A mother has appealed against a recommendation to send her five-year-old son with autism to a mainstream school.

Emma Adams, 32, is awaiting a date for a tribunal after Oxfordshire County Council said her son George should join Stockham Primary School in Wantage.

Mrs Adams refused as she believed George, who has autism spectrum disorder and a speech and language delay, would not be able to cope.

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It means that George has been out of education for eight months and is instead cared for at home by his parents.

The county council refused to comment about a case awaiting tribunal.

Mrs Adams said: “All the time that’s wasted with George not at school because I refuse to send him to a school he won’t cope with.

“I refuse to risk his mental and physical health because OCC refuse to send him to a special needs school.

“Everyone is entitled to an education that is right to them, not just where OCC send him because they want to tick some boxes.

“I’m worried he will fall behind now he’s not in education. If he had the proper support in place from September he would be in a better place.”

George previously attended The Ark Preschool in Wantage. His mother said it took him “a good year” to settle in and she would often be called to collect him when he had a “meltdown.”

She applied to the council for an Education, Health, and Care plan in January 2021 to help George get into a special education school.

The plan is meant to take 20 weeks, but by the time term started in September, it had still not been completed.

Mrs Adams said she called the council three times a week but claimed she was “fobbed off” by a succession of SEN officers who never stayed for more than a few months.

When the final draft arrived in December 2022, she said it did not include George’s eating requirements and ignored her request to send him to Fitzwaryn School – a special education school.

Mrs Adams paid £900 for an educational specialist to look at the plan, and decided to appeal in the hope that other parents aren’t put through the same situation.

She said: “I’m hoping that someone from OCC will realise what they’re putting families through.”

David Johnston, MP for Wantage and Didcot, said he was “sorry” to hear about the case and added he had received similar complaints from other parents and schools

He said he intended to meet one-to-one with Minister for Children and Families Claire Coutinho to discuss the issue further.