SEND: You Said We Did

The Local Offer Annual Summary provides a snapshot of what we have achieved during the year for the Local Offer and our plans for the future.

Local Offer Annual Report 2019

The report provides a snapshot of what we have achieved during the year for the Local Offer and our plans for the future.

Background and Context

The SEND Code of Practice sets out the statutory duty upon local authorities to publish a Local Offer and annual report.

Local authorities must publish a Local Offer, setting out in one place information
about provision they expect to be available across education, health and social care
for children and young people in their area who have SEN or are disabled, including
those who do not have Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans.

The Local Offer has two key purposes:

1. To provide clear, comprehensive, accessible and up-to-date information about the available provision and how to access it, and
2. To make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving disabled children and those with SEN and their parents, and disabled young people and those with SEN, and service providers in its development and review

The Local Offer should be:

collaborative: local authorities must involve parents, children and young people in developing and reviewing the Local Offer. They must also co-operate with those providing services

accessible: the published Local Offer should be easy to understand, factual and jargon-free. It should be structured in a way that relates to young people’s and parents’ needs (for example by broad age group or type of special educational provision). It should be well signposted and well publicised

comprehensive: parents and young people should know what support is expected to be available across education, health and social care from age 0 to 25 and how to access it. The Local Offer must include eligibility criteria for services where relevant and make it clear where to go for information, advice and support, as well as how to make complaints about provision or appeal against decisions

up-to-date: when parents and young people access the Local Offer it is important that the information is up-to-date

transparent: the Local Offer should be clear about how decisions are made and who is accountable and responsible for them

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.

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.

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.

Local authorities must publish a summary of comments at least annually. Local authorities are not expected to publish responses to every comment individually but can, for example, adopt a ‘you said, we did’ approach. Local authorities 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.

Wolverhampton Local Offer

Wolverhampton Local Offer was originally published within the City of Wolverhampton Council Website in September 2014.

For the following two years, work continued to develop the site to meet the needs and views of children, young people, parents and carers who frequently used the site and services and those using it for the first time.

In September 2017, it was agreed by the Local Offer Group to migrate the Local Offer to the Wolverhampton Information Network. Since this point, significant development work has been carried out by Local Authority representatives, health colleagues, third sector organisations alongside parents/carers and children and young people to provide content that was both statutorily compliant and in line with best practice guidelines. 

The updated website was subject to a soft launch in February 2018 and a formal launch to raise awareness of the relaunched Local Offer website commenced in February 2018.

Communication - Raising Awareness of the Local Offer

The Special Educational Needs & Disability and Commissioning Partnership Board ensure children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) get the best possible start in life and creating a culture of belonging where they feel a part of their school and local community are key priorities.

The Board is co-producing its Strategy for 2020-25 with input of children and young people with SEND and their families and carers, as well as professionals and other stakeholders. Alongside this, a range of activities are planned to highlight the support available to children, young people and their families and increase their opportunities to co-produce services and the support they receive, and to ensure a stronger clinical commissioning picture for services.

Alongside this work, awareness raising of the Local Offer has taken place, including distribution of posters and digital screens for display in health clinics, Strengthening Families Hubs, distribution of promotional toolkits to schools, youth centres and voluntary groups and further attendance at events and open days. The Local Offer has been promoted by our commissioned providers and the following communications were released:

• Media release: 11 June (PB)
• Twitter: 11 June, 18 June, 11 July, 28 July, 21 August, 15 September, 17 October, 2 November
• Facebook: 12 June, 6 July, 31 July, 19 August, 7 September, 29 September, 30 October.
• Targeted communications to teachers – Headteacher’s Bulletin
• Targeted communications to GPs
• Media release: 1 September
• Digital screens at Wolverhampton Civic Centre

The Local Offer was also showcased at the family Spotlight on SEND event in October 2019 and feedback was sought from families to further develop the website.

The Voice 4 Parents Annual Parent Survey finding demonstrated the need to carry out further awareness raising of the Local Offer with 66% of 89 respondents were not aware of the Local Offer.

