Doncaster mum wins two year battle for her son's education

Nicola Reed first sent son Ne-yo to St Mary’s School, Edlington, aged just four – but saw he was not coping in a mainstream school.

She become convinced her boy, aged six, was suffering from ADHD. He suffered a series of exclusions Nicola thought were related to his condition.

Now, two years after she started looking for extra help for Ne-yo, he has finally been handed a place at a special school in Tickhill, after the Free Press took up her case.

A few days after we asked questions to his school, Doncaster Council and the NHS, he was handed a place at More Than Education.

She had been told that the NHS would not look into disgnosing ADHD for children under the age of seven, and thinks they should look at this again, if it means children like Ne-yo struggle to get help.

Nicola said: “I’d been trying to get help for Ne-yo since he was four – thanks to the Free Press for getting involved. Previously it had felt like he was being passed from pillar to post.

“He has done a few days now and he is a different child already.

“I wish it hadn’t taken so long. I think it is a fault in the system that they won’t do anything until the child is seven. Ne-yo is finally getting the education he needs and deserves now.”

Nicola and Ne-yo recently hit the headlines, as members of Doncaster’s biggest family, pictured, all decended from Nicola’s gran, Eileen Long.

A spokesperson at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals said: “If a child is displaying signs and symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder they are referred by their school, nursery or health visitor to community paediatrics.”

The added children referred for ADHD assessment are transitioned to Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber Trust (RDaSH), who provide the relevant assessment. , but in most circumstances, children aged under seven were not assessed due to certain behaviours which may be age-related and more prominent in younger children.