2. Parents are expressing concern that their child, and indeed themselves, may fall foul of the law inadvertently as the communities within which they live become less tolerant and their child is tarred with the same brush as those that genuinely need ‘reigning in’.

3. Not all working within the area of youth justice and anti-social behaviour are trained to recognise autism, ADHD and other conditions. ASD child is unlikely to recognise the difficulties they are in or respond appropriately thereby exacerbating the situation. ADHD child may recognise difficulties but be unable to easily control their reactions.

4. Children are being ‘named and shamed’ publicly by media who are not considering that there may be an underlying cause and the ramifications to the young person. (It is ironic that a child who throws something or writes on a wall can be thus exposed while a paedophile is protected.)

5. Families are afraid of returning to ‘the bad old days’ when they were accused of bad parenting by many because they had a child with a behavioural problem with many failing to see the underlying medical condition.

6. Some teachers still do not have adequate training in working with and recognising children with conditions that create behavioural problems in a mainstream environment and subsequently are unable to control the situation to the detriment of all. This also has implications for staff retention. With inadequate classroom support to enable full inclusion it is almost inevitable that there will be resulting behavioural problems, which can lead to increased exclusions. The Secretary of State for Education has recently called for ‘zero-tolerance’ in schools towards bad behaviour.

7. That with the closure of more special schools there is less choice for parents with children with this type of learning difficulty.

8. Teaching unions’ recent statements regarding their growing belief that parents are not taking responsibility for their child’s behaviour. These statements are now being quoted in blanket fashion and contributing to issue 5.

9. That assessments for a pre-disposed learning difficulty resulting in a behaviour disorder are not routinely given to children that display these tendencies.