A mum has hit back at the decision to transfer her son with special needs to a school over 40 miles away from home.
She said the change means she will have to wake her son up at 5am every morning and will leave him 'isolated' from peers.
Paula Priestley, 41 lives with her 13-year-old son Kieran, who has autism, ADHD and OCD in Widnes.
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She said due to 'behavioural issues' stemming from his diagnoses, she was told that his current school, Ashley High School in Widnes - that teaches children with special educational needs (SEN), could 'no longer support him.'
She said: "We had a meeting with the school last week and they said they didn't want to keep him there.
"There have been issues with his behaviour, such as shouting random words which they say is disruptive to the classroom, but these are linked to his conditions."
She said her son had been excluded 'eight or nine times' for his behaviour.
The mum said: "He has OCD and has issues around germs. When he originally started at the school I highlighted these issues. The first time he got restrained by a teacher he was four for scratching himself and other people.
"As soon as anything starts, [teachers] restrain him. He's been restrained I don't know how many times."
She said she was informed on November 11 by a transport service that he had been transferred to another SEN school to Waterloo Lodge in Chorley which is over 40 miles away from their home, and that a taxi would arrive for him at 7.15am.
Paula said: "This was the first I'd heard that the move was going to take place. That was our warning.
"He's had no chance to process this or say goodbye properly to his friends."
Due to his diagnoses, Paula said it "takes around two hours" every morning to get her son ready for school.
Describing her morning routine, she said: "Because of his [diagnoses], there's medications, I have to get him fed and washed. Now I get him up at half 6 and at half 8 we're still struggling because it all has to follow a set routine.
"To get to the new school I'll have to wake him up at 5am.
The public health practitioner said the situation has had "a massive impact" on both her son's and her own mental health.
She said: "I've been off work for the past three weeks because of it. It's so hard trying to get any support.
"I feel like I can't look after him because I'm so tired. I've got nothing left to give."
Another concern for Paula is the transport to and from the new school, she said: "They're expecting me to put him in a taxi with someone he's never met before to drive forty miles each way with a stranger.
"I wouldn't want to do that myself, sit for an hour and a half with a stranger. Why should someone with autism have to do that? It's not acceptable."
"Not to mention that the new placement he will be attending finishes at lunchtime in a Friday so I now have to reduce my hours in work to accommodate this. As a single income household this is going to reduce my income by about £180 per month."
Paula feels the school and the local authority (Halton Borough Council) should do more to support her son's needs.
She told The Echo : "If he can't stay at the current school he needs to be educated by a tutor or [a school] closer to home where he can build relationships with people near to where he lives.
"He'll be isolated, its back to me being his best friend again and that's not what he needs. He needs to be like other children."
"All this trouble started in May, now they've decided they don't want him at the school. What intervention has been put in place in that time?
"He's been totally failed by the school and local authority. Children shouldn't have to be thrown out of special needs schools and placed this far out of the area."
A spokesperson for Halton Borough Council said: "The Council does not comment on individual cases, but does always seek to work with schools and families to support pupils with their education and care needs.”
A spokesperson for Ashley High School told The ECHO : "The school does not comment on individual cases but always works with parents to support their children to provide the best possible education for them."
