Autism: My son's schooling seems to be lower priority, says dad

"With Aliou, it doesn't feel like his missed education is as important," says Mark

"It feels like government places less value on children like Aliou," says Mark, reflecting on his autistic son's education in the pandemic.

Aliou, nine, attends a special school near Neath and still faces major disruption to his schooling.

Mark says children with additional learning needs are not treated equally with those in mainstream education.

But the Welsh government said it had made funding available, which was "weighted towards learners with ALN".

• Additional learning needs reform delayed

• 'My autistic son can't access free nursery care'

Speaking to the BBC's Politics Wales programme, Mark described the unique challenges faced by children with ALN during the pandemic.

He said Aliou cannot take traditional lateral flow or PCR tests, and so every time he displays a potential Covid symptom he has to be taken out of school.

Mark also said that a lack of specialist teaching staff due to sickness has meant that Aliou has had to stay at home on numerous occasions.

He said there has not been a "catch-up plan" for his son, and there had been no training for parents like him to learn the techniques and methods to teach children with ALN.

Aliou's 10-year-old brother, Tahirou, attends a mainstream primary school and the siblings' schooling experience over the past two years is like "night and day", Mark says.

"With my other child, who's in primary school, he's having extra homework and lessons to catch up. There is nothing for Aliou.

"There simply isn't enough planning and urgency in place for children like mine, and if this was happening in mainstream education there would be up cry about it, there would be protests about it.

"Yet with Aliou it doesn't feel like his missed education is as important."

Sioned Williams agrees children with additional learning needs are not treated equally

Plaid Cymru Senedd Member for South Wales West Sioned Williams said: "I just feel there's a bit of discrimination going on here.

"Additional learning needs children have not been getting the same kind of recovery in their education and therefore they're not being treated equally with those children who are in mainstream schools."

What do Welsh ministers say?

A Welsh government spokesman said: "We recognise how challenging the pandemic has been for children with Additional Learning Needs and their families and we will continue to take action to ensure these learners are supported.

"We have provided over £128m of additional support for schools over the last two years, with funding weighted towards learners with ALN.

"We've also provided an additional £10m this year specifically for learners with ALN affected by the pandemic."

And the local council?

Neath Port Talbot Council said the local authority had "worked closely with our special schools throughout an extremely difficult and unprecedented time of a global pandemic" and had been "acutely aware of the challenges this has presented to our young people, families and schools".

"All resources available have been utilised to try and mitigate the issues faced by our children and young people and their parents and carers," the spokesman added.

Chris Haines, from the National Autistic Society Wales, said life for many children has been "severely disrupted" since the pandemic.

"They and their families have felt abandoned and the pandemic has clearly had a disproportionate impact on them," he said.

"Families across Wales are telling us that their children have suffered many months of lost education and development."

Politics Wales, BBC One Wales, 10:00 GMT on 20 February and on BBC iPlayer