You said, we did
We aim to work collaboratively with both young people with SEND and their parents to create a Local Offer resource that meets their needs. As a part of this, we are always collecting feedback on the website so that we can review and update it, making it more helpful and easy to use.
We also produce yearly "You Said, We Did" reports to present comments we received in relation to the Local Offer from young people with SEND or their parents. They also detail how we will use the feedback provided to improve the site.
We use your comments and feedback to try to make things better
If you would like to get involved with developing the City of London's Local Offer website then please contact us.
Education and Early Years Service
EEYService@cityoflondon.gov.uk
Local Offer review and relaunch
| You said | We did |
| The Local Offer should be widely publicised and have a much higher profile with families. | We are using the Parent Carer Forum, newsletters and social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) to promote the Local Offer |
| COVID-19 information not available on City Local Offer via the search engine. | With the update of the website, searching the Local Offer and Directory is now better. COVID-19 information can be found on the homepage in a banner, but can also be found using the new search function. |
| Design needs to combine friendly/’emotional’ style with the hard/statutory information. | The new website combines images and icons with content pages and videos. |
| Easy-read versions of key documents. | Under review although some documents, such as the Short Breaks strategy have an easy read document. |
| A screen reader function, such as Browsealoud. | A web accessibility tool has been implemented on both the Local Offer and the Family Information Service websites. |
| Videos with signing to explain how to use the Local Offer and to introduce key areas/information. Parent-to-parent video talking about the Local Offer. | There is a dedicated SEND videos section on the website. This in a non-exhaustive list. If you come across videos that you'd like to see on the site, please let us know using the Contact Us form. |
| Separate area for young people over-16 with a distinct ‘magazine’ style. | We have built a dedicated section for Preparing for Adulthood (called the Transition Hub) on our new website. Let us know what you think! |
| Link to CPCF website and description of the forum function and activity. | There is a direct link to the Carer Parent Forum on the Local Offer homepage. |
| Three clicks or fewer to reach any information. | This has been built into the new site map. If you ever click more than three times, please let us know and we will review the content you are looking for. |
| Easy ways for families to find what is important for them. | Let us know how we are doing by providing feedback. |
| ‘Meet the Team’ page with photographs and brief descriptions of roles in the Education and Early Years team and key personnel from social care and health | This information is available in the 'Contact Us' section of the new website. You will find roles and responsibilities of key personal. Due to security, names and photographs will not be used - but we have avatars! Emails and telephone calls will never go unanswered. |
Support for families
| An Information hub that points people in the right directions when services are unavailable. | The Local Offer has been redesigned to make it easier to navigate. |
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Training for independent schools to identify SEND to make sure advice, information and support is provided. |
SENCO Forum established and includes independent schools. |
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Use of existing community locations for family days and coffee mornings e.g. soft play, messy play, art and craft, Lego club, film club, music group, sensory play etc. |
Local authority officers will book venues for family events if requested. A recent example of this is an event which was held at a local library on a Sunday morning to work on an art project. |
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Portage Service for young families. |
To be explored with Hackney. |
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Supporting children and families with English as an additional language to participate/attend meetings. |
Local library contacted. |
Procedures and processes
| Policies – transparency of documents | Key policies will be added to the Local Offer. Easy read versions to be explored. |
Activities/short breaks
| Merlin Passes | Max Cards available for families signing up to the Disability Register. |
Information services
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You said |
We did |
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Family information services that provide impartial information and advice on a wide range of services for children, young people and families. |
Information, Advice and Support Service is provided by Tower Hamlets. This can be accessed on the Local Offer. |
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Information available on advice agency, childcare, parenting, family support, play, holiday activities, special need support and much more. |
Information on the Local Offer is reviewed regularly to ensure that it up to date and responding to needs of the community. |
Complaints/feedback
| You said | We did |
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Who to go to when it does go wrong and complaints, tribunal information. |
Information on the Local Offer about disagreement resolution, mediation and tribunal. |
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Creating a survey monkey questionnaire for parents. How to improve services? |
Survey monkey questionnaire on how best to communicate with families – December 2017. The response is due by end of January 2018. |
