A desperate mum attempting to secure her autistic four-year-old a school place has been left shocked at the state of the facilities on offer and fears her son has been "forgotten about" by Liverpool City Council.
Jennifer's son Jaxon was diagnosed with autism just before his 2nd birthday and found it difficult in mainstream nursery; he couldn't communicate verbally and was distressed over the noise and environment.
As a result, the family made contact with Liverpool Council's Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) team in November 2021.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know if you're getting a mortgage in 2023
The council offered Jaxon a place at Princes at Picton, a satellite facility of Princes School, located on Old Mill Lane in Wavertree. The building was empty and set to be refurbished, and Jaxon was given a start date of October 2022 as part of a "second phase" intake.
However, the family faced long delays. They were sent images of the revamped building, which only required furnishing, three months ago, but Jaxon had still not started school in December. By January 2023, with "tensions running high", Jennifer was eventually offered a site visit after the first intake of children had started.
Her dad Dave viewed the premises on the family's behalf as he cares for Jaxon with his wife. What he reported back left the mum "shocked".
She said: "There is no access to outside, which is littered with broken glass. The generator in place has failed, and when it does so the children have to go home.
"My dad was told workmen have a separate entrance to the site while they carry out work, but as you can imagine the noise and dust this must generate must be unpleasant to be around for children and the staff."
Dave told the ECHO: "I went with open eyes, half hoping the school would be suitable. When I got there, first impressions were that it was a modern building with an outside area and I thought it looked good."
However, things soon "nosedived". Dave added: "The play area outside wasn't safe. The children already there were contained within two or possibly three rooms. The thought of putting children with special needs into an environment like that is beyond belief. It's an absolute disgrace."
Jennifer has since removed Jaxon from the roll at Princes at Picton and has secured a spot for her son at her first choice facility, where he will start in September.
However, she said the local authority should be "held accountable". Jennifer added: "Every SEN child should have the right to access a provision especially one that suits their needs.
"Although Jaxon remains non-verbal he is showing signs of improvement and shocked us all recently by singing a couple of words from a song. While he may not have a voice I will be his voice and strive to always get him the best of out of life.
"An investigation needs to be raised in order for lessons to be learned. No other family navigating the EHCP route should have to go through the stress the last year has caused."
A spokesperson for Liverpool City Council said: "We understand that the completion of refurbishment work at the Princes site has been very frustrating for parents and children.
"There have been several serious issues which have affected the site that have been out of the control of Children’s Services and these set the works back considerably.
"Phase one of the work has been completed and risk assessed and work is continuing on the second phase so that the whole site will become operational as soon as possible."
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
READ NEXT:
Woman returned from Spain holiday to find 'urgent letters' on doorstep
Audience members evacuated from M&S Bank arena after one song
Woman hid more than £1,000 of crack inside her body
The big Liverpool projects that could be rubber stamped this week
'I ditched dating apps like Tinder for a single's night and got more than I expected'
