Bearings An expert audit of your SEND Local Offer, done for you

Many SEND Local Offers suffer from one or more of the following 

• Readability. Often the Local Offer has a reading age far above the level of the parent carers and young people who use it. 

• Information architecture. There needs to be a natural flow of information so that people can find things easily. 

• Content. Missing content and a sparse directory mean that people won't come back to the Local Offer as trusted source. 

• Lack of a clear marketing and social media plan. People just don't know that the Local Offer exists. 

I start by looking at your SEND strategy and the latest Area SEND inspection report, so the audit reflects your actual local context, not a generic checklist. 

If you have other policies and processes, including political steering, I can look into that too. 

Meetings

I'll spend time talking to the right people in the local authority, as appropriate for this level of audit. In a larger piece of co-produced work, all these people, and more, are important. 

• SEND Local Offer Officer
• Chair of SEND Partnership 
• Health contact
• Care contact
• Parent carer representative
• Young people's SEND rep 

The SEND Local Offer review itself.

• Readability. A baseline understanding of readability across the SEND Local Offer, including Easy Read.

• Content audit. Based on a line by line reading of the SEND Code of Practice 2015.

• Site map. To understand the existing information architecture.

• Accessibility. A baseline understanding of WCAG 2.2 (the legally required standard).

• Google Analytics. Looking at most visited pages, search words, and devices used to understand how people use the SEND Local Offer.

• Content patterns. Looking at the structure of the content and where new content patterns might be useful.

I will write a roadmap for continued development of your SEND Local Offer.

We have to be aware that this is a bit of a journey into the unknown.

True co-production is an exploration of new territory and adjusting our bearings. It involves work with all stakeholders (parent carers, young people, professionals, voluntary sector, local business).

 Regardless of any findings from this report, working with stakeholders will surface hidden issues.