Children with special needs education in 'crisis'
BBCEducation leaders said a shortage of places for children with special needs across the North East and Cumbria has become a "crisis" and have called for extra investment.
Prosper Learning Trust, which runs specialist and alternative provision schools, said a rise in applications was putting them under pressure.
Chief executive Chris Richardson said the system was "chronically underfunded" and its schools had "extensive waiting lists".
But Education Secretary and Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, Bridget Phillipson, told BBC Politics North that the government was making improvements.
Mr Richardson said: "The system has been described as a crisis and I don't think that's an exaggeration.
"I mean fundamentally the issue is there are far more young people seeking support than there are places."
Melanie Askew, from Whitehaven, Cumbria, said she was "devastated" when her four-year-old daughter, who has autism, failed to get a place at a nearby special school.
She said: "All you want is your child to be safe, happy and get the education that they deserve."
Executive member for lifelong learning, Labour's Elaine Lynch, said Cumberland Council had increased spending but was facing rising demand.
She said she "sympathised" with families of children who failed to get the places they wanted.
"What we try to do in that situation is give them specialist help and support within the mainstream school that they are in," Lynch said.
Paul Rickeard, chief executive of the Durham and Newcastle Diocesan Learning Trust which runs local primaries, said increasing demand for extra support in the classroom was having an impact on mainstream schools.
"We are doing everything we can. We're using reserves if we have them but there is a finite amount of money."
Phillipson said she had taken action through the Budget to invest more in to specialist provision.
She said: "Alongside that we will need to reform the system to deliver better outcomes for children because at the moment children with SEND are not getting the experience they deserve."
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