It says one in five children has some form of special educational need, ranging from mild dyslexia to behavioural problems to complex medical conditions.

Cathy Barrett's son has learning difficulties which are at the less severe end of the spectrum - though that is no consolation to a mother who just wants the best for her child.

It can be years and years and years of heartache

Mother

She has been fighting desperately to get him help with his dyslexia.

"He is now 10 and goes to secondary school next year with a reading age of eight and spelling and writing age of a seven year old I am frantic about how he will cope," she said.

She has tried lobbying his school, the education authority, the local press, her MP, the special needs tribunal.

'Not bad enough'

"Everyone admits he has special needs but they are not severe enough to warrant any specialist help.

"It seems that he would need to have a reading and spelling age of six years or less."

She wants to know why the issue is still not being addressed properly in schools.

"How can desperate parents like myself and many others I've spoken to get heard and get the help that they know their kids need?

"I've got loads of info on it but this doesn't help my son on a day to day basis at school when he struggles to read and write.

"It won't help him when he gets to secondary school and ends up in all the bottom sets even though he is a bright child."

Where the money goes

Provision for special needs costs about �3.6bn per year.

Children with statements, legally binding documents setting out the extra specialist help to which they are entitled, account for 3.2% of all those deemed to have special needs - but get 68% of the money.

The Audit commission regards this as an unfair distribution.

In the more severe cases, one thing the commission highlights is that more assertive parents are more likely to win statements for their children.

Rights

Parents told it they felt they had to "fight" to get anything done.

In south-west London, Bernadette Keeffe is battling Wandsworth council to try to get help for her son Alex.

He is autistic, with delayed and disordered language and social skills which make it hard for him to communicate with other children, though he is otherwise very bright and reads well.

The statementing process was supposed to take six weeks. Mrs Keefe first applied almost a year ago and got the first statement at the end of May this year.

She said it was almost the same as an initial draft last November - and had nothing about her son's individual needs and circumstances.

'Callous' treatment

She is waiting for a special needs tribunal hearing.

Alex is currently not in school but is getting special private tuition which she can ill afford.

Mrs Keeffe - like the families the Audit Commission spoke to - has found the system too slow and bureaucratic - and expensive.

"They can easily spend �7,000 to employ solicitors and educational psychologists, and then you can go to more than one tribunal," she said.

"So it can be years and years and years of heartache whilst your child is not getting the help they need - and they have special needs."

She said parents were dealt with in a "callous" manner, which made life even more difficult for families already affected by their children's difficulties.

Sons affected

Anne Rhodes has four children. Her son Max, 9, is dyslexic, and Oliver, 8, has complex autism and mobility problems.

Both have been statemented.

Max is in a mainstream school and gets special help.

Oliver is at a special school in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, for children with a range of learning problems.

She thinks the statementing process is a good thing for parents by and large because it gives them legal rights.

Suspicions

But her experience also fits with what the Audit Commission found - that parents have to lobby for the best provision for their children.

She went to tribunals for both of her children because she was not happy with their initial statements. She is still appealing for extra, specific provision for both.

She helps other parents with problems and says the system needs more regulation to ensure that local education authorities do the best they can.

Campaigners like her are uneasy about what the Audit Commission report might lead to when it argues for a review of the system.

They suspect that a move to do away with the process of statementing - for all its faults - might mean children like theirs losing out.