About the Local Offer

What is the Local Offer?

The Local Offer gives children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities and their families, information about what support services will be available in their area.

Every local authority must talk with children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities and their families to find out what sort of support and services are needed. There will be many different types of services that children and young people may need, including support services in school and specialist health services.

Children, young people and their families may also have ideas about what leisure activities should be available, and what services are needed to help young people move towards independence in adulthood.

Every local authority must have a Local Offer that is available online, and must make sure that people without access to the internet can also see it. The local authority must tell children and young people and their families how they can find out more about the Local Offer. The local authority will then decide what services to make available.

Tell us what you think about the Local Offer

Every local authority must get feedback on its local offer from young people and their families. They must show what feedback they have been given and say how they are going to make improvements to the Local Offer and services.

A Local Offer should also include information about what transport services are available for children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities and if there is any help available to pay for these services.

Follow Derby's SEND Local Offer on Facebook.

You may also want to visit the Derbyshire Local Offer to see what is available across the county.

Every year we publish an annual report to give an update on how the Local Offer has developed in the past year.

SEND newsletter

Our SEND newsletter is produced each school term. The newsletter tells the story of what is going on across the city to help young people, parents and professionals stay up to date.

If you've got a story to tell or want to give us your views on our newsletter, you can get in touch by emailing local.offer@derby.gov.uk.

Get involved, have your say

We want to know what you think of our Local Offer so that it works better for you.

Young person's feedback

Parent carer feedback

Local Offer User Group

The User Group meets four times a year to discuss and approve new and revised content for the Local Offer webpages. This is in collaboration with parent carers, professionals and other representatives from related organisations. These Terms of Reference expand on the purpose of the group. We are always looking for parent carers interested in joining the group. Please email Local.Offer@derby.gov.uk to express your interest.

Derby's Local Offer is monitored at the local area co-production delivery group. This group includes representatives from parent groups and the voluntary sector, as well as representatives for agencies and services across the local area. They are responsible for making sure that the Local Offer continues to develop and reflect the experiences of young people and their families across the city. When we need to develop or update areas of the Local Offer, we will arrange small working groups or talks with champions from across local services.

You said, we did

We will always listen to your feedback to help us to improve the way the Local Offer works.

Summer term feedback 2022

You said	We did
Why is the Gold Card only valid after 9.30am when school has already begun?	The Gold Card is a concession offered by the Department of Transport. The times are set by the national scheme guidelines issued by the Department of Transport
You need more information about the GP’s register to enable annual health checks for learning disabilities	A link out to Mencap was added to information already on the Local Offer to enhance understanding
You wanted financial support to be in one place on the Parent carer support webpage	This webpage was developed into a section with three new pages of information including a link to welfare and benefits
A new website called Derby Direction was developed for teachers	The Advice for schools and settings content was expanded to accommodate the new website as well as the school’s portal
You wanted financial support in more detail with direct links to actual services	The Support services for parents webpage was developed into two sections to accommodate more direct links to financial services
You wanted more information on learning disability health checks	The information was given more detail and the relevant links were added. Derbyshire NHS Healthcare Trust is hosting two free online information sessions for learning disability annual health checks on 12 September 2022
The NHS Trust CCG was renamed and restructured	CCG was updated to Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board/System ICB
The Speech and Language Therapy Service launched a new website	The Speech, language and communication webpage was updated with new content and links
You wanted more information on how schools can support selective mutism and the tools available to professionals	The Targeted support content was updated with autism links to the new website
Sections of website content to be reviewed as part of a regular audit	The Education content was updated through agency champions
Content on the community short breaks webpage needs to manage parent carer expectations	To report back to social care on the need for more realistic timescales around the various stages and the waiting list time
Do other special schools run open coffee mornings like Ivy House?	Contacting SENCO network for more information
You wanted the annual review toolkit to include aspects of travel	The toolkit is being developed to contain travel and health

Spring term feedback 2022

You said	We did
There’s a need to understand that Blue Badges are for the person and not the vehicle	Posted on Facebook that Blue Badges can be used on holiday and in taxis as well as regular car use
Sections of website content reviewed as part of regular audit	Reviewed the Professionals webpage and moved it across to the SIP site and created Advice for schools and settings
A timeline to gauge when to apply for home to school travel	Transport team to investigate and provide more information
Sections of website content reviewed as part of regular audit	Speech and language were updated through agency champions
The fuel reimbursement is not fully mentioned	Transport team to provide more in-depth information about the fuel reimbursement process
Sections of website content reviewed as part of regular audit	Health and wellbeing were reviewed by multiple agency champions
Why is the Gold Card only valid after 9.30am when school has already begun?	Transport team to contact Derbyshire who run the scheme
Sections of website content reviewed as part of regular audit	Parent carer support was revisited and content moved to Health and wellbeing
How can fears over travelling be reduced for young people in Derby?	Transport team to develop resources with support from special schools
Suggestion of going out to schools, possible road show to inform of post-16 options	Team to investigate open days and recruitment fairs, week of webinars
Lack of awareness of annual health checks for learning disabilities	Team to promote on Facebook and take up issues with schools and GPs to do more
Annual health checks mean a repetition of information from parents to professionals	Team to look at integrating this health check into the annual review

Winter term feedback 2021

You said	We did
You wanted to be involved in our Local Offer decision making and content	We set up a new Local Offer User Group to report into our coproduction group
You said our EHCP webpages were difficult to navigate and parents did not understand the EHC assessment process	We’ve re-written and restructured our content. We will develop this further through our Local Offer User Group
You find our directories hard to navigate and that it's difficult to find services you need	We’ve started an audit of the services listed and are looking at how we can present these differently within the platforms that we have

Summer term feedback 2021

You said	We did
You said the new Derby SAL service should be on the Local Offer	We created space for it in the Professionals Zone
You said there should be a formal local Area SEND strategy	We co-produced the Living My Best Life Strategy
You said you did not like the name Local Offer	We looked again at our branding to make sure it linked to our strategic vision of 'Living my best life'
You said the News webpage needed updating to include more about the good things happening in the city	We refreshed the content and created the Include and Inspire blog, reflecting stories from young people, parents as well as professionals