Katie Price, 42, has applied for her son Harvey to attend a £350,000-per-year college as she gets ready to help him make the move from school.
Now 18 and on the cusp of adulthood, Harvey’s facing lots of changes in his life, as reality TV star Katie recently revealed she made the decision to put her eldest son into full-time care.
Over the last year, Katie has also been trying to find the right college for Harvey to attend, and in Monday night’s BBC documentary Katie Price: Harvey and Me, the mother and son can be seen researching and visiting a number of different options.
The pair instantly take to National Star College in Cheltenham, an independent specialist education college which prides itself on helping students with complex needs to thrive.
Harvey was born with Septic Optic Dysplasia, a rare disorder that affects brain function, hormones and vision, and 1 in 10,000 babies are born with it.
The new documentary explores businesswoman Katie’s difficulties dealing with Harvey’s many behavioural and medical conditions, and her continued determination to give her son the best life she can.
On visiting the college, Katie decides to ask them to put in an application to Katie's local authority in order for his position to be financed.
The mother-of-five is told that the application will detail the entire care and education plan and the costs involved.
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As a part-time student, due to his complex care needs, Harvey’s spot would cost £15,000 to £20,000, whereas in a full-time residential placement the fees could be up to £300,000 to £350,000.
It comes after Katie admitted she is afraid Harvey could be sectioned and forced to stay in a mental health hospital if he is unable to successfully adapt to life at college.
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Katie’s mentor Anna Kennedy, who has given her support and even started her own college for her autistic sons when she began to realise there wasn’t enough provisions at existing institutions for their needs, warns the TV personality of what she could face in the future.
"The thing is, Kate, there isn't going to be a college that is going to be 'off the shelf' what you're looking for for Harvey,” she says. “So the key thing is for him to have peer support, for him to have a good education, for him to have somewhere he's going to be happy and relaxed.
"If the placement doesn't work for Harvey, you don't want it to start affecting his mental health, his wellbeing and then he might self-harm or harm others,” Anna explains.
Katie confirms that Harvey has self-harmed in the past, saying he uses it to cope when he suffers from anxiety.
Katie admits that her biggest worry for her son is that she won’t be there if he needs her, and Anna further explains the hard reality of what could be ahead on the new programme.
Katie Price: Harvey and Me airs Monday at 8.30pm on BBC One
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