Annual report for 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.
The
Leeds Local Offer website is for those 0-25 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and has been operational since 1 September 2014.
The Leeds Local Offer is not just a directory of services, it is the unique place where young people with SEND and their families can provide suggestions for improving services and for new services they need. Comments that come in through the website and to
llo@leeds.gov.uk drive and influence service improvement.
Leeds City Council must respond to all feedback and comments received about the Local Offer on an annual basis, and outline what actions have been taken in response to the comments received.
For further information please contact the Leeds Local Offer at
LLO@leeds.gov.uk.
Contents
Accessibility of information on the Leeds Local Offer
In the report period from the 1 July 2022 to the 30 June 2023 the Leeds Local Offer website had 41,766 unique visitors; unique visitors are the number of visitors to a website in a single reporting period. The number of people viewing the Leeds Local Offer website has increased by 13,119 from the previous year, when there were 28,647 unique visitors. This is a 45% increase.
A Leeds Local Offer Facebook group was set up for families in December 2020 as an alternative mechanism for families to receive updates about SEND services and activities taking place in the city. There are 771 members in the group; 417 have joined in the last 12 months. During the last 12 months over 280 posts about services have been posted on the group.
For families without access to the internet we encourage them to use computers at their local library or community hub, or speak to their school SENCo. A Leeds Local Offer information booklet has been developed with families and services, and once it has been signed off by the Chairs of the Leeds Area SEND Partnership Board it will be uploaded to the Leeds Local Offer website and shared widely.
Schools and services provide a direct web link to the Leeds Local Offer from their individual webpages, promoting the Leeds Local Offer to families. For families who require any of the information printing can email
LLO@leeds.gov.uk to make the request.
The
accessibility statement on the Leeds Local Offer website was updated October 2022.
Reviewing and developing the Leeds Local Offer
The Leeds Local Offer is not just a directory of services, it is the unique place where young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families can provide suggestions for improving services and for new services they need. Comments that come in through the website and to
llo@leeds.gov.uk can drive and influence service improvement.
The SEND Ofsted Inspection in 2016 highlighted
Only a few of the parents to whom inspectors spoke were aware of the Leeds Local Offer. Those who know about the web-based information are involved in working with the local area to improve the website. Records show that very few parents use the independent advice and support service. Parents describe both feeling isolated and benefiting from the support networks created by schools and settings.
Nearly all of the parents that inspectors spoke to during the inspection did not know of, or use, the Leeds Local Offer. This means that they miss out on key services or do not know where to get high-quality support. The feedback from a small number of parents in August 2016 is being acted on by leaders. Some parents, through the EPIC (empowering parents, improving choices) parents forum, remain involved in improving the offer.
Children, young people, parents and carers are invited to continually review the Leeds Local Offer website via the website feedback form and also emailing
LLO@leeds.gov.uk.
A
'You said, Our response' section is available on the website to share the comments and feedback received and the response to them.
Families can provide feedback about the Leeds Local Offer website by emailing
llo@leeds.gov.uk or through the feedback link on the Leeds Local Offer website.
Feedback and actions taken in response is outlined below for the last 12 months:
Accessibility of the website - completely inaccessible and hard to navigate
-
not as clear as other Local Authorities. Seems to take longer than it should to find information
- clunky looking on mobile phones
- search function not always brilliant
- make it accessible to families where English is a second language
| The website is hosted externally, and is a directory-based website. Over the last three years we have worked with the website providers to address the accessibility and functional functions of the website. However, due to the website being a directory-based website the functions are limited. The team responsible for the Leeds Local Offer website are exploring options for a new website. |
Promoting the Leeds Local Offer - publicise to parents via GPs, Health Visitors etc.
- a twitter page as well as facebook
- further promotion through communities and schools
- speak to families directly via coffee mornings
| The team responsible for the Leeds Local Offer will continue to promote the website. The promotion of the Leeds Local Offer and the offer to visit support groups will added as a regular article in the bi-monthly Leeds Local Offer ebulletin. A Leeds Local Offer twitter account will be explored as part of the forward plan for developments. |
Services and information for 16 plus and young adults - more services for older young people and supporting transition to adulthood
- difficult to find potential services and activities for over 18s and past 23
- add a page for 'things to do for over 25's
- post 16 and Post 18 options flow charts
- step by step guide or FAQ for people transitioning
- link to the government website for apprenticeships
| The Preparing for Adulthood section on the Leeds Local Offer is being reviewed and developed as part of the forward plan. All comments and feedback will be included within the review. |
Would like to see more information and guidance around assessment of additional needs, for example how schools are involved, GPS, right to choose | A Leeds Local Offer information booklet has been developed with families and services, the booklet is an introduction to SEND and the support available within Leeds. |
More information about specific support for learning (colleges) | Will be added to the forward plan as an area of development to the Leeds Local Offer website. |
Professionals offer for progression – make professionals aware of offers available.
