

Here is the part that most families do not know: if the local authority maintains an IDP for your home-educated child, it has a statutory duty to satisfy itself that the required Additional Learning Provision is actually being delivered.

This comes from the ALN Code for Wales. If the ALP in the IDP cannot be delivered by the parent at home — because it requires specialist professionals, specialist equipment, or input that parents are not expected to provide themselves — the local authority must consider how to secure that provision. This can mean funding third-party provision such as specialist tutoring, speech and language therapy, or occupational therapy input.

In practice, this obligation is rarely volunteered by LAs. They do not proactively offer to fund provision once a child is home-educated. You typically need to know this right exists and assert it through correspondence. If the LA maintains an IDP for your child and then takes no steps to ensure the provision in it is being delivered, you have grounds to challenge that through the Additional Learning Needs Tribunal (SENTW — the Special Educational Needs Tribunal for Wales).

The IDP Transfer Process: What to Expect

After you deregister, you can expect the LA to make contact to initiate the IDP review. The timeline for this varies across Wales's 22 local authorities — there is no single national standard for how quickly this review is completed.

At this stage, the LA is assessing your child's ALN, not inspecting your home education. You are not legally required to allow home visits, and you are not required to demonstrate that you are following the Curriculum for Wales or replicating a school environment. What you are required to do, if the LA maintains the IDP, is engage with the process of agreeing what provision is needed and who will deliver it.

If you disagree with the LA's decisions about the IDP — whether they should maintain it, what provision should be included, or whether the provision being offered is adequate — you have a right of appeal to SENTW. This is a formal tribunal process. Most families do not reach this stage, but knowing the right exists is important before you begin negotiating with the LA.

If Your Child Has an IDP but No Formal Diagnosis

Many families in Wales find themselves in this situation: the school has identified ALN and the child has some level of provision, but awaiting diagnosis for autism, ADHD, or another condition is taking months or years. The school may have an informal support plan in place rather than a statutory IDP.

If there is no statutory IDP in place at the point of deregistration, the IDP transfer mechanism does not apply. You deregister, and the LA's duty to ensure ALP provision does not automatically follow. However, you can still pursue an LA-maintained IDP after deregistration if you believe your child has ALN that requires specialist provision that you cannot deliver at home. You would request an ALN assessment from the LA and make the case based on the child's needs.

Practical Steps Before Deregistering a Child with ALN

Before you send the withdrawal letter, it is worth getting clear on a few things:

• Whether your child has a statutory IDP or only informal school-level support
• What provision the IDP currently describes and whether you can realistically deliver any of it at home
• Whether there are elements of provision you want the LA to continue funding after withdrawal
• Whether the child attends a mainstream school or a special school (because special school withdrawal requires LA consent — a completely different process)

Getting the letter right and managing the first exchanges with the LA carefully can significantly affect how the IDP transfer process goes. The Wales Legal Withdrawal Blueprint covers the IDP transfer process in detail, including what to include in your initial correspondence, how to respond when the LA contacts you about the review, and how to push back if the LA fails to honour its statutory duties regarding ALP.

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