Agenda item

Last administrative year the previous committee considered the changes to SEND provision for children and young people with special needs,  and as part of this they scrutinised the Local Offer in some depth. The current committee requested a follow up report on performance and development of the website. Papers are attached.

The chair invited officers Cara Jones, SIAS Manager,  and Glen Garcia, Head of Pupil Access, Children's and Adults' Services to present .

The chair thanked the officers and commended the work in getting feedback and then invited the committee to ask questions and make comment:

·  What kind of choice is available for people and what is the take up of personal budgets? We are working to simplify the process for personal budgets and we do encourage people to attend the drop in advice sessions to help craft the letter for this. The Local Offer web site is very much a location that pulls together all the available services. Frequently people approach in a time of crisis and our Local Offer and team work to support and empower families and enable people to know about and access services - it is a one stop service.

·  How do you work with SENCO ? We go to various school events and conferences and do outreach. We also have an over 16 provider event

·  Do you have anything for Governors? We did provide an update in the governor’s bulletin and have provided training sessions - this is a good point and we need to keep repeating information.

·  How are you dealing with an environment where services are diminishing? We do bring together a variety of services that continue so that people are aware of what is on offer.

·  Much of this work is online, what about people who are not IT literate? We have drop in sessions where there are a variety of feedback methods. We also have open sessions with opportunities to feedback and we encourage professional enter in feedback on iPads.

·  What have you doing to encourage take up? We have sessions at schools that pick up new arrivals. We encourage young people to ask other peers for feedback.

·  Do you have links with social care services? Yes we link up to a variety of teams.

·  My experience of helping my daughter transition to an EHS plans was not good, initially. I was given a leaflet to SIAS, but it was not immediately apparent how important this service was. Once I did access SIAS it was a much better service and I had a good experience. The Local Offer website often leads to dead ends - for example traineeships. There is also extraneous information from places such as Birmingham; although it is appreciated this website is a work in progress. I recommend outreach starts from year 9, rather than 11. Officers welcomed the feedback and said that outreach does now start at year 9.