Bedfordshire mum's battle to get education support for son

The mother of an eight-year-old boy with autism and ADHD says trying to get specialist help for her son has been frustrating.

Maddie's son Harleigh has struggled in his mainstream school and she has been seeking other arrangements such as home tutoring or a place in a specialist school.

She said: "It's been truly frustrating and the way that the system works is you go round and round in circles.

"It's completely overtaken my life now. Every day is emails and complaints and phone calls."

Department for Education data shows the number of young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is increasing, with the number of pupils with care plans in Central Bedfordshire rising from 1,142 to 1,722 in five years.

A Central Bedfordshire Council spokesperson said: "We have been improving our SEND service by investing in more specialist SEND professionals to work closely with our families and our schools.

"We’ve also launched a new one-stop-shop website for all SEND information and we are creating more special school places now and longer term to meet the growing demand."

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