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Local Offer Annual Report March 2024

View the Local Offer Annual Report 2024

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Local Offer Annual Summary of Feedback March 2024. Prepared by: Niamh Murphy, Local Offer Coordinator.

Contents

  1. SEND Local Offer

  2. Finding the SEND Local Offer

  3. Feedback

  4. Data

  5. You Said/We Did

1. SEND Local Offer

The Local Offer is a statutory requirement of every Local Authority. This means that every Local Authority must publish a Local Offer by law. The Local Offer should act as a central point for young people with SEND and their families. It aims to provide advice and information about local services for young people with SEND in one place. The SEND Code of Practice states that the Local Offer has two main purposes. These are:

  • To provide clear, comprehensive and accessible information about services available.

  • To ensure local services involve and listen to young people with SEND and their families in the area. This includes when reviewing and developing their service.

You can find information on a wide range of topics on the Local Offer. These include social care, health, education and leisure services, among others. It outlines what these services are expected to offer young people under the age of 25 who have SEND. This includes young people who do not have an Education, Health and Care Plan. It also outlines how you can access these services.

Since 2014, the local offer has been developed with parents, carers, young people and professionals. This input helps to keep information up to date and relevant to you and your needs.

Local Authorities must publish the feedback they receive on the Local Offer. They must show how this feedback is being used to develop what is offered in the Local area.

2. Finding the SEND Local Offer

You can find the SEND Local Offer on the Sutton Information Hub. This hub brings together the services in the local areas in the 'service directory'. Within this directory you can find the services that fit your interests. This could include support organisations or leisure activities among other things. You can also find a wide range of information on topics such as education and independence. Organisations can register and add their own services to the directory. They are encouraged to take ownership of this to ensure all information is up to date.

3. Feedback

You can give your feedback on the Local Offer in a range of ways, both online or in person. Some ways that this can be done include:

We record all feedback that we receive, as well as what has been done about it as a result. Once there is an update, feedback is displayed on the You Said, We did page. Feedback is also passed on to services or organisations if relevant, so that they can also take action. For more information please visit our You Said, We Did page.

Engagement with Parents

In January, the Local Offer met with some of the members of the Sutton Parent Carer forum. In this meeting they reported some of the feedback they have on the Local Offer Website. They communicated that the Local Offer lists many national services but could include more local ones. As a result, an audit was carried out to see which pages could be improved and localised. While editing pages, there has been a focus on ensuring there are a wide range of services, where possible, from the local area for all to access. Of all the services currently listed within the information pages, about 61% of these are local to Sutton. This will continue to be a focus when updating pages to widen our offer to residents.

There is also a survey that can be accessed by parents to provide feedback on the Local Offer. This is available online and many have completed this via the Local Offer Facebook page. Many parents have reported that the services on the Local Offer are not well promoted and can be difficult to find. As a result, since moving to the Sutton Information Hub the services are listed in directories. These are split into different categories which aim to make finding the relevant ones easier. These are also displayed on the home page under the contents of information pages. These directories and categories are under regular review to ensure they are beneficial for users.

In the Survey, parents also expressed interest in a wider range of content for a range of different needs. They would like it to be easier to find information that is most relevant to them and their child. Some examples that parents used are "more resources for visual and hearing impairments" and "more information on how to support children's wellbeing". We will now look at producing pages for specific needs to make this information easy for parents to find.

There have been some common themes within all parental feedback that we have been working hard to address. One thing that many parents report is that a lot of the content is complicated, wordy and outdated. Since September, this has been the main focus in developing the Local Offer. We are currently working through the information pages ensuring they are updated. This includes making sure the information on them is simplified and easy to understand. Since September, roughly 49% of pages have been updated. This process is ongoing, but in time we will aim to have all pages reviewed within six months to ensure the content is up to date.

In addition, many parents have requested the use of more visuals within pages to make them easier to understand and read. Some also say that it can be difficult to read the text and that it would be helpful to be able to change the background colour from white. Due to this, we are looking at how we can make the website more accessible for all. As part of this, we will start including videos within information pages. This means that you can access information through different media types.

Similarly, feedback states that many find the website difficult to navigate and that it is not always easy to find what you are looking for. We will ensure that information sits in sections that are clear to those using the website with no prior knowledge. We are also looking at how we can improve how services are found and listed within the directory. It has been reported that the homepage can also be confusing and overwhelming for first time users. As a result, we have made sure that only the most important information is listed on the homepage.

Engagement with Professionals and Schools

As touched on above, many report that the directory can be difficult to navigate. It has also been stated that information within the directory pages are not always up to date. This can make it difficult to find correct information about the services listed. Schools and services are now being encouraged to take more responsibility over their pages. This will help to ensure that all information is current. Schools have already been contacted and we are in the process of ensuring that as many as possible are signed up to manage their page. As a result, 15% of Schools are now registered, and this is ongoing. Services will also be contacted and encouraged to register their own accounts.

