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Home > You said. We did

You said. We did

Find out what we have done as a result of your comments and feedback

To give us your feedback on the local offer go to have your say.

March

You said: “More support for Speech, language and communication needs is really needed.”

173 professionals from Family Hubs, schools and wider education, and health services took the Intensive Interaction course, an approach to teaching the pre-speech fundamentals of communication to children and adults who have severe learning difficulties and/or autism who are still at an early stage of communication development.

Professionals upskill to support children’s communication

February

You said: “We would like staff in Early Years to be upskilled in neurodiversity.”

We are offering a Neurodiversity Train the Trainer programme for Early Years.

Successful candidates will complete two neurodiversity courses: An Introduction into Neurodiverse Behaviours in Early Years and Strategies to Support Neurodiverse Behaviours in Early Years and complete a “train the trainer” module allowing them to deliver the courses within their settings and across settings in North East Lincolnshire.

This approach allows us to broaden the knowledge and skills within settings in an efficient way, encourages networking and skill sharing between settings, and lends itself towards a financially sustainable SEND system.

You said: “We would like services to work more collaboratively along with parent carers to improve SEND provision in mainstream settings.”

Primary academies in North East Lincolnshire (NEL) have been invited to take part in the Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools project (PINS).

Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) will bring health and education specialists and expert parent carers into mainstream primary settings to:

  • help shape whole school SEND provision
  • provide early interventions at a school level
  • upskill school staff
  • support strengthening of partnerships between schools and parent carers

January

You said: “We want teachers to be knowledgeable and highly skilled in teaching students with SEND.“

North East Lincolnshire Council are offering a fully funded place on our upcoming SEND in the Mainstream course to all ECTs in NELC schools. Find out more about what we are offering them here:  Autumn 2 23 Newsletter (mcusercontent.com)

What is an ECT? You’ll be known as an early career teacher (ECT) for your first 2 years in teaching. The term early career teacher (ECT) has replaced newly qualified teacher (NQT).

You said: “We want additional and strengthened support for Early Years.”

The Early Years Team expanded to include Emma Riddle, specialist Early Years teacher moved over to work alongside the Portage Team and Area SENCo’s under Early Years. The team introduced a new referral system to provide the best and most efficient support.

NELC SEND Local Offer | Early years – NELC SEND Local Offer (nelincs.gov.uk)

You said: “We want to see more from the children and young people with SEND in our area in the offer.” and “Content representing your offer would be strengthened by being more visual.”

We launched a logo competition for all children and young people to enter to design the SEND Young People’s Advisory Group. This fun competition was a great way to get the word out to more people about this group and what they do and the winning design was chosen by the YPAG group and will be featured on the website, social media, and schools etc. NELincs YPAG Group

We are creating a suite of images with local schools from Early Years through to post-16 including both mainstream and special schools so that our local offer can be represented in our media.

We are inviting children and young people to submit art work to be featured in a local art exhibit themed ‘My life as a young person with SEND in our area’. The first round of submissions will be used in our 3 new SEND Strategies, with the winners being chosen by the SEND Young people’s Advisory Group (YPAG).

December

You said: “We want settings to have a better understanding of the needs in their schools and a detailed and effective plan for intervention.”

We hosted the first cohort of schools to introduce their individual action plan, receive and share advice and leave with additional resources facilitated by the Local Authority in conjunction with Learn Teach SEND Hub.

Every setting now has an individual action plan encompassing all areas of SEND that they can execute in a targeted way to improve their offer. This creates a strong foundation for even more improvements going forward.

All Academies, Trusts and LA settings will take part in this project which is part of Delivering Better Value in SEND.

NELC SEND Local Offer | Schools collaborate to improve offer for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) – NELC SEND Local Offer (nelincs.gov.uk)

November

Young people said: “We want more opportunities to go into paid employment or experience work in areas that we are interested in.”

We’ve been working hard to grow our supported internships offer. The crematorium are hosting three supported interns in grounds maintenance and food service. Annie Cook, Lead EHCP Coordinator for post 16 is launching the SEND Employment Forum at the end of November to encourage local organisations to offer internships. We continue to work collaboratively with local schools and organisations to find new roles in areas that students have enjoy.

You said: “We would like a preparation for adulthood checklist or guidance book so we can see what is supposed to be happening and when.”

We’ve developed the Preparation for Adulthood Guide that will be shared to services in education, health, and social care.

You said: “We often listen to what has helped other parent carers.”

We added lots more information, books, and websites to the suite of resources started through the Autism in Schools project parents forum (now SPACE Forum).

October

You said: “We would like to work more with professionals and be able to seek advice and give feedback in different ways.”

We attended several school drop-in events to meet with parent carers to signpost them to support and take feedback about what we do so that we can improve.

September

You said: “We want more specialist places for Early Years.”

We made Launchpad, a specialist turnaround provision within a mainstream Primary setting. This is a provision that has 12 places and gives students the chance to have more specialist support and the opportunity for a smooth transition into mainstream.

