A MOTHER claims education bosses are dragging their feet after failing to find her son a suitable school for four months.

Fourteen-year-old Christopher Graham, of Alfred Street, Bury, has microcephaly, a clinical condition which means that his learning difficulties are compounded by behavioural problems.

He was excluded from Elms Bank High School in Whitefield in January for violent and disruptive conduct.

While schools exist in the borough to cater for both of his problems, none can cater for the two together and, so far, no alternative place has been found for Christopher.

His mother, Diane, says that her son has been left bored and despondent.

"He should behave himself but the fact that he doesn't is part of his condition, he's not just a naughty child," she said. Education bosses say that Christopher is at the top of their priority list and have approached ten specialist schools outside the borough to find him a place, without success.

But Diane is now desperate and feels that there is a lack of urgency.

"If they can't find anywhere, what's going to happen to Christopher? I'm really worried about his education. He'll be leaving in two years and he's going to get left behind."

"There's no point in me trying to teach him, he just throws a wobbler whenever I try that.

"I try to get him out of the house to see different things, like taking him to Heaton Park, but he is very bored now and it's hard to get him out of the house. He has got into a routine where he just wants to stay in and not go out."

Elms Bank have now said that Christopher can return temporarily, but Diane will not be sending her son.

"If they couldn't manage then, how can they manage now?" she said.

Bury Council's head of education welfare, Mr Alan Cogswell, stressed that every effort was being made to find Christopher a place.

"The young man concerned does have some complex needs, which most local authorities would struggle to meet," he said.

"We have contacted several schools to try to make provision for him unsuccessfully, and will continue to contact others. It's not the case that people aren't trying.

"It's about marrying up all his needs with the correct resources that are available. What we don't want to do is to have him going from placement to placement."