1. The Local Offer
October 2013

2. What is the Local Offer?
When the Children and Families Bill becomes
enacted in 2014 local authorities will be required
to publish and keep under review information
about services they expect to be available for
children and young people with special
educational needs aged 0-25. This is the local
offer.
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3. What is the Local Offer?
• The Children and Families Act(enacted 2014) will introduce a
requirement for every Local Authority to publish a Local Offer.
• This will contain information about services the local authority
expects to be available in their area for children and young
people (from birth to twenty-five) who have special educational
needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
• Services outside of the area, but which the Local Authority
expects to be used by children, young people and their
families, will also be included.
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4. The draft Code of Practice explains that the Local Offer has two
main purposes:
•
To provide clear, comprehensive and accessible information
about the support and opportunities that are available; and
•
To make provision more responsive to local needs and
aspirations by directly involving children and young people with
SEN, parent carers, and service providers in its development and
review.

5. • The Local Authority must involve parents, children and young
people in developing and reviewing their Local Offer. Local
services, including early years settings, schools,colleges, health
and social care agencies, must also be consulted.
• The Local Offer is a new way of providing information and should
not simply be a directory of existing services – an address and
telephone numbers will not be sufficient.
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6. What it is not….
The Local offer is not a directory of services.
Similarities with a directory…..
• It will provide contact details for services in the area.
• It will be a comprehensive record of services in the area.
Differences from a directory…..
• It will provide threshold and referral information
• It will provide detail on schools and colleges and how they do
things
• It will have reference to the legislation underpinning services
• It will set minimum expectations for schools and colleges
• It will be searchable for stuff you don‘t know you need to find
• It will have a feedback facility
• It will inform joint commissioning
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7. Co-produced
with parents,
carers, young
people and
professionals
Regularly
reviewed and
updated
Easily
accessible
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Principles
for our
Local Offer
Framework
Delivers a
comprehensiv
e, multiservice
offering
Easy to
understan
d

8. What the Draft Regulations Say
‗‘A local authority must consult children with special educational
needs, their parents and young people with special educational
needs in their area about—
(a) the services children and young people with special educational
needs require;
(b) how the information in the local offer is to be set out when
published;
(c) how the information in the local offer will be available for those
people without access to the Internet
(d) how the information in the local offer will be available to those
with a disability which prevents them from accessing the information
on the Internet;
(e) how they can provide comments on the local offer.‖
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9. What the Draft Regulations Say
cont.
‗‘A local authority must also consult with:
• the governing bodies of maintained schools and maintained
nursery schools;
• the proprietors of Academies;
• the governing bodies, proprietors or principals of post-16
institutions;
• the governing bodies of non-maintained special schools;
• the management committees of pupil referral units;
• the advisory boards of children‘s centres;
• the providers of relevant early years education;
• The youth offending teams that the authority thinks have
functions in relation to children or young people for whom it is
responsible.‘‘
• Health
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10. Accountability
―A local authority must from time to time publish.
(a) comments about its local offer it has received from or on behalf
of children and young people with special educational needs, and
the parents of children with special educational needs, and
(b) the authority's response to those comments."
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11. NB. The Equality Act
From September 2012, governing bodies‘ or proprietors‘ policy for
pupils at the school with special educational needs (accessibility
plan) should provide information about:
(i) the arrangements for the admission of disabled persons as
pupils at the school;
(ii) the steps taken to prevent disabled pupils from being treated
less favourably than other pupils;
(iii) the facilities provided to assist access to the school by disabled
pupils;
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12. What will schools have to do?
Schools will have to provide information about:
• their approach to teaching of children and young people with
special educational needs;
• how they adapt the curriculum and additional learning support
available to children and young people with special educational
needs;
• how the progress towards any the outcomes identified for
children and young people with special educational needs will be
assessed and reviewed, including information about how those
children, their parents and young people will take part in any
assessment and review;
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13. What will schools have to do?
• how the effectiveness of special educational provision will be
assessed and evaluated, including information about how
children, their parents and young people will take part in any
assessment and evaluation;
• how facilities that are available can be accessed by children and
young people with special educational needs;
• what activities are available for children and young people with
special educational needs in addition to the curriculum; and
• what support is available for children and young people with
special educational needs.
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14. Developing the Local Offer
―Children and young people with SEN and parents should be at the
heart of the local offer and should co-produce it with the local
authority. Local authorities are best placed to decide how to do this
but it needs to go beyond a simple sign off process. Children, young
people and families can influence usefully both the type of provision
and how it is made accessible‖ Code of Practice.
• It will start by asking parents and CYP what they want from the
offer and design from there up
• It will be developed through a partnership process in which
parents, schools, health and social care play a leading role
• It will be easy to use in an age of technology
• Its language will use a strengths not a deficit model
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15. Developing the Local Offer cont.….
• It will be precise in drawing the line between what
setting/school/college should provide or commission from its
delegated funding, and what LA and NHS should provide or
commission over and above this
• It might encourage schools to collaborate, working in
Partnerships to pool some funding and commission expert
services
• It must match at school level roughly what £6K can provide, and
clearly define what high needs are
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16. Essex- The story so far & next steps
Set up Task & Finish Group
March 2013
Develop a communication strategy
March-April 2013
Briefings for schools
March-June 2013
Stakeholder workshops
April – June 2013
Develop the draft ‗Local Offer‘ &
present to stakeholders
June – Nov 2013
Develop a template that schools can use
Sept-Dec 2013
School local offer template approved
March 2014
Consultation on the draft local offer
Nov – Jan 2014
Amend
Jan – Feb 2014
Corporate approval process
March-July 2014
Local Offer in place
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September 2014

17. http://www.essex.gov.uk/Education-Schools/Schools/SpecialEducation-Needs/Pages/Local-offer.aspx
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18. Strategy for Children and Young
People with Special Educational
Needs and Disabilities 2014 -19

19. The strategy‘s vision
To ensure that all Children and Young
People with SEND have a full range of
support and opportunities available to
them and are provided with
opportunities to maximise their life
chances, goals and aspirations.
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20. The priorities
• Priority 1 - Ensure every child with SEND can go to a good or
outstanding school or education setting
• Priority 2 - Commission/deliver a range of high quality provision
for all children and young people with SEND
• Priority 3 - Ensure a smooth progression to adulthood for all
young people with SEND
• Priority 4 - Improve the Assessment and identification of SEND
across agencies
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21. Next Steps
18 Sep 2013 - Draft shared with key stakeholders for information.
http://www.essex.gov.uk/Education-Schools/Schools/SpecialEducation-Needs/Pages/Essex-SEND-consultation.aspx
17 Dec 2013 - ECC Cabinet asked to approve Strategy and
implementation plan
01 Jan 2014 -
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Strategy launched