Preparing and reviewing the Local Offer

4.8 Local authorities must involve children with SEN or disabilities and their parents and young people with SEN or disabilities in:
• planning the content of the Local Offer
• deciding how to publish the Local Offer
• reviewing the Local Offer, including by enabling them to make comments about it

Ideas for page or section headings. Working together to plan services

Co-production · Strategy · Parent carers · Young people · Up to date · Transparent

4.9 Local authorities should do this [4.8] in a way which ensures that children, young people and parents feel they have participated fully in the process and have a sense of co- ownership. This is often referred to as ‘co-production’. Local authorities should take steps to ensure that their arrangements for involving children, young people and parents include a broadly representative group of the children with SEN or disabilities and their parents and young people with SEN or disabilities in their area.
Parent Carer Forums, young people’s forums and other local groups are useful ways to engage families.

Ideas for page or section headings. Building services with our community

Co-production · Forums · Parent carers · Young people

4.10 Local authorities should publicise in their Local Offer the ways in which they will involve children, young people and parents in developing and reviewing it.

What does this look like? Comms and markting strategy

Publish · Strategy · Co-production · Parent carers · Up to date

Local authorities should ensure that they provide support that enables children, young people and parents to contribute to decision-making at this strategic level and the Local Offer should include details of this support, which should include Parent Carer Forums and local voluntary organisations.

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4.10 Local authorities should publicise in their Local Offer the ways in which they will involve children, young people and parents in developing and reviewing it.

What does this look like? Comms and markting strategy

Publish · Strategy · Co-production · Parent carers · Up to date

4.11 Local authorities must engage young people directly in developing and reviewing the Local Offer and should consider setting up a forum, or a range of forums, to do so. Local authorities should make every effort to engage a cross-section of young people with a range of SEN and disabilities, in a variety of settings and circumstances and at different ages within the 16–25 age range. Local authorities should make every effort to establish the issues on which young people most want to be engaged. They should also consider using a variety of methods to engage young people. These could include surveys and social media or young people’s forums, and making existing consultation groups, such as a local youth council, accessible to young people with SEN or disabilities. Young people should also have opportunities to be engaged independently of their parents.

Ideas for page or section headings. Supporting young people to take part

Co-production · Forums · Young people · Up to date

They should also consider using a variety of methods to engage young people. These could include surveys and social media or young people’s forums, and making existing consultation groups, such as a local youth council, accessible to young people with SEN or disabilities. Young people should also have opportunities to be engaged independently of their parents.

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4.11 Local authorities must engage young people directly in developing and reviewing the Local Offer and should consider setting up a forum, or a range of forums, to do so. Local authorities should make every effort to engage a cross-section of young people with a range of SEN and disabilities, in a variety of settings and circumstances and at different ages within the 16–25 age range. Local authorities should make every effort to establish the issues on which young people most want to be engaged.

Ideas for page or section headings. Sharing your views

Co-production · Forums · Young people · Up to date

4.12 When organising participation events for young people, local authorities should endeavour to ensure full accessibility by considering:
• timing: holding events when young people are most likely to be free and not when they are likely to be in education (unless arrangements have been made with their education providers)
• transport: explaining to young people how to travel to an event, with clear instructions, maps and, particularly in rural areas, details of a taxi service which is accessible to those with disabilities
• physical accessibility: for example, access for a number of wheelchair users
• accessibility of content: providing materials in different formats and tailored to meet different cognitive abilities and reading skills and supporting different communication needs, avoiding jargon and acronyms wherever possible and where this is not possible, explaining terms used
• age appropriateness: keeping membership of young people’s forums under review as the participants get older, and bearing in mind the very different stages that young people will be at from the age of 16 to 25
Whatever the means of consultation and engagement, local authorities should let participants know the outcome of discussions so that they will know what will happen as a result of their contribution.

Ideas for page or section headings. Making meetings accessible

Young people · Forums · Co-production · Strategy

4.13 Effective parent participation can lead to a better fit between families’ needs and the services provided, higher satisfaction with services, reduced costs (as long-term benefits emerge), better value for money and better relationships between those providing services and those using them. Local authorities and parents should work together to establish the aims of parent participation, to mark progress and build trust. To enable effective parental participation, local authorities should consider in particular the timing of events and meetings – for example, organising them during the school day while children are at school and ensuring that parents have enough notice to allow them to organise childcare.

Ideas for page or section headings. Working with parent carers

Building better services together

What does this look like? Engagement Policy

Forums · Co-production · Parent carers

4.14 Local authorities and their partner bodies and agencies must cooperate with each other in the development and review of the Local Offer. This is essential so that the Local Offer provides a comprehensive, transparent and accessible picture of the range of services available.