Local Offer Development 2018/19

A co-production charter has been developed which sets out the council’s promise to children, young people and their families regarding their commitment to Co-Production. In line with the views of children and young people and their families has been central to the development of the Local Offer.

During 2019 a section dedicated to the provision of equipment to children and young people with SEND has been developed in partnership with council and health commissioners, providers and families. This was following a request from parents, through Wolverhampton’s parent forum – Voice 4 Parents, due to the difficulties in finding this information from the various providers of equipment and the inconsistency of the information available.

Following the review of alternative provision used by Wolverhampton, all providers were requested to complete profiles to be added to the Local Offer providing an overview of the provision, its curriculum offer, pathways and costs. This was following a request which came from educational establishments during the review.

An audit was undertaken during 2018 to ensure all schools had up to date SEN reports available within their provider records and records are now all complete and up to date.

Broadcast emails have been sent to all providers in the Local Offer during the year to remind them to provide updates to their records.

The Outreach Service pages have been developed to ensure that resources are available to families and schools to support children and young people with additional needs and the site now offers the options to book training opportunities from the service.

The educational establishments pages were designed to reflect how places are commissioned within Wolverhampton to aid schools and parents to navigate the site to find information.

A short breaks review was undertaken during November and December 2018, which led to an update of the Local Offer and the combination of the short breaks information pages into the leisure page, as requested by parents during parent user testing. This also resulted in recognition of further leisure opportunities which were given provider records, which helped in some way to address parents’ issues raised during the parent survey over the lack of leisure information on the offer.

The workshop held with pupils at Green Park School had identified that these children would like more information about shopping and eating out. During August 2019 various shops, restaurants and entertainment venues were contacted regarding their accessibility and the Local Offer updated with this information including the provision of autism friendly times/sessions.

More visual and audio content has begun to be added following feedback from various sources. Symbols have been added to the provision of equipment and outreach pages. Image and additional videos have been added to the Sensory Inclusion Service, Special Needs Early Years’ Service and the Child Development Service. The need for more visual/audio content has been raised with responsible officers for future development of their pages.

We are currently undertaking peer review exercises with the Regional SEND Local Offer Leads group to help develop the Local Offer, increase accessibility and promote regional working.

Next Steps for the Local Offer 2019/20

The key priorities for the next year will be:

Raising awareness of Wolverhampton Local Offer

Our main priority will be to ensure that all professionals working with children and young people with SEND and their families. It is hoped that reaching out to social workers, strengthening Families Key Workers, Health service providers etc, will encourage a sharing of information with families. We hope that with further awareness raising of the Local Offer and increased traffic created through this, more feedback will be received through this method to allow continuing development of the Local Offer site. Communicating the Local Offer through all of our partners and ensuring that we reach the most vulnerable families is our priority.

Local Offer Live Event

Following the success of the Spotlight on SEND event in 2019, it is planned to host a Local Offer Live event during 2020, to give families an insight into the many and varies services available through the Local Offer.

Increasing parent/carer and young person representation on the Local Offer Group.

Further development of the Local Offer Group to include a strengthened representation from parent/carers and young people to ensure that the voice of young persons and their families are used to further develop the Local Offer.

Ensuring Local Offer is up to date and accessible

Through the continuing development of the Local Offer by responsible offers, providers, gathering feedback through awareness raising and further user testing; we will continue to develop the Local Offer ensuring it is up to date and accessible.  Further work is required to ensure responsible officers are aware of their duties and carry these out to ensure the Local offer is up to date and statutorily compliant.

The Voice 4 Parent Annual Survey 2019 found that 68% of respondents that were users of the Local Offer had difficulty in finding what they were looking for and this will need to be addressed with further development of key word searches and categorisation.

Continued work with the Regional Local Offer Leads Group

Throughout 2020 we will continue to work with the Regional Local Offer Leads Group to continue peer audits of sections of the Local Offer pages. The group is also exploring the joint-commissioning of video content that can be used within Local Offers across the region.

