A mum is desperately trying to find her disabled son a school closer to home after being offered places for him hundreds of miles away from home.

Frankie Maskell, who is deafblind and from Gillingham, has not been to school for six months and now suffers mental health issues.

His mother Manda Maskell is blaming his latest complications on a lack of places and schools in the county to deal with his specific needs.

She has been offered places for Frankie schools as far afield as Exeter, Manchester and Doncaster but is reluctant for him to move so far away or uproot her family.

She is concerned about sending him out of the county after the 13-year-old became withdrawn and started self-harming during his time at his last school in London.

Frankie, who also has ADHD, autism and anxiety, previously went to The Royal School for Deaf Children in Margate.

He was only there for six weeks before his family were informed the school would be closing after it went into administration in December 2015.

Frankie was moved to Danecourt School in Gillingham where he had two-on-one support and a multi-sensory impairment (MSI) teacher.

He was able to interact with peers and his mother said he formed friendships during his time there.

When he reached secondary school age at 11, it was decided Frankie would be educated at Linden Lodge School in Wimbledon on a half-board basis and return home at weekends.

The youngster developed anxiety and began hurting himself requiring medical attention on more than one occasion.

Manda, of Harold Avenue, said: "He couldn't handle it, he was constantly asking for mummy."

"It has been hard watching my own child suffer mental health..." mum Manda Maskell

She took the decision to remove Frankie from the school in July after two years and he has been educated at home since.

"It's broken him," she said. "He never had depression or anxiety; he was a boy with no fear whatsoever.

"It has been hard watching my own child suffer mental health."

Frankie currently has a teacher come to teach him brail and to help with his hearing twice a week, both of are provided by Medway Council. But Manda says this has only started within the last month.

A volunteer from deafblind charity Sense has also been working with Frankie once a week.

Manda has pleaded with Medway Council to find her an MSI teacher and an intervener - someone who helps a deafblind person connect with the world around them - who can work with Frankie within a school in the Towns.

She has appealed on Facebook in the hope of tracking specialist teachers down.

The mother-of-six said: "Medway Council are trying to tell me that there's no place in Medway for him.

"If I was to put him in residential again, he couldn't cope.

"The schools here should be willing to try and willing to fight. The longer he is without education, the more depressed and isolated he is.

"He went from being a very engaged little boy to a very angry, sad little boy wanting his mum 24/7."

"We understand there is a growing demand for school places for children with special education needs and disabilities..." director of children's services at Medway Council, Ian Sutherland

Medway Council has support in place for children who have Education Health and Care Plans - which set out the provisions for children with Special Education Needs (SEN) - both in mainstream schools and specialist schools.

The demand for SEN provision is on the rise. Our sister paper, the Medway Messenger revealed last month how in 2017/18, 496 applications for an EHCP were made – an increase of 71% from 2015/16, when 260 were made.

Ian Sutherland, director of children’s services at Medway Council, said: “We are committed to meeting the needs of each child and ensuring that all children in Medway thrive, remain healthy and learn well.

"We understand there is a growing demand for school places for children with special education needs and disabilities and ensuring they receive the specialist support they need and deserve is our top priority.

"We will continue to work with partner agencies to help meet the demand for school places in Medway.”

Council land in Cornwallis Avenue in Gillingham has been earmarked for a new school building which could be used to increase the number of specialist school places in Medway.

The council has also been given £2.4 million funding from central government over a three year programme allowing them to create an additional 110 school places for children with EHCPs.

Medway Council and Kent County Council (KCC) are the local authorities responsible for providing education in Kent and Medway.

Medway as a unitary authority works with children from the Towns while KCC deals with youngsters from the rest of the county.

Although there are no schools specifically which cater for either children who are deaf or blind in Kent and Medway, KCC provides and trains 50 teachers within the county to deal with pupils with either hearing impairment, visual impairment or multisensory impairment.

Children are usually referred to KCC's Specialist Teaching and Learning Services (STLS) via health professionals.

The services are available for children aged up until they are 19-years-old.

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