Ideas for page or section headings. Joining up health and care services

Co-operation · Up to date · Health · Transparent

4.15 The most relevant local partners who are required to cooperate with the local authority in relation to the Local Offer include:
• the governing bodies of schools that the local authority maintains
• the proprietors of academies and free schools in the local authority’s area
• the proprietors of non-maintained special schools that are in the local authority’s area or provide education or training for children and young people in the local authority’s area
• the governing bodies of further education colleges and sixth form colleges that are in the local authority’s area or are attended or likely to be attended by young people from their area
• the management committees of pupil referral units that are in the local authority’s area or are attended or likely to be attended by young people from their area
• the proprietors of independent specialist colleges and independent schools specially organised to make provision for children and young people with SEN which have been included on the list of institutions approved by the Secretary of State for the purpose of enabling parents and young people to request that they are named on an EHC plan and are in the local authority’s area or are attended or likely to be attended by children and young people in their area
• any other person (other than a school or college) that makes special educational provision for children or young people for whom the local authority is responsible, including providers of relevant early education
• NHS England and any relevant health bodies including:
- clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) whose areas coincide with or fall within the local authority’s area or which have a duty under section 3 of the National Health Service Act 2006 to arrange for the provision of services for any children or young people for whom the local authority is responsible
- an NHS Trust or NHS Foundation Trust which provides services in the local authority’s area or for children and young people for whom the authority is responsible, or
- a Local Health Board with functions in relation to children and young people for whom the local authority is responsible

Ideas for page or section headings. Working with schools and colleges

Specialist schools · Governers · Co-production · EHC Plan · CCGs · NHS · Propietors · Schools · Health

4.16 The local authority should engage with the providers of relevant early years education, particularly those in receipt of early education funding.

Ideas for page or section headings. Working with early years and chldcare providers

Early Years

4.17 The local authority must also ensure that all its officers co-operate with each other in respect of the Local Offer. This must include those whose roles relate to social services or who will contribute to helping young people make a successful transition to adulthood – for example those working in housing and economic regeneration.

Ideas for page or section headings. Connecting local support

Adulthood · Accommodation · Housing · Training and apprenticeships · Social care · Co-operation · Strategy

4.18 The requirement on local authorities to publish comments on their Local Offer and their response to those comments is relevant to their duty to keep under review the educational and training provision and social care provision for children and young people with SEN or disabilities and their role in contributing, with their partner CCGs, to Joint Strategic Needs Assessments and the development of local Health and Wellbeing Strategies (see chapter 3).

Ideas for page or section headings. Sharing comments with the Local Offer partners

Responses to comment on the Local Offer

Joint strategic needs assessment · CCGs · Publish · Training and apprenticeships · Social care · Strategy · Up to date · Health · Transparent

4.19 Local authorities must keep their educational and training provision and social care provision under review and this includes the sufficiency of that provision. When considering any reorganisation of SEN provision decision makers must make clear how they are satisfied that the proposed alternative arrangements are likely to lead to improvements in the standard, quality and/or range of educational provision for children with SEN (School organisation (maintained schools), Annex B: Guidance for Decision-makers, DfE 2014 – see the References section under Chapter 4 for a link).

Ideas for page or section headings. Reviewing SEND provision

Education · Social care · Training and apprenticeships · Strategy · Change · "Guidance for Decision-makers · DfE 2014" · Up to date

4.20 Local authorities should link reviews of education, health and social care provision to the development and review of their Local Offer and the action they intend to take in response to comments. This will help to identify gaps in provision and ensure that the Local Offer is responsive to the needs of local children and young people and their families. At a strategic level local authorities should share what they have learned from the comments they receive with local Health and Wellbeing Boards where appropriate, to help inform the development of Health and Wellbeing Strategies and the future provision of services for children and young people with or without EHC plans.

Ideas for page or section headings. Identifying gaps in provision

The changing needs of local children and young people with SEND

Change · Strategy · Health · Education · Social care · Co-operation · Up to date · Feedback · Transparent

4.21 Local authorities must publish comments about their Local Offer received from or on behalf of children with SEN or disabilities and their parents and young people with SEN or disabilities.

Ideas for page or section headings. Sharing your views

Publish · Feedback · Transparent

4.22 Comments must be published if they relate to:
• the content of the Local Offer, which includes the quality of existing provision and any gaps in the provision
• the accessibility of information in the Local Offer
• how the Local Offer has been developed or reviewed

Ideas for page or section headings. Publishing comments

Change · Publish · Up to date · Transparent

4.23 It is up to local authorities to decide on the format for publishing comments but they should consult children and young people with SEN or disabilities and parents and representative organisations such as Parent Carer Forums and local organisations providing information, advice and support to parents, children and young people about this, including the local authority’s Information, Advice and Support Service. They should make clear how they have sought comments about the Local Offer.

Forums · Publish · Co-operation · Information and advice · SENDIASS · Transparent

4.24 Local authorities must publish a summary of comments at least annually, although this is expected to be an ongoing process. They must ensure that comments are published in a form that does not enable any individual to be identified.

Ideas for page or section headings. Annual summary

Publish · Feedback · Up to date · Transparent

4.25 Local authorities are not expected to publish responses to every comment individually but could, for example, adopt a ‘you said, we did’ approach. They are not required to publish abusive or vexatious comments or complaints about the service provided to an individual since there are established routes to bring such complaints. The Local Offer should make clear what these routes are and how to access them.

Ideas for page or section headings. You said, we did

Publish · Feedback · Transparent

4.26 Local authorities must publish their response to comments received within the Local Offer and this must include details of the action they intend to take. They should consult children and young people with SEN or disabilities and the parents of children with SEN or disabilities in relation to the action they intend to take.

Ideas for page or section headings. Using your feedback

Co-production · Feedback · Transparent

4.27 Where appropriate, local authorities should also feed back comments to commissioners of services and the services themselves, including those in neighbouring local authorities. Comments should be used to inform commissioning decisions and decisions about the specific nature and type of provision that local families want.

Ideas for page or section headings. Giving feedback to commissioners of services

Publish · Strategy · Change · Feedback · Transparent

4.28 Local authorities should ensure they have access to good quality data to inform their decisions when reviewing provision and taking action to develop their Local Offer.

Ideas for page or section headings. Data informed decision making

Strategy · Up to date