Increase the visual and audio content on the Local offer

The requirement for more visual and audio content to make the Local Offer more accessible and visually appealing has been a key theme of feedback from various sources. We will work with providers included on the Local Offer to increase the use of visual and audio media.

For further information please contact SENDTeam@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Background and Context

Following the implementation of the SEND reforms in 2014, in which a change in law was passed that meant professionals from different agencies were required to work more closely with children and young people (0-25) with SEND to ensure the support they need is provided.  The reforms required that children and young people were given more say in what support and services were offered in their local area.

One significant element of the SEND reforms of 2014 was the Local Offer, a requirement on local authorities to set out all services available to support children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities, from birth to 25 years, and their families.

Section 30 of the Children and Families Act 2014 which came into force on 1 September 2014, defines and prescribes the content of the Local Offer.

Local Authorities in England must publish information about: 

1. The education, health and care provision and other training provision it expects to be available in its area at the time of publication for children and young people who have special educational needs or a disability.
2. The provision it expects to be available outside its area at that time for:
• Children and young people for whom it is responsible and
• Children and young people in its area who have a disability.
3. Arrangements for travel to and from schools and post-16 institutions and places at which relevant early years education is provided;
4. Provision to assist in preparing children and young people for adulthood and independent living relating to:
• Finding employment
• Obtaining accommodation
• Participation in society.

The local offer should also set out how to access specialist services, how to complain or appeal and plans for transition to adulthood.

Wolverhampton Local Offer

Wolverhampton Local Offer was originally published within the City of Wolverhampton Council Website in September 2014.

For the following two years, work continued to develop the site to meet the needs and views of children, young people, parents and carers who frequently used the site and services and those using it for the first time.

In September 2017, it was agreed by the Local Offer Group to migrate the Local Offer to the Wolverhampton Information Network. Since this point, significant development work has been carried out by Local Authority representatives, health colleagues, third sector organisations alongside parents/carers and children and young people to provide content that was both statutorily compliant and in line with best practice guidelines. 

The updated website was subject to a soft launch in February 2018 and a formal launch to raise awareness of the relaunched Local Offer website commenced in February 2018.

Local Offer Group

The development of the Local Offer has been overseen by the Local Offer Group, on behalf of the SEND and Commissioning Partnership Board.

It is hoped to further develop the Local Offer Group during 2018/19 to include a strengthened representation from parent/carers and young people, transitioning the group to a Local Offer Champions Group.

In addition, a Local Offer action plan has been developed and this will be delivered by named responsible officers with The City of Wolverhampton Council, Wolverhampton CCG, The Royal Wolverhampton Trust, Black Country Primary Care Trust and Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council, in co-production with young people and their families.

Communication - Raising awareness of the Local Offer

Promoting and raising awareness of the of the Local Offer to young people with special educational needs and/or disability and their families is essential.  We have worked with the following during 2017/2018 to communicate and promote the Local Offer

November 2018	Toolkit including posters, digital displays and email footer distributed to schools through Headteachers Bulletin for promotion in provision.
November 2018	Toolkit including posters, digital displays and email footer distributed to Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Wolverhampton CCG communications for circulation through their communication channels.
September 2018	Statement about the Local Offer added to all letters sent from SENSTART Team
July/August 2018	Digital screens at Wolverhampton Civic and Central Library displayed.
July 2018	Article published on internal newsletter ‘City People’ and shared through health communication channels
12/07/18	Attended Wolverhampton School Governors Forum to discuss Local Offer and request any feedback.
June 2018	Wolverhampton school SENCos emailed for feedback
15/06/2018	Attended Carers event and requested feedback.
13/06/18	Attended WIASS Parent event to demonstrate Local Offer and to request feedback.
17/05/18	Meet with member of the Volunteer Managers Network Meeting
March 2018	Head of SEND discussed Local Offer with SENCO network and requested feedback.
March 2018	Article published in Headteachers Bulletin which also asked them to share information with families through their communication network
March 2018	Links made to Local Offer from all CWC maintained School Websites and other schools requested to do the same.
March 2018	Local Offer icon and link to Wolverhampton Local Offer added to all council email signatures.
March 2018	Local Offer flyers produced and supplied to Special Schools and Health professionals for circulation to young people and their families.
13/03/18	Focus Group held with parents and development suggestions collated.
February 2018	Article published on internal newsletter ‘City People’ and shared through health communication channels
February 2018	Local Offer Survey shared with parents
23/01/18	Attended Health Workstreams meeting to discuss content and mapping for health pages with input from Voice 4 Parents and Changing Our Lives.
December 2017	Workshop held with pupils at Green Park School and to see what they wanted to look for in the Local Offer.

