Leicestershire Local Offer Strategy 2025-2030
Leicestershire Local Offer Strategy
2025 - 2030
Our Vision
‘For all children and young people with special educational needs and their families to be able to access the information and support they need at the right time in Leicestershire, so they achieve well in their education, participate and be involved in their communities and lead happy, safe and fulfilled lives.’ Taken from the Leicestershire SEND and Inclusion Strategy
The Local Offer brings together in one place information about health, education and social care for:
X children and young people from birth to 25 years old who have a special educational need or disability (SEND) X parents and carers of children with SEND X professionals working in health, care and education X providers of services for children and young people The Local Offer is a statutory requirement outlined within the Children and Family Act 2014 and described within the SEND Code of Practice (2015) which states that:
Local Area’s 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.
What do we know and what have we heard?
We know from families and young people that our Local Offer website can sometimes be hard to navigate and we are constantly trying to improve. However, we also know from families that we have many positive elements of our Local Offer that work. This includes the Local Offer Facebook page and our Locality Local Offer Roadshows. These elements give families the opportunity to access our Local Offer in a way that goes beyond a website.
Leicestershire County Council subscribes to the Silktide Index, providing an independent review of websites accessibility. This means our website is accessible for all users, including people with disabilities, using old or unusual technology and people with poor internet access. The Local Offer site has previously been rated as number 1. We are currently at number 7 with a score of 97 out of 100.
In a 2022 survey on the accessibility of the Local Offer, 46% of the 131 parents who answered had heard of the Local Offer Website and visited the Local Offer webpages.
When asked how easy or difficult it was to find information on the Local Offer website, 58% responded that they did find the information that they were looking for.
Feedback on the usefulness of the County Hall Local Offer Roadshow held in September 2024 where 9 parent/carers provided feedback:
33% 67%
Very useful
Fairly useful
What is our vision?
We believe that every child or young person with a special educational need or disability and their families should be able to access relevant information and support they require at the right time. We hope that by getting it right for families at the right time – children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities can live fulfilled and as independent as possible lives.
The Department for Education state that ‘the Local Offer should be collaborative, accessible and comprehensive’ and in Leicestershire these are the key principles in which our Local Offer is built on.
How will we know we have been successful?
Due to the very nature of the Local Offer – success is fluid. For it to be successful it must be under constant development and improvement and never definitive. We will continue to use the following measures for our success and development underpinned by annual work plans:
X Feedback from parent carers and young people X Local Offer Roadshows feedback X Voice and feedback captured at consultation events X Social media feedback and engagement X Analysis of our google analytics data X Inspection and peer review feedback
How will we do it?
| Collaborative | Accessible C | omprehensive |
|---|---|---|
| We will: | We will: | We will: |
| X Coproduce and engage | X Ensure wide publicity of X | Ensure information is up to |
| with parents, carers and | the Local Offer | date by reviewing annually |
| young people including | X Visit each locality in X | Ensure a breadth of |
| the parent carer forum | ||
| Leicestershire with the Local | information which covers, | |
| and wider groups | ||
| Offer Roadshow bi- | education, health and social | |
| X Ensure a shared ownership | ||
| annually. We will include | care | |
| of the Local Offer across | evening events X X Review and revisit content on | Recognise gaps and |
| education, health and | ||
| encourage user feedback on | ||
| social care | the website | pages |
| X Review and communicate | X Utilise digital technologies X | Share information relevant to |
| changes and | such as video and social | our neighbouring authorities |
| developments with | media X | Interpret qualitative and |
| parents, carers and | ||
| quantitative data to inform | ||
| children and young people | ||
| our developments |
Year One
January 2025 – December 2025
Deliverables Objectives Measures Engage with parent carer groups and young people
X Engage with parent / carer groups X Contact with a minimum of 12 parent/carer groups X Engage with children and young people groups X Contact with a minimum X SEND Hub rep at Local Offer of 12 school Steering Group X SEND Hub attendance X Parent/carer annual survey on the at Local Offer Steering Group meeting Local Offer X Review feedback mechanisms X Survey results available on the Local Offer X Survey results and data X Communicate changes in the form X Annual Report published of ‘You Said, We Did’ to be published quarterly
Ensure wide publicity of the Local Offer
X Embed departmental awareness of X Attendance at staff meetings X Recorded visits to the Local Offer X Organise and deliver on Local Offer locality teams Roadshows X Distribution of postcards X Leicestershire County Council Corporate Communication initiatives to increase reach of the Local Offer X One Local Offer Roadshow to be held within each locality – this will be across 16 months X Increase webpage visits and/or Local Offer likes by 10%
Deliverables Objectives Measures
X Increase web page
Increase service user engagement with Leicestershire’s Local Offer.
X Use statistics from 2023 and 2024 to visits by 20% prepare a calendar of webpage use to inform parent/carers over 2025
Including web page visits and Facebook followers
X Increase Facebook X Schedule Facebook posts based on followers by 20% national themed days, calendar of peaks in webpage use and information about services X Update reports from X Annual audit of compliance
Ensure comprehensive, up to date and relevant information
workstream leads requirements X Create thematic reviews of web pages – see compliance report and shared ownership of content X Test content to see if a X Use the opportunity within thematic 10 year old could read and understand reviews to reduce length of content and remove professional jargon X Audit of reports X Annual audit of school SEN Information and links reports X Co-produced content using various X Feedback, survey methods X Local Offer Roadshow visits to each results locality in Leicestershire, at various events, days and times
Ensure Local Offer is accessible in communities
X User testing with parent/carers X Survey / testing, X User testing with children and young results, reports people X Utilise digital technologies such as X Feedback, survey video clips and social media X Distribution of Local Offer flyers as results X Survey / testing paper copies such as laminated copies required, Qr code on flyer feedback X Attendance at X Email flyers and information to Local Offer Roadshows schools