Support groups
| You said | We did |
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Links with other forums such as Centre 404 for Actions in Islington – November 2017 |
Information about local parent forums on Local Offer. |
| Better networking and links with other local authorities and their services so that there is more seamless service provision - November 2017 | Local Offer of neighbouring boroughs linked on the Parent Form page of the Local Offer |
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Carer groups at Sir John Cass’s. |
Parent Carer Forum is being extended to include parents and carers at Sir John Cass with children at SEN Support. |
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Parents and Carers Advice Group and an information hub and community. |
Parent Carer Forum is being extended to include parents and carers at Sir John Cass with children at SEN Support. |
Training support
| You said | We did |
| Disability training, access, health and safety and Autism Awareness training shops and Places of interest in LA. |
Workshop on children with social communication difficulties and autism led by Early Years Led and co delivered with Parent Rep. – parents attended – November 2017 |
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Training on EHCP procedures involving KIDS, School and Case Worker. |
Independent review of the EHC plans has been carried out. A recommendation is to establish a co-production group with parents and CYP to review and refresh the plans. |
Communications
| You said | We did |
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Create a database of children that are outside the EHCP and John Cass - invitations to be sent to them for future events newsletters – November 2017 |
Facilitated the setting up of WhatsApp Group. |
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Making policies more parent friendly, visuals, layman terms, timeline of how long things are going to take. |
Easy Read versions to be explored. |
The responses from parents and carers of children with SEND in the City to this survey indicate that although they may not look at the web-site for day to day information and prefer to telephone the SEN Service directly, they also want to know the right person to talk to and what the information is.
We worked with a group of parents to redesign the Local Offer. We will continue to work with you, your children and young people to review and develop a local offer of services which is responsive to your needs and which leads to the best outcomes for your children and young people.
Feedback about the design of the Local Offer
| You said | We did |
| You would like to have information laid out more attractively so it is easier to look for information on SEND services. | We worked with a group of parents to redesign the Local Offer, taking into account your design ideas. The revised Local Offer was launched on 31 October. |
| Information which has the approach of ‘this is what we can do for you’. | The new site has been developed with the approach of services available to you and how we can be of help to you. If you are not able to find what is required on the site kindly contact the SEND team. |
| Information which understands the needs in the City and users to be signposted to other organisations rather than acting as a filter. | The Local Offer website signposts you to various organisations that are available to support you and your family. We will continue to develop the site to ensure city families’ needs are understood and met. |
| Would like to see services ordered by SEND. | Providers offering SEND services can be identified by the Local Offer logo. We will work with developers to endure you can order by SEND in the future. |
Feedback about the content of the Local Offer
| You said |
We did |
| You would like to have a checklist of things you should be asking, a visual timeline and examples of paperwork and case studies for families starting on the EHC journey. |
We have included:
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| FAQs which pre-empt the kinds of things a parent may want to ask (based on the experiences of other parents). | You posed some common questions, and a “Quick link to some common questions” section has been included on the main page of the revised Local Offer and on the Parents Forum page. |
| Information for parents whose children have been recently diagnosed – “here’s what to do next”, “here’s who you should contact”, “here’s what you might be entitled to” etc. | “I am worried my child has..” is a key feature on the revised Local Offer. |
| Information on services available outside of school, clubs, weekend activities suitable parks. | “Looking for things to do” is a key feature on the revised Local Offer. |
| Details of access to buildings and activities for wheelchair users. | You can use Disabled Go on the Local Offer to find detailed access information on places of interest. |
| Information on a “Freedom Pass” to access activities and venues. | We will issue a Max Card to families who sign up to the Disability Register. The Max Card enables children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) and their parent/carers to access over 1000 attractions. |
| Information about transition to adulthood. |
We have created:
We will work with you to develop these. |
| To see more joined up services and how to access these, including an explanation of how the City of London works with the neighbouring boroughs. |
The Local Offer includes information about services in the City of London and in neighbouring boroughs.
Information about how the City of London works with neighbouring boroughs is to be developed. |
| To see comments from other users, star rated reviews. | We will work with providers to develop these. |
| To see more blogs and vlogs. | We will work with you through the Parent carer Forum to develop these. |