We worked with Idox to develop the EHC Hub based on the feedback from parent carers and professionals to develop improvements such as:

  • Redesigned parent dashboard
  • Additional guidance for parents on every stage of the pathways
  • Clearer guidance for users registering their account
  • Updated framework for improved behaviours on small devices
  • Two forms have been added to the EHC Hub for professionals to request a change of banding, and a change of education setting.

August

You said: “We would like the regular parent carer meetings to be bi-monthly as this works well with our schedule of other meetings and the sessions will be more productive, covering more material.”

Our regular Wednesday morning parent carer and professional meetings with the parent carer forum will be held every second week, face to face, from September 2023.

Learn more about this group and the important topics selected by the parent carer forum, NELPCF. NELC SEND Local Offer | SEND Parent Carer meetings (nelincs.gov.uk)

July

You said: “DLA can be confusing.”

We added more guidance from the charity Contact that includes guidance on completing the form as well as helpful tips to make completing it easier. NELC SEND Local Offer | Money and benefits (nelincs.gov.uk)

You said: “It needs to be easier to navigate preparation for adulthood information, advice and guidance.”

We have reworked the preparation for adulthood content on the SEND Local Offer so that it is easier to navigate and find information applicable to you.

You can now ‘Ask Annie’, this a feature where you can directly text or email our post 16 EHCP coordinator with your post 16 questions for a tailored, direct response.

June

“You asked us to share information with parent carers and schools about school uniform as a barrier to learning and attendance.”

We created a Local Offer page which we shared with all stakeholders on school uniform with links to government guidance, sensory uniform shopping and top tips for families and teachers.

NELC SEND Local Offer | School Uniform and children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (nelincs.gov.uk)

“As a school/ professional we share the newsletter to our website and parent networks. We get it last thing on a Friday. The timing is inconvenient.”

We will now release the parent carer newsletter on a Monday so that it is convenient for schools and other professionals to share.

“I attended the Grimsby 10k finish line events in People’s Park. I had three kids with me and there was a lot going on with the music and crowds. It would have been nice to have a quiet space for people, and especially for those with SEND or sensory needs.”

This year, Grimsby 10k 2023, we have arranged for a gazebo and some sensory equipment for people who need a low sensory zone to regroup at the event. As per the parent carers’ suggestion it is close enough to the crowds for those attending with others or caring for other children but is a small safe space near the finish line.

NELC SEND Local Offer | New Quiet Space at Grimsby 10k this Sunday (nelincs.gov.uk)

You said– About work experience and post 16

  • Work experience in secondary school and particularly for children with SEND  
  • Preparation for adulthood- cohort increasingly difficult to place  
  • Supported internships –  
  • Processes too slow 
  • More diagnosis 16+ 
  • What provision do we have for 0-25?
  • Post 19, group who require additional education but may never be able to be employed. Why should they miss out on real life skills /learning opportunities e.g. getting into college
  • Design a collaborative approach /pathway to transition-025 +  
  • More funding needed

We did/ we’re doing

This feedback has been shared with the Strategic Lead for Skills and Employability to help shape further action.

May

“We would like information to stay up to date on the Delivering Better Value in SEND project.”

We made a section on the Local Offer for DBV. Visit the DBV page. NELC SEND Local Offer | Delivering Better Value in SEND (nelincs.gov.uk)

You said– About Education health and care plans (EHCP)/ assessment

  • Some plans do not reflect the child’s needs
  • Some plans not needed 
  • How did they get through the system?  
  • Better support pre-plan would prevent unnecessary EHCP
  • Some plans low quality
  • Not written effectively
  • Need resource to provide more scrutiny and challenge 
  • Several outcomes can not be met by EHCP “Is the way they are written preventing realistic outcomes?”
  • Are they outcomes or targets?
  • Sometimes plan includes independent specialist assessment, parents go to private assessors
  • How do we manage this? 
  • Some parents feel a private diagnosis is the step to the EHCP
  • Some parents are being told by outside agencies /Children and Young People (CYP) that their CYP needs an EHCP
  • Other agencies support parents to get one – better understanding needed 
  • Joined up thinking by all professionals; some professionals tell parents to pursue EHCP 

We did/ we’re doing

We are reviewing the EHCP process end to end as part of our improvement journey including review of our delivery models 

We are developing further training and development for EHCP assessment and plans as part of our Inclusion workstream programme.  

We are adding some capacity from the DBV funding  such as in areas of Speech and language  

Our communication and engagement workstream will be working on further promotion, improved information and access and  direct engagement regarding EHCP’s. to support changing perception and behaviour.

You said: “Smaller classes/units for SEN in schools.”

We are working with a range of Trusts and schools to provide dedicated Resource Specialist provision (sufficiency programme)

You said: “Embed a ‘Therapeutic Thinking Schools ‘ approach) at the heart of Education and SEND strategy“

Our inclusion workstream will focus on this. We are refreshing our Education and SEND strategy

You said: “Reduce exclusion“
>Embed the use of restorative Justice as an intervention prior to exclusion.

