A HAMPSHIRE family is celebrating a victory today after winning a bitter year-long battle with education chiefs over where their disabled son should be taught.

Sue and Geoff Penn refused to accept Hampshire education authority's decision that their 16-year-old autistic son Matthew could be taught at Lankhills special school in Winchester.

They wanted him to go to Aspin House specialist residential home in Southampton, where he could get 24-hour curriculum care. Matthew suffers from obsessional behaviour and needs a full structured environment.

The family, from Orchard Close, Alresford, was angry because an initial assessment from Lankhills said their Extended Education Unit was not adequate for his needs. But then chiefs changed their minds.

The family accused education bosses of putting money before need because the placement to Aspin would cost twice as much. To try to reverse the decision they took the county to a special educational needs tribunal in London earlier this month. To help prove their point they kept Matthew at home until a decision was made.

After looking at the matter for two weeks the tribunal has demanded that Matthew goes to Aspin and Hampshire pays for his care, while dismissing the cost as irrelevant.

Mrs Penn said: "This is a landmark victory for every parent with a child who has special needs. We have proved Hampshire education department is money-led not needs-led. "We believed that what was offered was not acceptable and we never gave up. Why should adequate be acceptable for our child's future Normal children have a choice and now disabled children do." Mr Penn added: "This has been a decisive victory for Matthew's future. We have spent the whole of 1999 wrestling with an intransigent LEA who refused to accept that Matthew's needs could not be met in Lankhills."

During the tribunal, Hampshire education department admitted that Matthew did need a 24-hour curriculum and that could not be given at Lankhills.

Education bosses argued that the cost of Aspin House was an inefficient use of resources. But in delivering the judgement by letter after sifting through 200 pages of evidence, the tribunal said: "As the tribunal's decision is that the Lankhills unit is not an appropriate provision to meet Matthew's needs it did not need to consider the issue of resources."

David Duffy from the charity Independent Panel for Special Education Advice, who helped the Penns fight, said: "This sort of case is very difficult to win but the tribunal thought we were right. I am delighted for the family."

A spokeswoman for Hampshire County Council said that education chiefs would implement the tribunal's decision as soon as possible.

But they added that they still felt Lankhills could have met Matthew's needs.

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