| The Leeds Local Offer ebulletin has a professional's information, training and support section. There is also an information, training, and support section for professionals on the Leeds Local Offer website. |
There isn't any clear information about Education Other Than At School (EOTAS) on the LLO website. | Information about EOTAS has been added to the LLO website, and is also being included in the LLO booklet that is being produced. |
The Leeds Local Offer website was reviewed by Rotherham Parent Carer Forum as part of the annual peer review. Comments and suggestions for improvements: - add information about how to access the LLO without internet.
- continence services section to include information about U16s continence services.
- information is available about EHCP's but needs to be made clearer for families.
- identifying and assessing SEN - review information and add links to other services that can support families on their journey.
- add personal budget policy.
- what LA expect from education settings needs updating.
- review the have your say section for young people.
| All feedback and suggestions for improvements have been added to the Leeds Local Offer forward plan. We will update the 'you said we did' as we action the suggestions for development. |
A 'cost of living support' button or page on the LLO would be valuable to families. | Information about cost of living was available on the LLO, however it might not have been obvious to families where to find this. A 'cost of living – support for families' section has been created within the information for parents and carers on the website. Colleagues have been asked to share information about services available to support families so these can be added to the website. |
The Leeds SEND Youth Forum attended an online session on the 13 February 2023 to review the young people's section on the Leeds Local Offer website. Members of the SEND Youth Forum gave feedback and suggestions. | All feedback received was responded to in
the full report |
The Parent Champions reviewed the Early Years information on the website. They provided recommendations for improvements to the information. | The following amendments have been made to the website: - moved 'Early Years' under main parent and carer options.
- changed images for 'free early education places' and 'nurseries and children's centre' tiles so they are different.
- free Early Education Entitlement information – added a link to the government website which includes clear information about eligibility
- included a phone number for more information about portage
- clear information about Early Help (on forward plan)
Unfortunately translating the language on the website isn't technically possible with the website hosts. Web browsers have several built-in tools so that users can already help with accessibility, for example changing screen size. |
The Preparing for Adulthood offer for young people isn't clear on the local offer. | The officer responsible for the Leeds Local Offer website to look at developing information about the offer to young people across all four cornerstones of Preparing for Adulthood. |
Families are not being given the information about the support and services that are available to them. The amount of information available to families on websites can be overwhelming, and families don't always know where to start to find services that can support them. | The officer responsible for the Leeds Local Offer website to action a focussed piece of work to look to develop a booklet that provides introductory information about short breaks, children's transport, SEND support in schools, preparing for adulthood, SENDIASS, mental health support etc. |
Create a document that explains how to use the website and how to find information. | A document has been created for young people, parents, carers and professionals. These have been added to the front page of the Leeds Local Offer website. |
The information about EHCP's and Schools is complicated and hard to understand. | The education information on the website has been reviewed and the information updated and reorganised. Information about EHCP's has been condensed on the Leeds Local Offer website, and the SENSAP are continuing to review the information. |
The SEND system is incredibly complicated for families, and they don't always want all the information at once.
| We have developed a 'new to SEND' section on the Leeds Local Offer website, this appears on the front page. This also includes information around identifying if a child has SEND. |
There is a short breaks and fun activities catalogue for 0 to 18 year-olds, but not a lot of information about fun activities for over 18-year-olds.
| A request to services and families to find out about activities for over 18 year was made in September 2022. Activities for over 18 year olds can be found under 'making friends and being involved in the community'
https://tinyurl.com/PfAMakingFriends
|
Services across Leeds are encouraged and supported to seek the views of children, young people, parents and carers to enable them to continually review and develop their services.
On the Leeds Local Offer website we have a section for the voice and influence of children and young people (SEND Youth Forum) and also the voice and influence of parents and carers, each of these sections includes information about live consultations and also feedback on what has happened with the feedback they have shared.
Compliments received
"The Leeds Local Offer is pretty good, and there is lots of useful information for families."
"Easy to navigate, especially with the widgit symbols."
"The videos are especially helpful and explain things simply and clearly for families as well as staff."
"Useful to find and share consultations."
"Leeds Local Offer Live is a great event, not only for families but for professionals to network and find out more about SEND services."
"The Leeds Local Offer ebulletin is really useful to hear about SEND events and service updates."