This has been shared with our Head of pupil support. Our inclusion workstream will focus on this

You said: “Virtual EHCP school“

Our inclusion workstream will focus on this

You said: “Events and training page“

Our engagement and communication workstream will focus on this

You said: “What is inclusion?’ Framework developed by professionals – set of criteria/standards to be met“

Our inclusion and engagement and communication workstream will focus on this

You said: “Webinars and training areas“

Our inclusion and engagement and communication workstream will focus on this

You said: “Education strategy – cease placements of Independent Non Maintained Specialist Schools (INMSS) and build new in borough provisions“

Our sufficiency programme is addressing this over next 2-5 years with new RSP being developed , first one opening summer term for 12 dedicated places.

You said: “Exclusion risk register – key worker service“

This has been shared with our Head of pupil support.  

Our inclusion workstream will focus on this 

You said: “Education, Health, Care Assessment Requests (EHCAR’s) need to have small step outcomes to be included“

The improving EHCP and assessment working group will focus on this   

You said: “Full review and change to Degrees of Learning Difficulties (Profound and multiple learning disability (PMLD), Specific Learning Disability (SLD), Moderate Learning Difficulty (MLD) and categories of need (Social, Emotional, Mental Health difficulties ( SEMH) Pervasive developmental disorder (PDD’s- autism and related conditions such as Asperger’s syndrome )– consistency of language“

Our inclusion workstream will focus on this  

You said: “EHCP’s- Build more sustainable system – EHCP shift in perception and culture; across the piste“

The improving EHCP and assessment working group and inclusion workstream will focus on this    

You said: “Future proof Speech and Language Service (SAS) + Educational Psychologists (ed psych)“

The improving EHCP and assessment working group will and inclusion workstream focus on this  We are adding capacity to SAS and working with Best Start for Life to improve capacity as well as providing dedicated training programme.

April

You said- About the Holiday Activity Food programme (HAF)

SEND “vulnerable”-not meeting need – not enough grant funding 

We did/ we’re doing

This information has been passed to our HAF coordinator for review 

You said- About Early Years

  • Ensure early years children and parents don’t miss out on vital early years groups/support 
  • Provision needs expanding  
  • Greater range of specialist services for under 5’s e.g. SEMH . Trauma informed etc 
  • Early years identification is key 
  • Universal services for families to access and range of specialists services for under 5s 
  • Health visitor service, identify early help needs 
  • Parents don’t know who health visitors are; then get missed – health check ins very thin 
  • Face to face health visitor visits to pick up early issues 
  • Earliest point possible, age 2 development checks 
  • Birth onwards, want support from same early help person, support gets closed too soon 
  • mother and baby unit, help support issues, trauma related issues, cyclical issues 
  • young mums unit, provide training in practical skills, provide role models, support schools
  • Early parent mental health services 
  • Parenting education 
  • Start as early as possible with parents; break cycle of being disengaged with education; social care as well; parents don’t have confidence, need to address this 
  • Invest in Early Years Foundation Settings (EYFS) SENCO’s + SENCO support across EY settings 
  • And challenge to EYFS providers   

Some inclusive officers to support target setting for the higher needs children EY  

  • 0-4 issues before hitting schools age 
  • Children not school ready, lots of issues, no boundaries 

We did/ we’re doing

The early help offer and resourcing of this is being reviewed. We are increasing early help SEND capacity.  This feedback has been shared with the Best Start for Life Family Hubs programme to help shape delivery and use of funding focussed on early help support.    

You said- About information, advice, and guidance

  • Gap at all levels, where to go and where to get support, how to access it 
  • Need clearer information, regularly updated for parents and professionals  
  • Increased awareness of ADHD  
  • Better information sharing 
  • Common/clear understanding of language i.e. GP’s  
  • Parent education programmes 
  • Parent information – easy to read/understand  
  • Helpline 
  • Understanding who key leaders and staff are 
  • Myth busting  
  • Information sessions 
  • Notice boards 
  • Communication to improve between all involved 

We did/ we’re doing

Our engagement and communication workstream will be working on information, advice guidance improvement including our Local Offer website improvement, awareness raising of where to access information including raining, signposting information, information sharing. 

“We want easier access to information for preparation for adulthood.”

We have added ‘Ask Annie’ to our Preparing for Adulthood page on the Local Offer. You can quickly, and easily get in touch for our post 16 EHCP coordinator for all things PFA. NELC SEND Local Offer | Preparing for adulthood (nelincs.gov.uk).

“We would like a SEND Local Offer Working group so parent carers, professionals, and others can work together to develop the SEND Local Offer and take further the established engagement work.”

The first Local Offer Working group will meet on April 26 at Grimsby Town Hall and meet regularly from then on looking at key points decided together with the group.

You said– About EHCP’s being a solution to other barriers

“Junior school and parents asking for EHCP and getting secondary school of choice, school don’t feel they need one but parents guarantee a place in secondary” 

“Parents want the EHCP for legal back up for secondary“

We did/ we’re doing

Over 2023/24 we will be launching an awareness campaign and holding further awareness raising and challenge sessions with agencies, parents about inclusion and achieving best outcomes for children and young people. 

March

“The Parent Carer page can be split into ‘Support for you’, and ‘Support for your child’.

We have updated the Parent and Carer page to be more easy to navigate including support for you, and support for your child. It is also design-led with images and is split into sections by SEND need, ages and stages, and education, health and social care.

