'Council left autistic son with no school place'

A man has been left frustrated after having to apply for a mainstream school for his autistic son, because a council missed a care plan deadline.

Kray's four-year-old son Bodhi has not had an education, health and care plan (EHCP) issued by Birmingham City Council, which is needed to apply for a special school place.

"He's entitled to an education, so for him to just get pushed back when we've done everything right is just annoying", said Kray.

Birmingham City Council has been approached for comment.

Kray, who runs 670 Grams in Digbeth, Birmingham, said Bodhi was seen by a paediatrician in February 2024, who then referred him for an autism assessment.

Councils have a legal time limit of 20 weeks, in most cases, to issue an EHCP after a professional asks for an assessment, but growing demand and insufficient funding is resulting in delays.

The 33-year-old said without an EHCP he could not apply for a specialist school before the window for school applications closed this month.

Kray said he felt a mainstream school would not be able to cope with his son.

Bodhi displays many of the signs of autism including not speaking, not responding to his name, not being able to sit still and not interacting with other children or adults.

Both he and his wife Sacha, who is also a chef, first started noticing the signs when he was one year old, and his nursery picked up on it too.

Now that the school application window has closed, they fear they have missed their opportunity to get him a place at a specialist school, many of which are oversubscribed.

Their concern is that if the school they have applied to cannot cope with Bodhi, he will be out of school and will have to be educated at home.

For the couple, who have three young children and work full-time running their Michelin-listed restaurant, home-schooling is not a viable option.

"Obviously the children come first but we need that business to just live a nice life," said Kray.

Data from the Department for Education shows that hundreds of other children in Birmingham are also facing delays to the support they need.

In 2023 the city council's rate for getting EHCPs issued on time was 58.9% (652 of 1,107).

That was better than the national average for that year, which was 49.1%

To give Bodhi the best possible chance of getting into a good specialist school, the family have now moved out of Birmingham to Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire.

But without the EHCP they are in the same position as they were in Birmingham.

Sacha said she wondered how anyone got their children into a specialist school from reception age.

The 29-year-old said they had begun the process to see a paediatrician when Bodhi was two and did everything their end as quickly as possible.

She described the whole process as an "awfully long waiting game".