Local Offer Development 2018/19

Since the decision to migrate the Local Offer to WIN in September 2017, significant development work has been carried out by Local Authority representatives, health colleagues and third sector organisations alongside parents/carers and children and young people to provide content that was both statutorily compliant and in line with best practice guidelines. Good progress has been made with the Wolverhampton Local Offer during this time although it is recognized that continual development work will be required.

During this time representatives from our parent carer forum Voice 4 Parents, Changing Our Lives and The Wolverhampton Information, Advice and Support Service have worked within the Local Offer Group to support and develop the Local Offer.

We recognise we need to work more closely with young people. Initially we will continue to do this via the Wolverhampton Challenge Board. Although we intend to initiate young people Local Offer Champions to sit on the Local Offer Champion Group and to access Wolverhampton schools to demonstrate the Local Offer and gain young person feedback.

The accessibility toolbar Recite ME was added to Wolverhampton Local Offer during Spring 2018, which allows visitors to the Local Offer to customize the site the way they need it to work for them.

The relaunched Local Offer introduced a mobile/tablet application for the Local Offer on both the IOS and Android platforms. The app provides an easier experience when browsing the Local Offer from a mobile or tablet device.

After migration to the new platform all providers with entries on the services directory were contacted to check the contents of their records and provide any updates.  We have further work to carry out to ensure that these records are all assigned responsible officers to allow broadcast emails to be sent periodically for updates to be carried out.  Schools were contacted at this time to ensure that up to date SEN Reports were included in all Wolverhampton school records.

The Early Years’ Service have been proactive in their contact with providers and ensuring that information about special educational needs support is added to all provider records and have also updated their user guidance to include this information.

During October 2018, all officers responsible for the content of information papers were contacted by email and provided the following guidance to assist them to review their pages:

• Local Offer Review Responsible Officer Guidance
• SEND Code of Practice
• Copy of Local Offer Review Action Plan
• Subject Specific CoP Guidance and Good Practice Examples

This was followed by a face to face meeting with all responsible officers to discuss how to carry out their review and the process this will follow.  The Co-production Officer attended this meeting to discuss the importance of co-production and to provide guidance on how to carry out this work during the review.

During November and December 2018 this will be followed up with 1:1 meeting with responsible Officers where the Local Offer action plan will be expanded to include work identified to be carried out for improvement of these pages.

The SEND Strategy Operation Group are developing information through their strands which will strengthen information provided on aids, adaptations and equipment pathways; alternative provision pathways; transition support between phases of education.  A short breaks review is also being undertaken during November and December 2018, which will lead to an update of the Local Offer.

Voice 4 Parents and Wolverhampton Challenge Board identified the 6 most important items to be added as links to Local Offer Landing Page. 

Both Voice 4 Parents have agreed to including a standing agenda item at their Steering Group meeting for any significant proposed changes to the Local Offer to be reviewed and for them to provide their considerations on these amendments.

The site’s development is being supported by both user testing with key stakeholders and a user feedback survey. In addition, a Local Offer action plan has been developed and this will be shared and delivered by responsible officers in co-production with parents/carers and children & young people.

Development work with partners and professionals

Since the decision to migrate the Local Offer to WIN in September 2017, significant development work has been carried out with partners and professionals alongside parents/carers and children and young people to provide content.  The newly designed Health pages were also scrutinised by Voice 4 Parents.