You said– About training for professionals

  • SMART outcome training needed across the board e.g. SENCO’s +Educational Psychologists (EP)’s 
  • Compulsory send training for teachers “Whole school training programme”
  • Investment is needed into support staff training  
  • Training for all – Cost implication 
  • Money into training budget for staff
  • ELKAN trained leads in each Hub setting 
  • Autism spectrum disorder(ASD) / Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) etc “Focus on autism” 
  • Speech and Language  
  • SEND training for 16+ teachers 
  • Complex SEND training 
  • Teaching Assistants (Tas) also important
  • Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for TA’s – free and quality 
  • Invest in upskilling T.A.’s (to specialise) 
  • Honorarium for TA’s  
  • Very little SEND expertise in TA’s  
  • Training in mental health /wellbeing bedded into strategies used for TA’ 
  • ASD strategies for learning training for TA’s CCT’s 
  • Specialist outreach programmes/training for SEND schools/academies  
  • Understand who is already trained
  • Monitor good practice, complaints, concerns and making recommendations for improvement
  • Specialist advisory training/leads 
  • Lack of specialist knowledge /skills/space/equipment in mainstream settings 
  • Hard to get cover/release staff for training

We did/ we’re doing

Training and development ideas will be included in the Inclusion workstream plan funding. A programme of training will be developed and rolled out over 2023/24 and 2024/25 led by new role SENCO lead for SEND . 

Opportunities will be advertised directly to and can also be found on the Local Offer Events and Training page- NELC SEND Local Offer | Events and training page (nelincs.gov.uk)

You said

SEND “vulnerable”-not meeting need – not enough grant funding 

We did/ we’re doing

This information has been passed to our HAF coordinator for review 

You said- About listening and working together to improve provision

  • Make every contact count
  • Reduce the ‘SEN is not my remit’/passing the problem response
  • Get people in a room together to change perception and practice
  • range of collaborative (joined up) workstreams
  • More co production 
  • Increase parental participation 
  • Voice of the child
  • Child led development 
  • Improvement in joined up service delivery/working together to support the needs of all 
  • Yr6 to Yr 7 
  • Health  
  • Education – all key stages 
  • Social care 
  • So many children have had social care involvement prior to or during plan – need more of a relationship across the system 
  • Understand strategic direction locally (academies)  
  • Time consuming to gather evidence, requires lots of communication back and forth across services  
  • LA monitor /moderate to ensure placements fitting  
  • NELC quality assurance framework /workstream – Education – health- Care  
  • -standards 
  • -expectations  
  • Access  
  • For less able/SEND parents/disengaged parents 
  • Process so slow/ capacity of services with long waiting list – access pathway-YMM, EHC team  
  • Specialist services – triage system?? 
  • Getting hold of services e.g. school nurses  
  • Speech and language  
  • Signposting to the correct level of support/service at the right time – e.g., Compass/YMM needs joining up 
  • Improve consistency to ease referral  
  • Contacts for mainstream primaries  
  • Specialist support/services for complex PMLD /SLD in schools for parents; current services are not effective /skilled enough

We did/ we’re doing

We are developing our Delivering Better Value programme and employing a dedicated project manager. Part of their role will be to develop the three DBV workstreams, data , inclusion and engagement / communication are effectively working and also  linking  with other programmes of work to try to ensure  joined up as far as possible to maximise  funding and coordinated delivery . There will be various working groups looking at different aspects such as the access pathway and involve a range of key stakeholders including parents, professionals, community and voice of the child to shape and co produce solutions to issues identified.   

The feedback has been shared across the multiagency SEND executive board which includes all key stakeholder representatives including parent representatives for consideration of how this will shape future delivery of SEND services. More information about the SEND executive Board can be found here LINK   

Our data workstream will focus on improving our data collection, monitoring and analysis of data to support shaping future delivery. This will include a range of data including insights from a range of feedback as well as numbers. 

We are working on a SEND quality assurance framework – lead by NELC commissioning unit.   

February

You said- About Multi Academy Trusts Role (MATS)

  • Challenges, what are Multi Agency Trusts (MATS) roles? 
  • What role do they play?  
  • MATS have resources +finance to support resources (not LA) 

We did/ we’re doing

Our engagement and communication workstream will ensure clear information about role on our local offer website.  

The LA are having further discussions collectively and with individual Trust about their role, including development of dedicated resource provision locally and training and development.   

You said– About social, emotional and mental health needs

  • Primary need often SEMH   
  • Need more investigation 
  • Schools are not experts in SEMH 
  • SEMH need much higher than others 
  • SEMH can overtake other areas of need  
  • Should it be ‘default provision’?  
  • SEMH must be on a SEND register  
  • May be conditional learning need – need different approach not an EHCP 
  • Unmet cognition needs result in SEMH  
  • Trauma of a difficult birth on the child. Expertise in this area needed. 
  • Specialist school for SEMH 
  • 18+ SEMH support improvement needed

We did/ we’re doing

Our sufficiency programme is focussed on  building more places and increasing capacity in dedicated resource specialist provision in NEL academies and schools over the next 2 years.  

