KATIE Price has revealed her son Harvey has been kicked out of residential care for being “too difficult”.
The frustrated 46-year-old today told her podcast listeners she “felt let down” after receiving a call from the council letting her know she would need to make new living arrangements for Harvey.
3
3
The 21-year-old has Prader-Willi Syndrome, a complex condition that causes obesity and learning difficulties. He is also autistic and partially blind.
Katie said: “Harvey is supposed to be moving in four and a half weeks, they’ve changed management and said they won’t be able to cater for Harv, because he’s too difficult.
“So now I’ve got to find another placement for him… so yeah, more drama to deal with.”
Later in the show, she said: “We worked months and months for that and he was told four and a half weeks before that he couldn’t go there, and Harvey has been doing the countdown.
“Well it’s stressful because you want the right thing for your child and it is a lot of time and effort to go back and do more meetings, more forms, it is very time consuming because you want the best for your child.”
Finding the right care for Harvey has been a constant issue for Katie since her eldest child reached adulthood.
Last year she had another run-in with a local authority over maintaining a place at a specialist college after a report allegedly found Harvey to have ‘no health issues’.
His time at £350,000-a-year National Star College, Gloucestershire came under threat as a result.
Twice-bankrupt Katie, who lived three hours away in Horsham, West Sussex, appealed the decision.
Speaking on an episode of her podcast last spring, she said: “They’ve given me three months; he has to find somewhere else by July. With someone like Harvey, you need a transitional move; you need to do it slowly.”
Katie Price admits struggle as son Harvey ‘can’t fit in’ her car as he starts weight loss jabs at 26st
She added: “I’m trying to find somewhere nearer for Harvey, but three months isn’t a long time.”
This year he was finally set for new lodgings and it remains to be seen where he will now wend up.
3
What is Prader-Willi syndrome?
PWS is a genetic condition that can impact muscle tone, sexual development and the function of the nervous system.
As well as this, those with Prader-Willi syndrome are more likely to have learning difficulties.
Often, it also sparks a constant desire to eat food and a permanent feeling of hunger which leads to child obesity.
However, the syndrome is very rare, with the NHS estimating that it affects “no more than one in every 15,000 children born in England”.
What causes Prader-Willi syndrome?
Those with PWS have a genetic defect on chromosome number 15.
In around 70 per cent of cases, some of the DNA information that’s inherited from the father is missing, which is referred to as “paternal deletion”.
Other cases occur when a child has two copies from their mother and none from their father.
The condition is obtained purely by chance, but those who have one child with PWS have a less than 1 per cent chance of the next one being affected.