Health

Colleagues from Wolverhampton CCG, Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Black Country Primary Care Trust are active members on the Local Offer Group.

We have attended three Health Workstream, attended by various health professionals, young person representation and parent representatives, at Wolverhampton CCG to discuss format, content, style and mapping for the Health sections of the Local Offer.

During these meetings it was felt that there should be a clear instruction for providers to be able to add their services to the directory.  This was added as a hyperlink to the Health pages, but further work is being carried out during November 2018, with our platform provider, to develop a bespoke template for providers wishing to register on the Local Offer and the further development of the current user guide.

Health colleague have been nominated as responsible officers for various information sections on the Local Offer, continue to develop their services offer and are represented on the Local Offer Group.  Any services on the health directory and monitored and managed by health colleagues to ensure these are relevant and up to date.

Education Settings

All Headteachers in Wolverhampton and out of City schools with Wolverhampton placements were contacted after the migration to the new site asking them to nominate a co-ordinator to manage their record and ensure all information was relevant and accurate.  All Wolverhampton schools have provided up to date SEN Reports for their settings which are included within their Local Offer records.

SENCos at Wolverhampton Schools have also been contacted by email and through the SENCo Network Meeting in March 2018 to review the content of their school’s records and for feedback on the content of the Local Offer.  This request has also extended to Wolverhampton Schools Governors through School Governors Forum in July 2018.

In July 2018 alternative provision providers were supplied with a template and guidance to include information about their provision on the site.  These have been uploaded in a section with the Education Tab named Alternative Provision.

In January 2018 colleagues from Wolverhampton University helped develop the Higher Education landing page on Wolverhampton Local Offer.

Voluntary and Community Sector

A colleague from Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council (WVSC) is a member of the Local Offer Group. We also meet with members of the Volunteer Managers Network Meeting to promote the Local Offer and gain feedback during May 2018.

All voluntary and community groups with records on the Local Offer were contacted after the migration to the new site asking them to nominate a co-ordinator to manage their record and ensure all information was relevant and accurate.

Voluntary and community sector group in Wolverhampton have been contacted through the Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council to raise awareness of the Local Offer, ask for feedback and inform organisation of the process to add their services to the website directory.

The WVSC were also involved along with a member of Wolverhampton Challenge Board to develop the information available on the Local Offer regarding opportunities for young people to access volunteering opportunities and the support available tio assist with this.

Local Offer parent user testing

User testing was carried out in March 2018 with a selection of members from Voice 4 Parents (tasks used are available to view).  The full results from this workshop are available in Appendix 1.

Positive comments received from parents on the day included:

• Liked the look and feel including colours and layout, more appealing than old Local Offer
• Post-16 section breakdown was good, subcategories made page easy to navigate (should be replicated across site)
• EHCP was Strongest section of the website by far due to the concertina, all landing pages should be modelled on this section.
• The postcode filtering option was useful.
• Housing information very good, liked the broken-down sub categories, made the relevant information easier.
• Local Offer easily found via google search
• Icons useful
• Printing option is clear

A summary of our response to further feedback is detailed here:

