The mother of a nine-year-old boy with special educational needs has warned of the injustice of him being excluded from their community due to lack of inclusive provision.

Tara Strydom, from Burnham-on-Crouch, said that there is no alternative to the three-hour daily commute her son is facing due to lack of SEND provision in the district.

Maldon district is currently one of only three districts in Essex where a lack of provision for SEND children means they cannot enjoy some more mainstream studies at secondary school level with friends they have grown up with.

But that means the boy will not be able to attend after school clubs and will miss out on the friendships he has made around his home.

She told Essex County Council's people and families policy and scrutiny committee yesterday (10 November): "There is currently no option but a three-hour daily commute to attend a SEND school for children in Burnham and the Dengie.

"These children who have less stamina, concentration and physical ability are forced to use their optimum concentration and learning time in travelling to school.

"Imagine the possible improvements in development, learning and behaviour if they did not have to start their day after a one and a half hour tiring journey.

"As a result of their one and a half hour journey time they are excluded from every local after-school activity because they are still travelling home from school when the clubs are on and exhausted from their 15-hour weekly commute."

She said to accommodate SEND children who need access to a specialist teacher but will benefit from remaining in their community within a secondary school is much easier and cheaper to implement than local authorities fear.

She said: "It just needs the will of the local school and a classroom.

"In my ideal world my son can be part of a SEND classroom for learning but can also be included throughout mainstream lessons for art, cooking and PE.

"As an example, my son can be learning to make a sandwich in the same class where his friends are learning to make a lasagne and requires no additional equipment or cost to the school.

"My son needs to be part of our community where he can learn basic life skills, where he'll be implementing them in only a short few years like shopping in the local supermarket.

"He should be allowed the same opportunity to maintain the natural friendships he's made in primary school."

Ralph Holloway, head of strategy and innovation at SEND, said: "The parent makes a really strong point and one that actually fits with everything we're trying to achieve though the strategy.

"We do it in a number of different ways.

"We haven't had specific conversations with the individual school the parent is talking about because we are not down to the micro level yet, but at the Essex level we had the Essex headteachers roundtable for inclusion which is a group of headteachers who are working with us to support all mainstream schools to be more inclusive.

"So the starting point is as far as possible every young person whose needs can be met in their local school should be able to expect that as a minimum, that their local school has the skills, the knowledge and resources to be able to meet needs of young people with special educational needs.

"At the same time we have to recognise that some people will have to have their needs met in specialist provision.

"So what we're trying to do is balance that inclusive agenda with creating the specialist provisional we need in local communities.

"Some of that will mean building new special schools, some of it will mean that we need to invest in mainstream to create specialist capacity within those schools."

Essex County Council has confirmed that it is now looking into producing a strategy to deal with the issue.

He added: "For me it's a really important one about rural communities and there is no SEND provision in Maldon. That's an historical fact and one that we might need to address through a sufficiency strategy."