A YOUNG Copeland boy has been praised in the House of Commons for highlighting the importance of support.

Earlier this month a video of five-year-old Jesse Evans went viral, showing him dancing along musicians playing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

The video shed light on the realities of those living with autism spectrum disorder, but also left people asking why families such as the Evans family found it hard to access support services in rural areas.

Speaking in parliament, Copeland MP Trudy Harrison said: "The parents of five-year-old Jesse Evans blog about his Autism Adventures to help other parents.

"Jesse’s family and many other families in my rural, coastal Copeland constituency have formed self-sustaining support groups, like Autism Around the Combe, to help when services are difficult to access."

She asked health minister Jackie Doyle-Price what steps were being taken to bolster support for areas such as Copeland.

In response, Ms Doyle-Price said: "Results of government assessments have led to £1.4bn extra funding, supporting locally-led transformation plans and the recent green paper which aims to improve provisional services at schools, bolster links between schools and the NHS, and pilot a four-week waiting time."