You Said	We Did
Personal budgets should have its own tab on the landing page	Work is being carried out by the responsible offer to develop the personal budget pages.  When this is finalised personal budgets will be a featured page.
School Accessibility Strategy should feature in education.	Advice and guidance page for School Accessibility Strategy is now also linked to Education landing page.
Logo on Advice and Support page should hyperlink to WIASS website.	Logo link to WIASS website has been included.
There is a serious lack of short breaks provision	A review of short breaks and the carer grant is taking place currently with information on how to have a say on the local offer.  Once review is complete this will be reflected on the local offer.
Short breaks is not clear, should not be included under care	Have requested that Leisure is amended to Leisure and Short Breaks.
In Childcare the download section should be referenced as funding to make it clearer.	The downloads section has been referenced within the information page clarifying this is funding related.
More sub-categories within childcare section would make information easier to find.	Request has been referred to responsible officer for action.
SEN Report link within school records not clear without opening records individually	Hyperlink to SEN report has been added to enable it to be opened from search results.
Information on dispute resolution not clear and easy to find on EHCP page.	Have added this as an advice page which is directly accessible from page to enable ease of access.
Search for services will pull records from Health section of WIN rather than just LO section, if users do not understand how the Search function works	Limitations of platform does not allow much change around this
Leisure tab should be renamed Short Breaks and Leisure.	Change request is with platform provider.
Travel assistance title not clear	Request has been referred to responsible officer for action.
Avoid downloadable comment section	This has been amended so that all comments and feedback are available from the main ‘You Said, We Did’ page in concertina format for each year.
You said, we did” unsuitable title for section
Multiple feedback tabs confusing	Feedback tabs have been condensed.  On the landing page this does appear twice to allow feedback to be provided on every page.
Current feedback form states “Keep messages as brief as possible” this is unwelcoming	Content of feedback pages has been revised with guidance from Local Offer Group.
Feedback process with timescales should be added to the site	Feedback process was developed with Local Offer group and added to ‘We Want Your Feedback’ page.
Direct contact details should include telephone number	Decision for Local Offer Group, customer services do not recommend telephone contact, as emails allow feedback to be logged
Initial navigation of website is difficult for first time users	It is recognized that this is an issues and further development work will be carried out with parents/carers and young people during 2018/19 to ensure the site is more accessible.
Local Offer should be separate from the rest of WIN, to avoid information overload	Limitations of the platform will not allow this presently.  The Local Offer Group to explore options.
Some service records out of date	Records are being assigned to providers to allow update messages to be sent periodically, this will continue during 2018/19.
Translate did not appear on IPad	Introduction of ReciteMe toolbar has solved this is issue
Searches only find records rather than landing pages	Unfortunately, this is a limitation of the platform.
Age criteria needs to be specific on all records	Request has been made to platform provider to allow this and will be updated.
More visual and audio content Required.	This is a consideration for responsible officers during the information page review being carried out in December 2018.

Feedback from children and young people

In December 2017 a workshop was held with pupils at Green Park School to see what they wanted the Local Offer to look like following its migration to the new platform.  This identified that the pupils involved wanted to be able to access information about things to do and relied on information from their parents and teachers currently.

It was still believed by Changing Our Lives that much of the feedback provided in their Local Offer Communication Strategy was still relevant, such as promoting the Local Offer across school, social media use and the co-production of a separate website for children and young people.  This will be addressed during further development work in 2018/19.

Feedback received from young people included:

You Said	We Did
The Local Offer requires a get involved tab.	To be explored 2019
The Local Offer requires a FAQ section.	To be explored 2019
The Local Offer would benefit from a jargon buster.	To be explored 2019
It is important that an accessibility toolbar is included on the site.	Introduction of ReciteMe toolbar has solved this is issue

Local Offer feedback survey

Following the soft launch of the revised Local Offer site in February 2018 a feedback survey was co-produced with input from young people, parents and voluntary sector representatives.  This was published on line in February 2018 and shared at parent/carer events until April 0218.  Full survey feedback is available in Appendix 2.

A summary of our response to further feedback is detailed here:

You Said	We Did
Needs to be more user friendly for parents, carers children and young people.	The need for further filtering has been added to the 2018/19 Local Offer action plan.
Use coloured text markers to break up longer sections. Flow diagrams	Responsible officers have added coloured section breaks to larger information pages.
More tabs, accuracy of information, less lists of services more tabs, get rid of WIN and aim all services in specific relation to SEN, use side bar for things like translation, a tab on main page for personal budgets, CAMHS
Section called Moving into adult life- Social Services has no results	Information has been added to this tab.
Accessibility- especially more visual/audio content	The need for more visual/audio content has been raised with responsible officers for future development of their pages.

Other Local Offer feedback options

Everyone accessing the Local Offer can provide feedback using the feedback button, accessible on every page of the Local Offer.

In April 2018 a revised feedback process, developed with feedback from health colleagues, Voice 4 Parents, Changing Our Lives and Wolverhampton Information Advice and Support Service, was agreed by the Local Offer Group.  This process is available “You Said, We Did” page, to provide transparency to young people and their families on how feedback will be dealt with and the timescales this will be carried out within.