We are building 2 new primary schools which will have dedicated Resource Specialist provision.  

We have been awarded funding by Government for a new dedicated SEMH free school which will be opening in next 5 years.  

A programme of training will be developed and rolled out over 2023/24 and 2024/25 led by new role SENCO lead for SEND. 

We are working together with our partners including health, Childrens Social Care, Adult services regarding supporting families at earliest opportunity and at key life transition points.

“I need more information on EHCP’s and banding.”

We have added more information to the EHCP page about criteria and banding.

You said– About resources, recruitment, and retention

  • Increase staff numbers
  • Universal funding doesn’t cover staff needed/capacity an issue 
  • Specialist staff needed
  • Improving quality and retention of TA’s
  • Interest in being a TA high, use this 
  • Struggle to appoint quality support staff 
  • Bank of support staff needed for children in crisis
  • Review enrolment process 
  • Need to understand responsibility and skill development – pay and progression; promote alternative career option, rewards, valued

We did/ we’re doing

In Academy settings Trusts control their finances and make decisions on funding of TA’s.

We are meeting with Trusts and Heads to discuss the upskilling and pay of TA’s.

We have provided information to Trusts about pay across NEL as part of this discussion.

What are we doing about NELC maintained?

You said– About the Access Pathway

  • Who is responsible? 
  • Too lengthy

We did/ we’re doing

We are reviewing the access pathway in light of feedback

January

You said- About listening, and working together to improve provision

  • Ensure early years children and parents don’t miss out on vital early years groups/support 
  • Provision needs expanding  
  • Greater range of specialist services for under 5’s e.g. SEMH . Trauma informed etc 
  • Early years identification is key 
  • Universal services for families to access and range of specialists services for under 5s 
  • Health visitor service, identify early help needs 
  • Parents don’t know who health visitors are; then get missed – health check ins very thin 
  • Face to face health visitor visits to pick up early issues 
  • Earliest point possible, age 2 development checks 
  • Birth onwards, want support from same early help person, support gets closed too soon 
  • mother and baby unit, help support issues, trauma related issues, cyclical issues 
  • young mums unit, provide training in practical skills, provide role models, support schools
  • Early parent mental health services 
  • Parenting education 
  • Start as early as possible with parents; break cycle of being disengaged with education; social care as well; parents don’t have confidence, need to address this 
  • Invest in Early Years Foundation Settings (EYFS) SENCO’s + SENCO support across EY settings 
  • And challenge to EYFS providers   

Some inclusive officers to support target setting for the higher needs children EY  

  • 0-4 issues before hitting schools age 
  • Children not school ready, lots of issues, no boundaries 

We did/ we’re doing

The early help offer and resourcing of this is being reviewed. We are increasing early help SEND capacity.  This feedback has been shared with the Best Start for Life Family Hubs programme to help shape delivery and use of funding focussed on early help support.    

“It can be difficult to find what you need on the Local Offer Parent Carer page there are a lot of links to look through.“

We have updated the page to be categorised by the four broad areas of SEND and this will be tied up with related services like personal budgets, and preparation for adulthood.

“We want more information on Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)“

We added a new page on Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). This also includes a feedback form so you can tell us if you find it useful and what other information you would like. We have linked up this page with the training and events that we have developed based on our engagement with parent carers and professionals.

You said– About working with parent carers and other agencies

  • Assumption/expectation/misunderstanding
  • 1: 1 support  
  • Waiting times 
  • Context “some children can be stigmatised when go down EHCP routes” 
  • support given from EHCP/diagnosis  
  • Equip SENCOs regarding early conversations 
  • “Have seen plans written just from parent perspective and believe will get 1:1 support, makes it hard for schools” 
  • How do we as professionals manage effectively work with parents? 
  • A lot of work required with parents  
  • Knowledge /skills to provide training/support for parents-will improve parent confidence
  • “Lack of support for parents /carer, they seek out help of teachers” 
  • Outreach support early with parental engagement 

We did/ we’re doing

Training and development ideas will be included in the Inclusion workstream plan funding. A programme of training will be developed and rolled out over 2023/24 and 2024/25 led by new role SENCO lead for SEND. 

Our engagement and communication workstream will be updating our communication plan, updating the Local Offer website, holding awareness sessions, talking with our parents  

December

You said “We want more video content”.

We produced a British Sign Language advent calendar that was shared on the Local Offer and social media.

November

October

You said “We want more training and a choice over what we are offered.”

A suite of training was offered to parent carers to pick from.

Key areas like Early Years, Sensory needs, SEMH and behaviour, anxiety, and sleep were all top choices.

These were extended from parent carers involved in the Autism in School project to every parent carer of a child with SEND in our borough, free of charge.

We continue to engage with you on your needs and source training to suit you.

September

You said “We want more information on the ways that activities are inclusive and what kinds of SEND needs they can support.“

“We launched an activities engagement project to find out what parents and carers need from local activity providers.

“Part two of this project we will share this insight with activity providers and also engage with them to better understand their offer.”

August

You said “We want Makaton training”.

Sarah Arthur is a professionals from a local Primary School who now leads our offer of Taster, Level 1, and Level 2 Makaton Training. We promote this widely.

