A mother has revealed that her teenage son has been kept at home for more than a year because his special educational needs are so severe he cannot go to a mainstream school.

Donna Bull says that children like her 14-year-old son Andrew fall through the system and receive no education at all from Barnet Council, acting as the local education authority (LEA).

Andrew has a type of Asperger's syndrome which makes him uncomfortable in crowds and unable to attend a mainstream school.

Barnet LEA has kept him on the roll of a comprehensive secondary school and has not found him a place at an appropriate special needs school.

As a result, he has been at home since March 2003. Despite that, the system trundles on seemingly oblivious to Andrew's predicament, even being sent a letter of congratulation for passing some tests he never even sat.

Ms Bull, of Wenlock Road, Edgware, said: "How many children are losing out on their schooling? Andrew has literally fallen through the system, and I suspect there are many more like him.

"He was given a place at The Edgware School in Green Lane, but hasn't been since March. And the funny thing is he just received a standard congratulation letter for his SAT results he has never taken them. It is horrendous. I can't fault the school, their special needs provision is good, but Andrew has Pervasive Demand Avoidance, which is a complicated form of Asperger's, and means he has obsessions and compulsions and demand refusal'. He cannot go to big schools, he just refuses. I can't make him go, what am I supposed to do? This is just a catalogue of failures."

Ms Bull started trying to get Andrew a proposed statement, outlining the sort of care he needs, from the LEA in February. It was issued on July 13, but the SEN (Special Educational Needs) panel has met three times and still failed to name a school which the LEA would pay for.

Ms Bull found a smaller residential special school in Oxfordshire which costs £35,000 a year, but it was too late to secure a place.

"Why can't they treat my son's case as urgent?" said Ms Bull. "He just sits at home and is very depressed. The LEA is forcing him to do this, but if I were to keep him off school, I would be in court."

Ms Bull said she was prepared to take legal action to force the LEA to educate her son.

"They were supposed to give me an answer on July 8," she said.

A spokesman for the council said it could not comment on individual cases, and could not confirm how many children were in Andrew's position, although it is Barnet's policy to place SEN children in mainstream schools where possible.

He said: "The vast majority of pupils with special educational needs who have statements to attend Barnet's mainstream and special schools do so successfully. In partnership with schools themselves, the local education authority carefully monitors the attendance of pupils at all its schools."