Two feedback requests have been received through the Local Offer during 2018 to date.  One was a request for an addition of two service which was carried out.  The second was a compliment for help received for the Wolverhampton Information, Advice and Support Team.

We hope that with further awareness raising of the Local Offer and increased traffic created through this, more feedback will be received through this method to allow continuing development of the Local Offer site.

How many people use the Local Offer

With the aid of Google analytics, we are now able to track our visitors.

We can see how visitors have accessed the site, how long they spend navigating the site and which pages are popular/not popular. See Appendix 3.

With the planned work to increase awareness, that the Local Offer is the main place to access information about special education needs and/or disability for children and young people 0-25 and their families, it is anticipated that these figures will increase during 2018/19.

Next steps for the Local Offer 2018/19

The key priorities for the next year will be:

Raising awareness of Wolverhampton Local Offer

Continued work will be carried out during 2018/19 to raise the profile of the Local Offer, including distribution of posters and digital screens for display in health clinic, distribution of promotional toolkits to schools, youth centres and voluntary groups and further attendance at events and open days.

Adding Filtering to the Local Offer to Improve Accessibility

A request has been made to the platform provider to ensure that the template includes the full age ranges required, universal, targeted and specialist services filters and the DfE primary needs classification.  During 2018/19 this data will be added to records to enable further filtering of records to enhance the search facility and accessibility.

Increasing parent/carer and young person representation on the Local Offer Group.

Further development of the Local Offer Group to include a strengthened representation from parent/carers and young people to ensure that the voice of young persons and their families are sued to further develop the Local Offer, transitioning the group to a Local Offer Champions Group.

Establishment of the co-production charter

We know the Local Offer must be co-produced and in 2018/19, we will be working closely with partners to develop our understanding of what co-production means. This work will result in the development of a co-production charter

Ensuring Local Offer is up to date and Accessible

Through the continuing development of the Local Offer by responsible offers, providers, gathering feedback through awareness raising and further user testing; we will continue to develop the Local Offer ensuring it is up to date and accessible.  Further work is required to ensure responsible officers are aware of their duties and carry these out to ensure the Local offer is up to date and statutorily compliant.

Parent/carer & young person testing of the Local Offer

Various options are being presented to the Head of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities to establish process for gathering of feedback, as detailed below.

Proposals/Options for Local Offer Audit 2018/19

It is proposed that SEND and Commissioning Partnership Board consider the following options for audit of the Local Offer by Parent/Carers, young People and Professionals:

Using the resources available on the SEND Pathfinder website, developed by the DfE, DoH and Mott Macdonald, tasks were developed for use while user testing the Local Offer (see Appendix 4).  It is proposed that these tasks are used to carry out further testing with parent/carers and young people.  Options for these user testing workshops include:

1. Approach members of Voice 4 Parents to attend a workshop to carry out user testing.  Suitable venue could be selected from The Graiseley Centre or Wolverhampton Civic Centre, recognising that this invitation needs to go wide in order to capture those with little knowledge to ensure that we are reaching those that need the information the most.
2. AB, Co, production Officer to investigate the use of special school parent forums and Mainstream SEND Parent Groups to carry out user testing.
3. Develop a questionnaire, to capture parent/carer feedback, to be circulated through CWC, Voice 4 Parents and WIASS social media. An invitation to a user testing workshop should be included in the request for feedback (through EventBrite) and a link also included on the Local Offer and could also be asked to share through school’s communication channels.
4. Hold user testing workshops within schools (Special Schools and Resource Bases to be asked for expressions of Interest to host these events).
5. Other Local Authorities have been approached through the Regional Local Offer Leads meeting to carry out a peer review of the Wolverhampton Local Offer.  The self-evaluation toolkit produced by Mott Macdonald and endorsed by the DfE and DoH could be revised and used for this purpose.