July

You said “We would like training for all professionals on SEND Support and EHCP.”

SENDIASS have offered this training to professionals which provides a broad foundation of training across key areas of all SEND Support and EHCP’s.

June

You said “We want to stay abreast of all that is on offer for our children.“

There are lots of opportunities for children and young people locally. We have continued to use our Families First social media, newsletters, and other communication channels to keep you informed about events, activities, opportunities for them to engage with and shape local services and more.

May

April

March

You said- “We want more awareness of Autism and neurodiverse needs.”

  1. We are launching the Autism Book Club. There are books for children and young people with SEND, their siblings and peers, parent carers, and professionals to broaden their understanding of Autism and other neurodiverse needs. This will be launched at four local libraries over Autism Acceptance Week where parent carers can see the books on offer and meet the wider SEND Team.
  2. Autism Acceptance Week 2022 is the 60th anniversary. For the occasion, we are challenging 60 school staff to take the Autism in Girls training that we have purchased from the National Autistic Society.
  3. As well as frequently promoting our Autism in Schools work we are promoting Autism Acceptance Week widely online, our social media and through our partners and key services, internally on the Council’s platforms and more.

You said- “We want more creative and fun things to work with you on.”

We contacted all local schools to get students involved in a competition to design the new SENDIASS logo! See the submissions on the Local Offer when the new service starts in April!

You said- “I want to know how my child’s views are incorporated into everything. I want to know that if a professional is filling in an EHCP on their behalf, that it is true to what they are saying.”

We have made the Capturing the voice of the Child page. NELC SEND Local Offer | Capturing the voice of the child (nelincs.gov.uk)

It goes into detail about how to facilitate discussions for children and young people of various ages and abilities, including those who are non-verbal. It covers how to make the most of discussions and tackle certain situations like difficult topics, short answers and more. It covers how to make the child comfortable, the need to review and follow up, and more.

This was raised at the SENDCo forum, parents weekly meeting, and has also been highlighted as an area that we could create a video on to show parent carers first-hand what we do and why it works.

You said- “We would like an Easy Read Written Statement of Action (WSOA).”

The Easy Read WSOA includes summarised bullet points that simplify the key messages. It also has images that help to illustrate what the text is saying. It can be found on the SEND Local Area Inspection page.

February

You said- “We would like to know more about what activates are on locally.”

Climb4 came to speak to our parent carer group. They had a great youth club that was inclusive to SEND and we were able to make them aware of parent queries about how accessible clubs were.

They also made us aware of their Peer Mentor Training which we have since purchased and have had many applications for.

You said- “I often feel more comfortable speaking to another parent than a professional.”, “We get lots of info from other parents.”, “I like to help other parents but sometimes find out that a service that I used has changed. It would be good to know the details about certain services offered to make sure that I’m giving them the right info.”

We are training local parent carers to be Peer Mentor Volunteers. They will join us at our coffee mornings and events.

You said- “I would like to know where I can learn Makaton.”

We had several parent carers and professionals ask about where they can learn the sign language system, Makaton.

We added and promoted a news article featuring a local Makaton tutor who offers training. We also added the link to the database where all training can be found. NELC SEND Local Offer | Learn Makaton (nelincs.gov.uk)

The training was also added to the ‘Events and Training’ page.

You said- “We want Autism to be better represented. We want more awareness of autism and SEND in general. Better training and knowledge for parents carers, professionals in all areas including schools, and for children and young people.”

We were successful in securing our bid for the Autism in Schools Pilot project.

Ten local schools and their parent carers are working with us to lead the way on these improvements.

We have regular parent carer forums. Parent carers are helping us to develop our training, what we offer in schools, how we review and ensure the quality of our provision. Children and young people are at the heart of this in the ‘Understanding myself’ part of the project we capture the voice of the child and this includes their siblings and peers.

The lessons learnt from the Autism in Schools pilot will be extended across the borough.

You said- “It would be helpful to have more training on things like ADHD and issues and behaviours to do with SEND.”

  1. The Young Minds Matter (CAMHS) training has been added to the Local Offer ‘Events and Training page’. This includes key area parent carers requested like ADHD and autism.
  2. Franklin College came to speak to our Wednesday morning parent carer meeting about their courses that included autism, mental health problems, children and young peoples mental health, working with people with learning disabilities, and adult social care.

These were promoted on the Local Offer, our local groups, newsletter, and social media.

You said- “We would like it to be easier to get information about Speech, language and communication needs. Especially if there is a need but your child isn’t being seen by someone at the hospital.”

There is a review of Speech language and communication needs services. This includes a survey that was coproduced with parent carers and improved to shorten it based on parent feedback about engaging through surveys.

We improved the information on SLCN on the Local Offer.

The new service logo is being coproduced with local children.

The language of any new content will reflect that services are inclusive to the needs of children that have a need but are not diagnosed with a condition, and do not have an EHCP.

January

You said- “We would like more information on Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)/ Dyspraxia.

You said- “I would like more information on Tourette Syndrome (TS).”

You said- “I would like more information on ADHD.”

