Send Local Offer Annual Report 2020/21

Introduction

The SEND Code of Practice 2015 sets out the duty upon the local authority to publish a Local Offer. It is how we describe expected provision available across education, health and care for all children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and their families. It must be responsive to the needs of the local area and what we aspire for our children and young people with SEND to achieve.

There are two elements of the SEND Local Offer, the website and published materials, and the services within it that support families. Both require development and this is dependent on the voices of children and young people their families and those that work with them.

Each year we must publish a local offer report that outlines comments and feedback on the SEND Local Offer and what we have done in response to these. Over the last year we have been capturing your voices through various methods including surveys, engagement events and direct feedback to services. This report tells you what we have been doing over the last year to develop the SEND Local Offer and how we have responded to what you have told us.

How we've got your feedback

The past year has meant that we have all had to adapt very quickly, plans were altered, and priorities shifted as a result of the global pandemic. Our commitment to participation and engagement with families remained and will continue to be steadfast. In the past year we have

Held six online events at different times, attended by 87 parents / carers
Carried out three surveys with 563 responses from parents / carers
Developed the SEND Improvement Forum
All About Me consultation with children and young people

We have used these as opportunities to listen, learn and understand your priorities and look for ways to develop the SEND Local Offer in South Tyneside.

We also use a wealth of information from our website and social media to inform us. Some key statistics for the past year include:

20,812 Page views

Welcome to the SEND Local Offer has had an average of 784 people visiting

Improving the SEND Local Offer Website

The SEND Local Offer website describes what is available in the local area for children and young people with SEND and their families. We want the website to be accessible, engaging and easily recognisable.

As part of this we have worked with parents and carers on developing a brand that represents the importance of working together to develop and grow. This branding will be used across education, health and care, to let you know when something is part of the SEND Local Offer.

The new content will be clear, concise, accurate and applicable to its audience. We are focussing on content that is a priority to children / young people and parents and carers. Over time and through further engagement, this content will grow and expand.

Content will need to be monitored and regularly reviewed. We have a reference group of professionals from education health and care services that are providing expertise to fact check as well as a new parent carer sense checking group PC READ (Parents & Carers Read, Edit, Approve, Distribute) to review content and ensure it is easy to read and understand.

Your Voice

Your comments, shared experiences, feedback what and we do in response to them, demonstrates the impact that you have on the development of the SEND Local Offer.

Information & Advice

A central information point of accurate and up to date information that is used by all so that everyone is looking at the same information

We will be relaunching the SEND Local Offer early 2022 with updated content. We are working with professionals across Education, Health & Care to promote using this as their primary source of information in SEND to ensure that there is consistency of knowledge for all

Information should be available in a variety of formats and use visual media

We have started to develop guidance documents for parents and carers to be available in print and have launched the SEND Local Offer on social media. Parent carer guides for Education Health & Care Needs Assessments and Annual Reviews are now available.

You don't know what you don't know, so more signposting is necessary

We have increased our communication with parents and carers through mail outs, social media, advertising and working with education settings and community organisations to promote information sharing

Education

Communication between professionals and parents / carers impacts children's progress

'SEND a message' has been created with parents and carers in the SEND Improvement Forum. It outlines the promises we make about how we will communicate with families. This will be implemented in education settings initially and expand to other services over the coming year

There is not enough time to prepare for the transition from primary to secondary school

Transitions has been a common theme through all engagement. Consultations with children / young people, education settings and parents/carers are taking place in Autumn 2021 to understand current experiences, best practice and how transitions could be improved at all stages

Its difficult to navigate the system and know what support my child is or should be getting

Engagement events have been offered covering a variety of topics including 'New to SEND', 'What to Expect From Schools', 'SEND Q&A', with more planned over the next year. These are opportunities to meet with professionals and ask questions.

Support & Care

Training opportunities for parents / carers to increase skills, knowledge and confidence in SEND

We have held 42 training sessions for parents and carers that have covered topics that they suggested would help them support and meet the needs of the children at home. These have been accessed by more over 240 parents / carers.

We need more supported leisure activities for young people with SEND that don't meet thresholds

We are looking at how we can provide a non-assessed short break offer. We are currently working with South Tyneside Parent Carer Forum and will have a pilot offer launched in the new year

Health & Wellbeing

It would be helpful to know about local resources and how parents can access them and recommended online resources for professionals while children wait on lists.

We are improving the information about services available in the local areas. All services listed on the SEND Local Offer will be categorised into Universal, Targeted and Specialist with detailed information about how they can be accessed and what support they offer for children and young people with SEND.

In March 2021 Stronger Schools was launched, this is an online resource for education settings that provides guidance to help them respond to health and wellbeing concerns about their students.

What is the response to waiting times since the pandemic?

Recovery planning and the introduction of new services has had a positive impact on waiting times for Lifecycle. Since the start of national lockdown in March 2020 there has been a steady increase in the number of people being assessed within 0-4 weeks and no patients waiting more than 18 weeks since October 2020.

Preparing for Adulthood

There is no clear guidance on post 16 pathways

We have developed our Post 16 Pathways document that outlines information about the different types of education settings/training providers and the types courses that are available at different levels that has been shared with education settings and connexions

Leisure services in the local area need to be more inclusive and accessible young people with SEND

The pandemic has meant that a lot of services were closed, and it was difficult to get a full understanding of what was available in the changing landscape. We will be improving the information about leisure services on the SEND Local Offer website and a consultation with young people will be held to understand how we can make leisure services more inclusive and identify any gaps.

How to Get Involved

The SEND Local Offer will continue to evolve and grow, to do this we need you to be involved. Current opportunities are below, and you can find out more about these by contacting:

Email: SENDlocaloffer@southtyneside.gov.uk

Tel: 0191 424 7299 / 0191 424 6730

SEND Improvement Forum

This is a platform for parents and carers to share their experiences and work alongside practitioners to find solutions for improving the education experience of children/young people and their parents / carers.

The group meets every half term. Upcoming dates will be published on the SEND Local Offer website.

If you have a young person that is aged 14+ you can get involved in our new Preparing For Adulthood Forum. This will look at how we can develop services to support young people as they reach and enter into adulthood. It will focus on four themes: Preparing For Adulthood Forum

Education, Training & Employment
Relationships & Community
Good Health
Independent Living

Engagement Events

There are a range of events that we have running throughout the year that are information events where you can get updates on developments, ask questions and share experiences. These are always advertised on the SEND Local Offer website and Facebook page

Web: South Tyneside: Send Local Offer

Facebook: @localoffersouthtyneside

Parent Carers READ (Read, Edit, Approve, Distribute)

This is a way for parents and carers to influence our written communications, including policies, guides and much more. If you are not able or don't want to attend events online or in person, you can become part of this group. Documents that have gone through this group will have the PC READ stamp to let you know that it has been approved by parents and carers

South Tyneside Parent Carer Forum

South Tyneside Parent Carer Forum is an independent forum led by parents and carers of children and young people aged 0-25 with SEND. They work in partnership with commissioners and service providers across health, social and education services.

You can contact them:

Email: info.stparentcarerforum@gmail.com

Facebook: @stparentcarerforum