(UK) Essex: Non-verbal 3y-o with severe ASD denied place at special schools; "over-capacity"

Mar 23, 2025, Daily Mail: I'm fighting the council to find a school for my severely autistic son... sending him to mainstream would be like torture

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14395109/Im-fighting-council-school-severely-autistic-son-sending-mainstream-like-torture.html 

An Essex mother who has spent more than a year fighting for a place for her three-year-old son at a special school has said the battle has made her 'physically and mentally ill'.

Sinead Woods, 36, of the village of Great Wakering, Essex, told MailOnline: 'Every day, every minute that I have off, I'm researching and fighting and trying to get him to a school.'

Her son Nathan, three, has 'high, high, high needs', the mother-of-two explained, including severe autism and global development delay, with the latter seeing him significantly behind on all key skills – leaving him with a mental age of about one. 

He is also non-verbal and has little to no sight in one eye, severe sensory processing disorder, social anxiety, bowel issues, hypermobility, a weak core, fine motor issues and Pica, a disorder marking consumption of non-food items. He wears nappies, cannot feed himself and often refuses to walk so is frequently pushed in a pram.

But after Ms Woods applied to three special schools for him, which were all full, Nathan has now only been offered a place at a mainstream school for September – which several medical professionals have said would not be suitable for him, in letters seen by MailOnline. 

In fact, children's charity NSPCC agreed with Ms Woods, when she contacted them, that sending Nathan to mainstream school is a safeguarding issue. She has separately called it 'torture'.

So, she appealed in January – and now has a tribunal date set for May 2, which she hopes will see the issue resolved. Essex County Council has also 'reconsulted' two of the special schools she applied to – which she should hear back about soon. . . .

More than 1.6million students in England had special educational needs by the end of last academic year, according to government figures. This was 101,000 more pupils than the previous academic year, 2022-23.

But only just over 160,000 students were able to attend special schools last academic year, 2023-24.

Roughly two-thirds of special schools are at or over capacity, according to the latest Department for Education (DfE) figures from May 2023, which are still being finalised so 'should not be considered definitive'.

And Ms Woods knows how widespread this issue is only too well. 

She knows a lot of other families in the same situation as her – of being unable to get a special school space – via a local autism charity called Little Heroes that supports the Woods family: 'Every single one of us is in the same boat. 

'Not one of us has got our child into a specialist school and they're all very, very high needs, like Nathan.' . . .

Listing Nathan's health issues, and adding he is currently in the process of getting diagnostic tests for a neurogenetic condition, his mother said: 'That's probably all I can think of off the top of my head but there's probably several more!' 

But despite his high needs, it still took a long time to obtain an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for Nathan, a legal document for children with additional needs, which identifies those needs and what support should be given to meet them. It is required, in most cases, to attend a special school.

The application for Nathan's EHCP was put in in February 2024 – but the Woods family only got it nine months later, in November. By law, it should take 20 weeks.

With the EHCP finally on their side, they applied to three specialist schools for Nathan: 'They all came back and said that they hit, obviously, the criteria, but they're oversubscribed.'

It meant Nathan's only offer of a school place was at a mainstream institution.

Ms Woods said she knows this is not right for him, explaining, 'There's no way that he could cope in a mainstream school and I had letters confirming, from several doctors, that he won't cope in mainstream and that he needs a specialist'.

Firstly, she said that at the particular school he has a place at, it has been determined he would not be taught by a qualified teacher – 'let alone a qualified special needs teacher' – but instead a learning support assistant (LSA), or teaching assistant, outside the classroom. . . .

According to Section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014, local authorities must secure the educational provision specified in an EHCP. 

He cannot understand simple verbal communication, she said: 'Even if I turned around to him now and said, "Nathan, do you want a sweet?", I don't know if he knows what I'm saying but he doesn't respond to what I'm saying.' . . .

The mother-of-two said: 'You've got to think of the other kids. Having to listen to kids getting so distressed, Nathan headbutting the floor.'

The special school Ms Woods would like her son to go to, by contrast, has year groups based on needs, rather than age, making it easier for staff to give children the support they require.. . .

But if Nathan cannot go there, and she chooses to homeschool him instead, she would not get local authority financial support for this – an unfortunately common outcome for homeschooled children with special needs . . . .

Ms Woods giving up work – and her wage – to homeschool Nathan would have a knock-on effect, she said: 'There's no way we would be able to keep our home. We would have to sell and either try to get a council house or just downsize.'

In the 2023-24 academic year, tribunals upheld the local authority's decision only 1.3 per cent of the time – the lowest instance of this figure on record, according to Ministry of Justice figures.

Ms Woods's chances of winning her tribunal look good – but it has been a fight to get there, one that has affected the entire family's life. 

Her other child Ciara, five, has been massively impacted by the whole process: 'Simple things like doing her homework can be difficult because [her brother Nathan] could be screaming, having meltdowns. She doesn't get to have playdates.' . . .

Ciara has joined the fight to support her brother Nathan too – last year, when she was only four, she did a sponsored silence, raising more than £3,000 for Little Heroes, the autism charity that supports the family.

And in Autism Awareness Week last year, Ciara brought in storybooks her mother had bought her to explain autism to her in a child-friendly way and volunteered to speak to her class for two days about the condition. . . .

A spokesperson for Essex County Council said: 'We are unable to comment on individual cases, however we are committed to working with schools and families to ensure suitable placements can be secured for children.

'The pressures on the SEND system are recognised as a national challenge and improving our local SEND system remains our priority. We are implementing different opportunities without compromising on the quality of the service offered.'

The NSPCC was approached for comment but it is understood they cannot share details of particular cases as the discussion took place via the confidential helpline service.