Doing more for autism in the North East

A mother whose son has classical autism says more needs to be done to help North East families who are trying to get their children into specialist schools.

Anita Tyrell moved to the North East because the provision here is better than London.

However, she moved five times in the region because successive councils refused to pay for her son to go to a specialist school.

The North East has the best provision in the country. Actually probably the best in Europe. But even here, more needs to be done. It's still not enough. There are queues of families whose children are in the wrong education."It costs councils roughly £5,000 per year to educate a child, but more like £50,000 to provide specialist education for a child with autism.

The North East Autism Society says it now needs £2m to complete the first autism centre in the North East, but that it will now definitely go ahead.