The forum gives an opportunity to parents to air concerns they might have about the local authority's service to all children with disabilities.

Marlyn Campbell, the council's co-ordinator for disability services, is getting feedback from around the region as part of a wide-ranging review.

Katrina Gordon, secretary of Caithness Autism Parents' Support Group, yesterday urged parents to make their voices heard to ensure their children get the support they need and deserve. Her group has been active in highlighting grievances about the council's performance in supporting youngsters in the Far North who have autistic conditions.

It recently complained about the council pulling the plug on the Highland-wide information and advice service run by the Scottish Society for Autism (SSA). That followed an earlier furore over claims that 21 kids in the council-run specialist autism unit in Wick were being discriminated against because of staffing shortages.

Representations on the latter led to steps to increase resources to ensure the youngsters were able to go out at playtime at the Caithness Early Years Autism Centre.

Council officials, meanwhile, have defended their move in axing the SSA advice line, claiming it will free up funding to make way for an improved service throughout the Highlands.

Support group members maintain that the needs of autistic children in outlying areas are being neglected and accuse the council of concentrating in-house specialist resources in and around Inverness.

Mrs Gordon says it is vital that parents of children with special needs make their views known so they can influence the review. She said yesterday: "I'm hopeful that the meeting on Monday night may be a positive one with positive outcomes for children's services in Caithness – if we manage to get enough folk attending. It's important to demonstrate that we have both a real need and a strong voice in Caithness by attracting a large number of parents to the meeting."

The support group is sceptical about the council's upbeat assurances in the wake of its decision to close the SSA service.

"As ever with the Highland Council, it appears that the whole Scottish Society for Autism fiasco was due to poor management – without a thought for the service user and with an over-tight grasp of the purse strings," Mrs Gordon said.

"The result is no service, despite funding being in place and having been earmarked."

Mrs Gordon says her group fears the previous specialist support will disappear.

"There is a real risk that autism services may be diluted so that everybody working for the Highland Council becomes autism-aware but nobody actually knows enough to be able to provide information and support to already knowledgeable parents in need," she said. "There's another real risk that services will be centred in Inverness and just not practically stretch this far north."

Monday's meeting, which is being attended by Marlyn Campbell, is being held in the Boys' Brigade Hall in Thurso between 7pm and 9pm.

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