You said- “I would like more information on Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

Parent carers asked for a range of information on different Neurodevelopmental Conditions.

A new section called ‘Neurodevelopmental Conditions’ has been added under the ‘Health and wellbeing’ section of the ‘Parents and carers’ page.

NELC SEND Local Offer | Neurodevelopmental Conditions (nelincs.gov.uk)

See the new information on DCD. NELC SEND Local Offer | Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) (nelincs.gov.uk)

FASD

Sarah Harding, Designated Clinical Officer, is working with parent carers that have been advised that their child has or may have FASD to understand their experiences of accessing assessment and advise to help us improve local support for families.

December

You said- “We would like quick links to navigate straight to central parts of the website to make it easier to find what we need.”

We have added three quick links under the main drop-down menu that link to the parts of the site that parent carers recommended. These are, ‘Help and Support’, ‘I’m concerned my child has SEND’, and ‘Access pathway’.

You said- “We want the whole Preparation for Adulthood process to be clearer. We want to know what services we see and when, what information and support to expect, and this includes things like health and social care.

We have planned a series of Question and Answer events for professionals from various services to link in with local schools to ensure that everyone has the right information and any service understand the bigger picture that parent carers are looking at and feel confident signposting them to the right services.

The first of these was the post-16 provider Linkage College who joined Focus, adult social care. Parent carers and children and young people were invited but the attendees and promotion was targeted primarily at professionals.

Further events with link other local schools with employment, transport, housing etc. These are recorded and shared on the Local Offer to build an archive of valuable content that can be shared across services.

You said- “We want professionals to have a better knowledge of local services.”

Our SEND Engagement Team have visited all local services directly related to SEND. We are working through wider services to understand what they can or do offer for SEND.

This will be made into social stories and video content. We will push this out as widely as possible so that all local services can become more aware of SEND and therefore more inclusive.

November

The EHC Hub

You said- “I’m not tech savvy.”, “I haven’t used the EHC Hub before, I would like help to navigate it.”, “I don’t have access to a device to use the EHC Hub.”, “The EHC Hub is hard to use on my phone.”

We now provide a tablet for you to use at our coffee morning drop-in sessions. Abi Fleming can help you with technical support.

We offered a series of online sessions

This was and continues to be widely promoted. We respond quickly to any queries about the Hub.

We have improved the web page by adding:

  • FAQ
  • Troubleshooting guide on the page
  • Common problems and best-practice use of the hub
  • Instructional video’s
  • Clear log in button

This was all based on queries and feedback from parent carers.

Making it easier for you

  • We have regular parent carer and professional feedback sessions on Teams with Hub users.
  • The Hub developer has attended these to work with us on the Hub.
  • A professional from Idox is going to attend a parent carer coffee morning.
    Our team are working with parent carers on the Idox 30 page guidance document to make it into easy read segments.

You said- “We would like more events.” and “We want engagement to be convenient” suggesting to see “several services in one place.“

We had a successful pop-up event at Pheonix Park Academy at their Harold street site. This Pupil Referral Unit was eager to improve engagement with their parent carers.

Parent carers wanted engagement to be convenient. To be flexible, we made it a drop-in event for a whole morning, and we also had soft-play for those who had other childcare responsibilities.

We invited all of the services that parent carers recommended including SENDIASS, mental health and wellbeing provider Compass GO, an EHCP Co-ordinator, VANEL’s Community Project Manager, the SEND Engagement Team, and the SENCO’s from each of the Wellspring Academy Trust schools.

The event was a success, parent carer feedback was positive, several parent carers came to meet one service but spoke to several and were introduced to new services that they found helpful, and staff said that the turnout was good.

October

You said- “In the context of Special Schools, parent carers said that they would like information on continence, nappies, and wheelchairs.“

This information was added in the relevant sections of the Local Offer.

Parent carers of children in mainstream school also asked for information about continence.

Information about continence was added to the weekly newsletter.

September

You said- “It would be good to know more about drugs that our children might be vulnerable to.”

We hosted a session on basic drug awareness for parents of adolescents. The session, called Heads Up, was delivered by our Young and Safe Street Based Team.

You said- “We need more information on the Local Offer for preparation for adulthood and employment.”

The SEND Local Offer Coordinator is working with Angie Kershaw, Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Statutory Process Manager, to enhance this information.

Examples of this are local stories of young people who have successfully moved from supported internships and employment into paid employment. These stories will put the various pathways into context and simplify the many options.

To help young people get involved in their choices we are adding video content from local educational settings like Learning4Life-Gy, Linkage, and Cambridge Park.

You said- “What information, advice and guidance is available on helping your children to sleep.”

We added more information to the ‘Social, emotional, and mental health page’ of the Local Offer.

NELC SEND Local Offer | Social, emotional and mental health (nelincs.gov.uk)

To make it easy for you to find this new information we added it to the weekly newsletter, a news post on the Local Offer, and posted it on our social media.

We have also promoted sleep workshops for parent carers and a range of workshops or training for professionals.

You said- “We would like more opportunities to share what we want and need. We need engagement to be convenient. Coffee mornings would be good. We would like pop-up events. Your team could have a presence at local events. “

In addition to the many other ways we engage with you we have added new events.

