Your establishment's SEND local offer
The local offer is one place where all information about provision children/young people and their parent/carers expect to be available in their area for children and young people from 0-25 who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.
It has been introduced to respond to concerns from parents and others that they find it hard to access information about what support is available.
The local offer has two key purposes:
- To provide clear, comprehensive and accessible information about the provision available; and
- To make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving children and young people with SEN, parent carers, and service providers in its development and review.
The local offer should not simply be a directory of existing services.
Early years settings, schools, colleges and sixth forms
You should have completed and published a “local offer” for your establishment. Your local offer should act as the prospectus of your SEND provision. It should enable parent/carers to compare and contrast what is available to meet SEN and disability needs at your establishment with other settings.
Your setting's local offer must be published on your website. Your website must include the name and contact details of your SENCO and the following link to the local authority’s local offer: www.lancashire.gov.uk/SEND.
Your setting's local offer should include:
- Promoting good practice and successes
- Accessibility and inclusion
- Teaching and learning
- Reviewing and evaluating outcomes
- Keeping children safe
- Health (including emotional health and well being)
- Communication with parents
- Working together
- What help and support is available for the family?
- Transitions from primary school and school leavers
- Extra curricular activities
The information required is prescribed through the SEN Code of Practice (external link) and should be readily available within the setting.
The following templates and guidance notes are designed to help you to pull together information so that parents of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) or disabilities know what support they can expect if their child attends your setting:
Updated June 2016
Health services
NHS bodies need to provide the local authority with information of locally available services.
Each NHS trust should publish the information on their website and Lancashire County Council will link to it from the local offer.
The following template and guidance notes have been developed to provide a framework for the information to be collated:
- Health Local Offer Template And Guidance (DOC 1,282 KB)
If you update your local offer please let us know by email to: Lancashirelocaloffer@lancashire.gov.uk. Please provide a link to the relevant section of your website or a direct link to the document so that we can update the information on Lancashire's local offer.