AN autistic boy is being failed by his local education authority because of a postcode lottery, say his parents.

Six-year-old Tom Gale, of Marston Road, Trowbridge, attends King's Park Primary School, Melksham, but his parents, David and Michelle, say he is not getting the specialist help he needs.

They are having to pay for a speech therapist to help their son communicate and are taking Wiltshire County Council to a tribunal to fight for the education they think he deserves.

Mrs Gale, 33, said: "Tom is non-verbal and has severe social handicaps but he doesn't have one-to-one provision at the moment.

The teachers do their best but there are children with behavioural problems and Tom doesn't get any attention at all. "We were told there would be a significant speech and language element to his education but he is lucky to see a speech therapist once a term and that is totally inadequate."

Mr and Mrs Gale, who also have a seven-year-old daughter, Hannah, want Tom to be taught through the recognised Applied Behaviour Analysis system a method of teaching children social behaviour through an individual programme, using a reward system to encourage them to learn.

Mr Gale said: "Tom is intelligent and he is becoming more socially aware and he is attempting to vocalise, so the speech therapy is working. We have been battling for nearly a year but it is just a lottery for us. If he had been born a mile down the road in Bath and North East Somerset they would fund his treatment.

"In Wiltshire it is not just that the education authority won't fund it, they won't even talk to us about it." According to a report by the Commons education select committee there are many children in the country being failed by the system.

The report concluded provision for children with special needs in England, an estimated 1.5m, is not fit for purpose' and relies on a postcode lottery of provision. In Wiltshire the county council, as the LEA, has to provide a Special Educational Needs statement for each child.

A provisional statement is issued to parents and a final statement is drawn up once it has been agreed between both parties. If an agreement cannot be reached the parents have the option to go to a tribunal, a route the Gale family have now decided to take.

A spokesman for Wiltshire County Council said: "We issue about 250 SEN statements a year and sometimes it can be difficult to reach an agreement with parents. Where we think agreement can be reached we offer an independent mediation service. If agreement still can't be reached the parents have a right of appeal to an independent tribunal."

Meantime Mr and Mrs Gale have paid for a therapist to work out a programme they can do with Tom at home.