A mother is fighting to bring her son back to school as she claimed her son is being denied to return due to his disabilities.

Angelina Murphy hoped that her 11-year-old son Liam could return to Breakspeare School in Abbots Langley after the government made it mandatory for all children to go to school.

But Liam – who has various conditions including chronic lung disease, down syndrome and epilepsy – is like many disabled children across the country who are being denied access to school due to councils not preparing a feasible safety plan.

An Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) should have been completed by Hertfordshire County Council before the start of the school term.

But Mrs Murphy was told her son could not return to school due to personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements for children with suctioning needs.

Now she believes that no efforts were made during the course of the pandemic and summer holidays to form a safety plan for her son.

She believes that Hertfordshire County Council is acting "unlawfully" against Liams’ medical conditions – as he is not receiving the full-time education he is legally entitled to.

She said: “Before the end of term last year, I suspected that they wouldn’t be prepared to have him based on their lack of effort to do and provide anything on his EHCP.

“I received a phone call Thursday last week to say the staff had not been fit tested for their masks, so therefore they couldn’t send anybody home (to teach and care for him). He couldn’t attend the school because he has suctioning needs and therefore there was nothing they were prepared to offer us at the moment.

“I’ve received emails about them ‘exploring options’, but they had since June to explore options and since then to do fit testing.”

As a result, Liam has had to stay at home since the school term restarted, with no form of education or support.

There is currently no time frame on when Liam can return to school.

This made Mrs Murphy question the ‘get back to school’ message promoted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson – as she feels that a certain group of children are being neglected.

The mother understands that the county council is looking to reduce his education, which she finds unacceptable.

Liam receives rebound therapy through a trampoline, which is one thing that may be stripped from him if he does return. The school said they would be unable to let Liam have this therapy as it causes him to cough – and infection control during the pandemic would make it difficult to clean the trampoline after it was used.

Mrs Murphy questions how trampoline parks can operate during the pandemic, and the school says they would struggle to clean one trampoline.

She said: “They’ve just stopped, they don’t want to investigate how to make it safe for Liam to come back to school, they just don’t want to do it at all - that’s the easiest option for them, and it’s an unlawful option.

“We’re in the school year, we’re past needing to explore options. They need to do.”

The mother says that at this time, she feels it is safe for her son to return.

The Murphy family have been overly cautious over various viruses to safeguard Liam who is very vulnerable, but she has enough confidence to at least bring Liam back to school.

She said: “We have been afraid of viruses for 11 years - we are constantly in fear of viruses, so we are actually 11 years ahead of everyone else in our thinking when it comes to Covid.

“We need to balance our fears with him living his life. We’re not going to put him into a situation that’s unsafe, we will monitor the school, transmissions, hospital admissions.

“We want for him to enjoy himself now while he can, and then we’ll see how things go on.”

She continued: “What’s the point of having him living at home all of the time? That’s not living a life, that’s surviving.”

Jenny Coles, director of children’s services said: “While we cannot comment on individual cases, it is our expectation that all children, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, will return to school this week.

“We are aware of a small number of children who due to their needs, it will not be safe for them to return to school full-time with the current infection and control regime in place. We will continue to work closely with our schools, parents and carers on the best resolutions for all pupils.”