Autistic student kicked off college course one week after starting
City College Norwich says James Parker was enrolled by mistake and have ask him not to leave a week into his new term
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Your support makes all the difference.An autistic teenager has reportedly been left distraught after a further education college asked him to leave just a week after he started his course.
James Parker, 16 – who has been described as having high support needs – had just started a one-year pathways course at City College Norwich (CCN) when his mother, Emma, received a letter saying he had been enrolled in error and asked him not to return.
The letter, which Ms Parker, 40, posted on Facebook, said: “Unfortunately, James has been enrolled in error at the College, the tutor was unaware of a consultation which had taken place prior to the interview.
“Norfolk County Council should have informed you of the outcome of this consultation, which was that the College was unable to provide the support required to have a successful year.
“The Council should then have worked with you to find a suitable placement for James. Unfortunately, this process did not take place and James was enrolled in error on Monday 4 September”.
It added that she should contact the council for help in finding a different placement. James was then wished “all the very best for the future”.
Alongside the letter, Ms Parker wrote on Facebook: “My son is autistic and was told [at the] beginning of [the] year he had to find a college for September as he couldn’t stay on at his autistic school. So we applied and went for [an] interview at the city college. He was over the moon to hear the lady say: ‘Yes, 100 per cent James is on the course.’ So he started and enrolled Monday – had the best week of his life. He even said: ‘Mum, I could cry happy tears’”
“To then get this letter today, as you can imagine he is absolutely devastated. I’m heartbroken.”
The pathways course is designed as a preliminary course which gives students extra support with things like social skills before they go into vocational training, further education or employment.
The council had first tried to find James a place at the College in March as part of his Education Health and Care (ENC) plan – part of a government programme to help young people with special needs – and the CCN said they could not give him the right support.
The CCN said this meant the council should have contacted the family in the meantime and found him an alternative place but Ms Parker said she had not heard from them.
In a separate interview with the Eastern Daily Press, Ms Parker said: “If they knew that James needed more support than CCN could give, that’s fair enough - but we weren’t told. He feels like nobody wants him and he’s been thrown in the bin, which is so awful to hear. He’s heartbroken.”
A college spokesman told The Independent that a meeting had been set up with the family to find an alternative and said the situation could be resolved soon
In a separate statement, it said: “In March this year we conveyed our decision to Norfolk County Council that James needed a higher level of support and a different learning environment from that which the college is able to provide.
“Notwithstanding the family’s right to appeal that decision, this should have led to alternative provision being sought that could better meet James’s identified needs."
It added: "As had been determined in March, the college had already assessed that we were unable to provide the level of right support and environment needed, but this only came to light when we cross-referenced enrolment and additional needs funding records.
“It is deeply regrettable that a young man with high support needs found himself in the position of having started college, only for his place to be subsequently withdrawn. As we are unable to meet James’s support needs this should not have happened and we offer our unreserved apologies to James and his family for the distress this has caused.”
A spokesman for Norfolk County Council said: “We are very disappointed that this situation has come about because we have made repeated attempts over several months to speak to the family about James’s future. We remain very keen to work with James and his family to secure the best possible outcome for his education and urge them to respond to our offers of a meeting as soon as possible to talk through the options.”
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