In 2016/17 when we carried out our review, the following feedback was given and we have started to make changes as a result of these comments and will continue to do so for the rest of 2017...

The look and feel of the site

You told us...

• The Local Offer site lacks visual appeal and there is a lack of local people and places on it.
• The Local Offer provides a broad range of information but it is not easy to find specific information unless you know what you're looking for.
• The site map provides quick easy access and is one of the most useful facilities on site
• Using the search engine to find information on a specific topic/disability or health condition or service doesn't work well. You found using Google easier.
• Make the site more interactive
• Prefer WIN as a comprehensive pool of information that is accessible, up to date and easier to navigate.

What we have done/are going to do...
We are working with a small group of parents, children and young people to produce some video material and other material that will show examples of the type of services available from the Local Offer. This will hopefully make the site more visually appealing and interesting to visit. We have taken a decision to move the Local Offer away from the Council website and relocate it on Wolverhampton Information Network (WIN). Although this is a directory of all the services available in Wolverhampton and we need to make sure that the SEND Local Offer is more than a directory; we have listened to your views about the current site and agree that the move to WIN will improve and modernise the Local Offer and give you access to information in a more modern, easier and visually pleasing style. This will also include translation facilities so that a greater number of people can use the site in the way we would wish.

You told us...

It is not always clear at first glance on the information about each service available, how exactly to contact the service, how long it takes for a referral etc. You also said that the information given for each service was different and too long.

What we have done/are going to do...
We have updated and distributed a new template of information for all those services that are published on the Local Offer. We have asked everybody to complete the same details in as few words as possible. Where possible, we have asked people to give examples of what their service provides by using video material.

You told us...

• Quite a few of the links to Local Offers in all other local authorities within the West Midlands don't work
• Information on service areas is out of date and links to national websites that are shut down
• Many of the downloadable documents have no dates on them so there's a lack of confidence that the information is reliable/current

What we have done /are going to do...
As part of our refresh, we have asked all Local Offer contributors/authors to remove all current out of date information and replace it with updated information where this is available for e.g. short break activities. We have asked people to identify a lead person within their organisation to regularly check the information they have advertised and to update it on a regular basis. We have agreed that the Local Offer will move to the WIN which offers the technology to ensure information on the Local Offer is dated and it has prompts to ensure regular updates of the information that is advertised. We are confident that the WIN will improve the reliability of the information on our Local Offer.

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Accessibility

You told us...

• The site is written in English and has no facility for those who cannot read or understand English and/or the written word.
• The site is text heavy with lots of PDFs that cannot be opened on hand-held/mobile phone devices etc - this excludes access by quite a lot of young people
• Information isn't available in things like leaflets as well

What we have done/are going to do...
We have arranged for a translation facility to be added as part of the move to the WIN site. We have asked all those who contribute to the Local Offer to review what they have written and where possible to remove and/or reduce PDF documents. Sometimes this will not be possible but if people can summarise what is in a lengthy document then we hope that will improve things. Over the coming year and as part of the re-launch of the new refreshed Local Offer on WIN we will consider other means of making the Local Offer information available in a variety of formats.

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Feedback/Comments

You told us...

• You liked the way that the front page of the Local Offer invited comments about the annual review and how to improve the site.
• You  liked the 'You said, We did' section of the site
• You would like to see the feedback facility have a more prominent position on each landing page.
• Some recent comments on the feedback facility have not been responded to
• It would be helpful to see, at a glance, without having to click on each piece of feedback left, whether a response has been submitted.

What we have done/are going to do...
We have reorganised the Local Offer feedback pages and feedback can now be seen across three pages with responses to comments where we have them. In terms of ensuring your comments are responded to more effectively and efficiently going forward, we are tabling this onto the autumn agenda of the SEND partnership board meetings. We have also moved the feedback form around a bit and added it to each landing page. Hopefully this means that more people will give us feedback!

Thank-you for all your comments and suggestions

In 2014/15 we carried out our review of feedback that was given and began to make changes as a result of these comments and will continue to do so.

To read the summary please click below:

Annual Sumary 2014/15