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A heartbroken Edinburgh couple say their son has received half an hour of schooling per week for the past two years.
Mum Pam Whitefield, 39, and dad Jason Whitefield, 37, were devastated when Joshua, 11, who is on the CAMHS waiting list for possible autism, returned home from school one day to tell them he ‘wished he was dead.’
They say after calling on Ferryhill Primary to take action, he was placed on a reduced timetable. This has left him receiving just 30 minutes of non-curriculum education in a local library.
CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) is an NHS-run service for people aged 0-18 who are experiencing significant mental health problems. Multi-disciplinary teams provide assessment, therapies, medication and support for a range of issues.
It comes as an Edinburgh Live investigation found more than 1,100 Edinburgh pupils currently attend school on a part-time basis.
Some 140 primary school children and 978 pupils in council-run secondary schools have been placed on reduced timetables, with fears raised the measure is being used as a last resort when schools are struggling to meet the complex needs of pupils due to a lack of adequate resources.
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Pam and Jason were also alarmed at how Joshua’s attendance was being recorded, with the pupil showing near enough full attendance, despite barely attending school.
Both parents have pleaded for Joshua to be afforded a place at a specialist setting.
“We have never been told anywhere is suitable despite their being some acceptance he needs specialist provision,” Pam said. “I feel Joshua has been overlooked because he is bright and has not been throwing tables and chairs against classroom walls.
“We kept being told mainstream settings can ‘cope with his education.’ Our child is being sacrificed in the name of resources. They don’t see pupils as children with futures, they are just a number on a spreadsheet. Enough of them can fall through the cracks so long as the budget balances each year.
“They are hiding the fact kids are not in school because their education needs are not being met. They are covering it up.
“We feel failures as parents, we should be able to give Joshua what he needs but we can’t. We are banging our heads against brick walls.
“The council have let him down. He has a right to an education and he is being left to rot.
“Joshua is wondering why he is being left behind, he feels abandoned. It is heartbreaking, they are removing him from school because they cannot cope with his needs. What’s the point of education laws or equality acts if you do not abide them.”
Pam and Jason said Joshua enjoyed school early on but as he entered primary four, aged eight, matters deteriorated rapidly.
“In primary four he began pulling back on things he enjoyed like reading and socialising – he became isolated,” Pam said. “The meltdowns became so severe he began telling us he wanted to die.
“Academically he is very bright. The right boxes were being ticked there and he was managing to hold it together in school but then he would come home and just explode. He stopped talking and eating.”
Shortly after moving into primary five, Joshua began experiencing episodes of ‘autistic burn out’.
“He would come home crying everyday and this destroyed his trust in the school,” Pam said. “One day he came out of school and he just broke down, he had been holding it together for so long.
“He told us he wanted to die and described going to school as like having an allergic reaction, so we took him out of school right away.
“A part-time timetable was arranged where he would go in for the morning and we would pick him up around lunchtime. But he was traumatised.
“He refused to go back into the building. The only way we could get him in was to drag him through the doors and for us to sit in the dinner hall while he went to the rainbow room.
“This lasted for nine months and he received no real education during this time despite us being promised he would pick from curriculum boxes each morning. We felt like we were failures as parents, as if we had abandoned our child.”
Pam and Jason said they could see their son’s academic performance falling away but they claim the school never took this seriously. They allege he was essentially left to come into school and play.
“It was soul destroying for our bright child,” Pam said. “We saw no improvement and began to explore alternative provisions outside of Ferryhill but they were not supportive.
“It was decided by the school and council that his needs could be met in a mainstream setting – despite him receiving no real education for the best part of a year. He stopped reading and writing, there was no interest in learning anymore.
“We pulled him out completely at this stage. His attendance was being recorded as being in school even though he was just playing in the rainbow room. No one could grasp the severity of the issue because his attendance was being recorded as in class.”
The family were shown one setting for Joshua but the parents feared this would not meet his academic needs with the other children operating at a P1 level. Joshua moved to Davidson’s Mains for primary six and while initial signs were positive, his parents admit they soon ran into similar problems.
“He would not attend school and the staff at his new primary accepted it was unsafe for him to do so,” Pam said. “By October 2024, Joshua was receiving one week of education with an Additional Support Leader (ASL) and his two hours in The Yard.
“His one hour in the library consists of 15 minutes of play, half-an-hour of non-curriculum education on a subject he is interested in at the time, and then a 15 minute video at the end. He is not getting an education.
“When we have raised this with the council, we are being told he is being given an ‘appropriate education’. I think it is atrocious, at best he is getting half an hour. Our trust is gone as he moves into primary seven.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “The situation affecting children with additional support needs has deteriorated for every one of the nine years I’ve been in Parliament. Families are struggling for access to a diagnosis, proper educational support and for respite care, no wonder they are on their knees. For every year that a child sits on an NHS waiting list, or is denied access to education, they are witnessing their life chances evaporate in front of them.”
Edinburgh Council’s education, children and families convener James Dalgleish said: “Our recent inclusion review brings resources closer to those who need it. This includes a team of specialists, including educational psychologists and trained ASN teachers, able to respond flexibly to learners’ needs as they present themselves, who work alongside school staff to support children and young people in our schools every day.
“A part-time or reduced timetable may be introduced as a temporary support strategy for a learner with an additional support need. A reduced timetable would always be put in place with the child’s best interests and wellbeing in mind and following agreement with parents/carers. The aim would always be for the learner to be supported to return to a full timetable.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Local authorities oversee the delivery of education, and have a statutory duty to provide for and to review the support they provide pupils with additional support needs (ASN. Work continues to meet the challenges that the growth in ASN presents and we are investing a further £29 million this year to support the ASN workforce, in addition to record spend of over £1 billion by local authorities on ASN in 2023-24.”
If your child has been affected by the issues explored in this article, you can get in touch by contacting [email protected].
