A severely disabled child has been forced to live confined to her family's tiny living room waiting for an appointment to unlock specialist equipment and care.

Eleven-year-old Fay Gill has to sleep and bathe in one room because Bradford Council's social services has a waiting list of 600 for appointments with occupational therapists.

Her parents, who have to lift and carry Fay, had been told they would have to wait three or four months for the assessment by a therapist to decide what help Fay would get.

Fay, born with Down's Syndrome, had been a fit and healthy but was left unable to walk or to sit up alone after an operation on her neck, after which she spent five months in hospital. Since being released, she has been forced to sleep in the living room.

Because the house needed adaptations, responsibility lay with social services - where there is a waiting list for appointments - rather than a hospital occupational therapist.

"It is obscene why should a person with disabilities have to wait longer than an able-bodied person for help?" said Pam Fisher, Fay's mother.

Fay was left wheelchair-bound last year after surgery to correct the vertebrae in her neck was unsuccessful.

"The house is too small for us now and we need specialist equipment so we can bathe Fay and look after her properly and give her some dignity," said Mrs Fisher, of Lower Grange, Bradford.

Mr Gill, who is the main carer for their daughter, said she now needed 24-hour care.

After being alerted to Fay's plight by the Telegraph & Argus occupational therapists visited the family immediately.

Alison O'Sullivan, Bradford Council's director of social services, apologised and said: "Work will begin immediately to ensure the family's needs are fully assessed and the right services identified."

Anne McManus, a community support worker for Mencap in Bradford, said: "We understand how vital the work of occupational therapists is to people with disabilities and sympathise with the family."

A spokesman for the British Association of Occupational Therapists said: "It is difficult to understand why this child has not been given higher priority."

Bradford Council's social services department employs 17 fully qualified occupational therapists and 14 assistants.

Over the last two years it has invested £200,000 to increase the numbers of staff it employs.