On the 28 March 2023, the second annual Leeds Local Offer Live event was hosted at Pudsey Civic Hall. The event was a marketplace event aimed to share information about services on the Leeds Local Offer with families and professionals. 50 services hosted information stalls on the day, with over 160 families and professionals attending.
Voice and influence of children, young people, parents and carers in reviewing and developing services in Leeds
Leeds SEND Youth Forum
The Leeds SEND Youth Forum was launched in December 2020, there are 54 members (11 to 25 years old). From the 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023 members received 12 youth opportunities communications containing 10 opportunities, invites to 15 sessions and links to 13 surveys to give their feedback.
Highlights for the SEND Youth Forum over the last 12 months include:
The resource is not just about knowing how you can support young people, but to understand how we might perceive and feel during these experiences.
The resource can be downloaded.
Members of the SEND Youth Forum joined the Leeds Youth Council to give their views and feedback on the suggested amends to the Children and Young People's Plan. All views will influence the changes to the refreshed plan.
Members were asked to share what activities they would like to be available in their local area. All feedback will be shared with community committees when making decisions about activities to fund in local areas.
The involvement of achievement log for the SEND Youth Forum can be found at
https://tinyurl.com/SENDYFAchievements.
Voice and Influence within learning provisions
Compass House Project: From September to December 2022; students from the Lighthouse School, Green Meadows Academy, East SILC, West SILC, Broomfield South SILC and Future Horizons met to plan their Christmas pop up shop, the students made all the decisions about the shop, created all the products to be sold and then worked in the pop up shop.
The 2022 pop up shop opened for five days week commencing 5 December 2022 in Kirkgate Market. Compass House was a great youth voice project which enabled staff and 77 students from across six settings to work in partnership to create a valuable work experience project. The full report can be found here:
https://tinyurl.com/CompassHouseProject.
- SENate event (SEND Summit): The SENate event provided an opportunity for secondary aged student with SEND to come together to give their views and opinions on service delivery and development as well as finding out about services that are available to them.
The SENate is a great opportunity for students to meet others, hear about services, visit Leeds Civic Hall and make a difference!
On Wednesday 2 November 2022, 56 students from Bromfield South SILC, Rodillian Partnership, West SILC, John Jamieson, Oulton Academy, Green Meadows Academy and the Lighthouse School came together at Leeds Civic Hall for the first SENate Event. The full report can be found here:
https://tinyurl.com/SENDSummits.
In November 2021; students had three asks from the board, over the last 18 months services have been responding to these asks.
Careers/Preparing for Adulthood Fair: Leeds City Council's Employment and Skills team now deliver the annual SEND Next Choices event at Leeds Arena. The first event took place in June 2022, with over 1,800 young people attending. The next event is planned for the 29th June 2023.
Fun activity taster sessions: Scope are developing a map which shows activity taster sessions within the city. The Leeds Local Offer website has been developed to ensure there is more information about fun activities available in the city. The Voice, Influence and Change Team in partnership with Breeze Leeds and Active Leeds have secured funding from the Community Committees to run the 'Give it a Go!' event on the 6 July 2023, the event will provide students with the opportunity to try different activities and sports available to them in the city.
Play resources for playgrounds: a student at Leeds University has undertaken a research project with specialist provisions to look at playgrounds and worked with students around resources that they would like to be available. The student is looking into funding to purchase resources for schools.
In November 2022; 12 students from West SILC, East SILC and Broomfield South SILC tookover the SEND Partnership Board on Tuesday 29 November 2022 as part of National Takeover Challenge. Students from our specialist schools and the SEND Youth Forum have developed a resource for the teams and services to share information about the qualities they would like to see in the workers who support them in their everyday lives. The resource has been shared widely, and service are being asked to feedback how they have used the resource. The feedback will be shared with students. The full reports can be found here:
https://tinyurl.com/SENDTakeover.
Recognising the achievements of students: On February 21, 2023, we held a SEND Youth Voice Celebration event at Leeds Civic Hall to honour the students who have been involved in youth voice projects. 83 individual students were recognised for their involvement in the Leeds Local Offer website review, SEND Partnership Board Takeover and Compass House project. Each student receiving a certificate of recognition from the Lord Mayor of Leeds for their amazing contributions.
Children and young people consultations and involvement
Over the last 12 months children and young people have been involved in the following consultations:
- National Government SEND Green Paper review
- Development of new state of the art hospital building at the Leeds General Infirmary
- Improving children and young people's mental health inpatient services
- National Government changes to the way local services for children and young people with SEND are inspected
- Leeds Children's Mayor voting
- Youth Activity Fund consultation
- Your Neighbourhood, Your City, Your Planet consultation
- Children and Young People's Plan refresh
- Leeds Local Plan 2040
- Reviewing the Leeds Local Offer website
Feedback from consultations with children and young people.
