PARENTS battling to get their autistic son the help he needs say they may now have to wait until January to get him into school.

Margaret and Roger Attwood, of Sylvan Way, Chigwell Row, have been fighting to get six-year-old Ian into a school where he would receive regular speech therapy to help him learn to communicate.

Essex County Council wants to send him to Oak View School in Loughton, where he would only have one 20-minute speech therapy session a term.

But his parents argue he should go to St John's, Woodford Bridge, which pupils can also be referred to by local authorities, where a speech therapist would be on-hand.

After asking the council to re-assess Ian's ability since January, a psychologist finally saw him a month ago, but this was too late for a tribunal that was due to take place tomorrow (Thursday) and this has now been postponed.

“Because the assessment had been left to the last minute, it went past the last date for submission to the tribunal,” said Mrs Attwood. “It means there are going to be further delays and he's going to miss the whole term.”

She has been teaching Ian at home for the past eight months and has so far only had one visit from a speech therapist.

The family will now have to wait until November for a tribunal and the council will take a few weeks to decide on the outcome.