MUM Marie Troake of Bramley Close in Wellington says health services in the town are struggling to cope with growing demand and fewer staff after she was told her daughter must wait eight months for an autism assessment.

She said children’s charity the NSPCC had reported that NHS trusts nationally had rejected more than 100,000 children for mental health treatment in the past two years.

Mrs Troake, who was runner-up for the Liberal Democrats in a by-election to Wellington Town Council in October, said: “My nine-year-old daughter Amelia has been referred for Autism assessment and having already undergone the Speech and Language elements of testing, I received a letter the same day as the NSPCC statistics were published with an appointment for the rest of the tests to confirm her diagnosis for mid-June 2018.

“That is eight months that my child is left to struggle on at school where they find it hard to know how to help her without a diagnosis and where they are unable to receive additional funding for her needs without a diagnosis."

For the full story see this week’s Wellington Weekly News.