Over the next year, we will also increase our focus on working with professionals. This will aid the development on content on the Local Offer, ensuring it is accurate and relevant. We hope this will also increase the number of services that can be found within the Offer. While at the Preparation for Adulthood event in November, the Local Offer was able to meet with a wide range of services. This helped to raise awareness and further opportunities for young people in the local area. The Local Offer has also created links with other professionals including teams within Cognus and the DCSO.

The Local Offer has been working with Barnardo's who are running a review of SEND services in Sutton. This link will allow for the sharing of feedback that can improve what is offered to young people with SEND in Sutton.

We have received feedback that it would be beneficial to be able to see specialist schools in surrounding boroughs as well as in Sutton. As a result, we have created a plan to link to other Local Offers in the surrounding areas. This will mean that parents can find information on specialist schools in areas that may be convenient for them. We have also received feedback that it is difficult to find information on childcare for 0–5-year-olds with SEND. We have added the childcare directory to the Early Years with SEND page. This is directly linked to the childcare providers for children with SEND. Parents can filter this to find the most relevant options for them.

Engagement with Young People

Young people have expressed their interest in being able to find more leisure activities that they can join in with. They say it is difficult to find activities appropriate for them. They also say that these are not always relevant and some that say they are for young people are actually for parents. As a result, we will review the directory category 'Leisure and social activities for children and young people with SEND’. We now have a plan to ensure the most relevant services are available in this and easy to find for young people. We are also investigating ways to narrow down categories more to make them clearer to young people.

At the Preparation for Adulthood Event in November, Barnardo's spoke to 51 young people. Young people state that education is important to them. We will ensure that information on education is clear and comprehensive to all. The Local Offer has also begun work with other professionals in Sutton to improve our offer for supported employment and training. We hope that this means that young people can continue to build on their education with the right support for them. We also hope that this will make information on this topic easier for young people to find and understand.

Young people also report that it is important for them to be listened to by those around them. They want to be taken seriously and more involved in the things that affect them. Based on this feedback, the Local Offer now has plans to make sure that young people are more involved in developing the Local Offer. We want to make it more relevant and useful to them. We will be developing a young people’s section to sit in the Local Offer. As part of this, young people will be able to create their own content to share their experiences and support each other.

Social Media

The Local Offer Facebook Group has 516 members as of the end of March 2024. This is roughly a 60% increase since last year. Members of the group can request to post content as well as the feed being updated by the Local Offer Coordinator. This means that posts are varied and help to raise awareness of services and information. It also means that parents can receive updates on new opportunities in the local area. Over the last few months these opportunities have included:

  • Stay and Play Sessions.

  • Supported Employment Sessions.

  • Sutton Youth Network Meetings.

  • Autism Workshops.

  • Sports Sessions.

The Local Offer now has plans to broaden their social media use. The Local Offer will soon have presence on another Social Media platform in addition to the Facebook page. This platform will be more aimed at young people. This means that young people will be able to access information from the Local Offer in a way that is tailored to them. We hope that this will increase their interest and engagement with this as a result. We also hope that this will help to promote the Local Offer and its resources and raise awareness of this.

Promotion

The Managing Director of Cognus has been promoting the Local Offer at meetings with key individuals. This includes at meetings with educational settings. This should help to raise awareness of the Local Offer and the importance of informing families of this.

There will be an increased focus in ensuring the Local Offer is signposted in as many places as possible. This may include newsletters and bulletins. We will also be encouraging more schools to signpost the Local Offer through their School websites and to inform parents of it. Currently roughly 53% of schools in Sutton are signposting on their website.

4. Data

Since moving to the Sutton Information Hub, we have been able to view data related to how the Local Offer website is used. This includes the number of people who visit it and the most popular pages. All of the following data is correct up to the 29th of February 2024.

Since April 2023 there has been a total of 2829 users of the Local Offer and 3100 total visits to the website. The most viewed section of information is Educational Settings for Young People with SEND. This is closely followed by The Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. This is supported by the parental survey in which 62.5% of respondents stated that they use the Local Offer for both of these categories. 75% of respondents in the parental survey also reported that they use the Local Offer Website for general SEND information and support.

The Local Offer will use this data to help develop and improve the website. We will use this data to ensure areas of most interest are able to provide the support users are looking for. We hope that this will help to meet users’ needs more efficiently. It will also help us to know what areas need more promotion to ensure they are reaching the widest audience possible.

5. You Said We Did

The Local Offer must publish all feedback it receives. It must also publish the actions that have been taken as a result of this. To view feedback received by Sutton's Local Offer, visit our You Said, We Did page.