Parent Carer Support Group Network
The Parent Carer Support Group Network meetings take place once a quarter and are attended by representatives from 26 parent carer support groups in Leeds.
The purpose of the group is to:
- share parents and carers concerns and issues about SEND services in Leeds
- promote and share voice and influence opportunities within the city for parents and carers
- review and develop the Leeds Local Offer
- meet with decision makers
- provide governance to the SEND and Inclusion Strategy
In the last 12 months the group have met 6 times, this includes additional meetings that have been organised with decision makers.
The network has met with decision makers to work together to improve families' experiences of SEND services. These include:
- Health and Care Partnership Crisis Offer
- SEND and Inclusion Strategy
- Education, health and care plans
- Children's transport
- Developing sensory provision at Thackray Medical Museum
- Families accessing short breaks provision
- SENDIASS service offer
- National Development for Inclusion Programme
The issues raised by the parent carer support group network and service responses.
Leeds Parent Carer Forum
EPIC Leeds stepped down as the DfE funded Leeds Parent Carer Forum in April 2022. The Voice Influence and Change Team worked with Contact and support groups in Leeds to develop a new Leeds Parent Carer Forum.
The new Leeds Parent Carer Forum held their official launch event on Friday 24 March 2023 with 80 parents, carers and professionals in attendance.
The Leeds Parent Carer Forum are hosted by SNAPS and have recently employed an administrative worker (from DfE grant funding).
There are 107 members who have signed up to the Leeds Parent Carer Forum. 20 of these are professionals and 87 parents and carers.
The Leeds Parent Carer Forum are working with the LA and Health to prioritise how they will work together in coproduction. The initial areas of work the Leeds Parent Carer will be involved in are:
- representation on the Leeds Area SEND Partnership Board, including a standing parent voice agenda item and annual parent carer takeover
- Leeds ICB – developing the neurodiversity work
- representation on the Education Health and Care Assessments and Plans Quality Assurance Group
- representation on the SENDIASS Steering Group
- representation on the Short Breaks Steering Group, including involvement in the Short Breaks Review, Commissioning and RADAR Panels
- co-chairing the SEND Parent Carer Support Group network
- working with the LA to develop a Leeds Local Offer family survey
Feedback from consultations with parents and carers.
Parent Carer consultations and involvement
Over the last 12 months parents and carers have been involved in the following consultations:
- National Government SEND Green Paper review
- National Government changes to the mental capacity act
- NHS England school aged immunisation services
- National Government changes to the way local services for children and young people with SEND are inspected
- Accessible play grounds in Leeds
- Leeds City Council admissions policy
- Experiences of the Educational Psychology Team
- MindMate ND hub
- Children and Young People's Plan refresh
- What is secondary school is like for young people who have a long-term physical or mental health condition and how support can be improved
- SENDIASS – Autism peer education
- Thackray Medical Museum mystery shopper
- Leeds Local Plan 2040
- Government enquiry: are transport services accessible?
- 2 parent or carers have sat on the interview panels
Over the last 12 months 18 professionals working with families with children with SEND have signed up to the Leeds Local Offer network, the network has a total of 764 professionals on. Contacts on the network receive a bi-monthly ebulletin with updates about services, voice and influence opportunities and resources and training available.
The Leeds Local Offer Coordinator works in partnership with services across education, health and social care to provide information, advice and support to ensure children, young people and families are involved in service developments. As well as providing support in developing information for families.
The Leeds Local Offer Coordinator has provided information, advice and support to 3 LA's over the last 12 months, as well as coordinating and chairing the monthly Yorkshire and Humber regional local offer workers network.
Next steps
The priorities for the Local Offer and SEND Voice and Influence Coordinator over the next 12 months are:
- continue to provide mechanisms for children, young people, parents, and carers to have a voice and influence in service review and developments
- develop a service partnership approach to the Leeds Local Offer website and providing information for families
- continue to review information on the Leeds Local Offer website, and promote the Leeds Local Offer to families and professionals
- host a Leeds Local Offer Live event for families
- support the Leeds Parent Carer Forum to represent the voices of parents and carers at a strategic level
- develop a Leeds Local Offer survey and consultation with the Leeds Parent Carer Forum
- lead for the Child Friendly Leeds Wish 12 – Leeds is an inclusive city for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities
- voice and influence of children, young people and families in the 2023/24 short breaks review.