We are holding coffee mornings twice a week during term time at two Family Hubs.

We now have pop-up events at local schools and other areas with our network of local services.

August

You said- “There should be a dedicated role for engagement with parents to understand their needs.

We coproduced the role profile and interview questions with you. We also had parents involved in the selection and interview process.

We appointed Abi Fleming as our SEND Parent Engagement Champion.

July

You said- “Children and young people want more changes to celebrate SEND.”

The SEND Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG) planned the SEND Award Ceremony.

It has been a positive an uplifting experience for all. Children and young people, their families, and professionals who support them, and who have won and been nominated are all very excited.

It also gave us an unexpected chance to see lots of the local accomplishments relating to SEND and we are excited to showcase these.

You said- “We want transitions to be clearer and easier and to get all the right info at the right time from schools.”

The Specialist Advisory Service worked with local schools and services to review and improve the Transition guidance which has been added to the professionals section on the Local Offer.

June

You said- “We want more video’s on the Local Offer.”

We have added more video’s to the Celebrating SEND page and will be incorporating them and additional videos throughout the site.

You said- “We want it to be easier to find information on Education Hearing and Vision.“

The Educational Team for Hearing and Vision (ETHV) worked with parent carers to find out what they wanted and how they wanted it displayed.

This was duplicated on the website and further improvements are being developed with parent carers.

May

You said- “We want professionals to have a better idea of what life is like for us as a family of a child with SEND.”

A local parent the admins a SEND Support Facebook group for parent carers launched a survey on this subject. Her results were published in our newsletter, Local Offer and social media.

She also took it to meetings across education, health and social care to share the view points of parent carers so that professionals have a better understanding of the challenges that families face.

This included insight into how it affects families relationships and more.

You said- “We want more local stories of real people. It would be nice to see other parent carers like us and success stories of local children.”

Check out the Celebrating SEND page. We added stories from children and young people, and parent carers all of whom have various backgrounds to show the diversity, challenges, and successes of SEND.

April

You said- “Having better information on travel and transport would be easier.“

We had two Transport officer from the Council attend our Wednesday parent carer meeting.

They were able to answer your questions and we improved the website content to make it easier for you to navigate.

We are currently undergoing a transport review which is based on engagement with children and young people and parent carers.

We have included parent carer queries from previous requests like free travel for carers of children of any age and free transport for disabled children of any age.

March

You said- “We [the Education Team for Hearing and Vision] would like a link to our page to be added to the Professionals section.

A link to the page for the Education Team for Hearing and Vision has been added to the Professionals page under ‘Support’.

You said- “Can we have the SENDIASS Children and Young People’s page added to the SEND Local Offer Children and Young People’s page so it’s clear that SENDIASS also help young people.”
– Children and young people’s feedback through SENDIASS

We have added a link to the SENDIASS Children and Young People’s page under the ‘Education’, ‘Health and Wellbeing’, and ‘Preparing for Adult life’ tabs on our SEND Local Offer Children and Young People’s page.

February

You said- “It can be really hard to know what support is out there if you are a carer. Sometimes you are the sole carer for parents and children at the same time. I’ve picked up more caring responsibilities since COVID and i’m an unpaid carer for someone with completely different needs.”

Our team are making calls to every single person whose child has an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP Plan). These are calls to check on the wellbeing of your child, you and your family. If you help us understand your needs we can signpost you to the right support. Feedback from these calls have been outstanding.

We have Grandparents Plus, Kinship Care support to the Local Offer under the ‘Getting Help’ tab of the Parents and Carers page. We are also regularly adding news articles with information relevant to carers like registering with your GP, udpates of how to access services, the kinds of support you can get and how to benefit from it.

You said- “Please can you add Center4 and Carers Support Center to your benefits page.”

We have updated our Money and Benefits page to include Center4 and Carers Support Center. This page also has information on concessionary travel, Free School Meals, Carer’s Allowance and more.

You said- “Sometimes we’ve got school, and childcare, other caring roles, work, and more. It feels like you have to figure it out on your own and just get on with it when we could use more support for COVID home learning and some understanding of everything thing we do. We don’t want to get in trouble for not doing enough.”

Our team have proactively been making calls to see how every child with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP Plan) and thier family have the support they need. We care about your wellbeing and welfare as much as anything else. Parents feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. For some families we have been the only person who has asked how they were and they are very grateful. We know that taking good care of yourself and family is central to doing well academically, socially, and at home. We can help with things directly related to SEND and wider links to support.

You said– “We could use more information about wellbeing while home learning and caring.“

We have included more and varied sources of support to the Parent Weekly Update (formerly newsletter) as well as frequently updating the News feed.

You will see tools for carers, self-care and simple wellbeing as well as more targeted mental health, national campaigns, and community support for welfare, befriending, and more.

You said– “We want to see the timescales relating to each stage of the Access Pathway.“

The Access Pathway has been updated with timescales relating to each stage of the journey. This is the subheading “What happens and when?”.

This will help you understand how long your referral is with each part of the Access Pathway. We have included the details of who to contact if you would like an update of your referral.

You said– “The intro to the EHCP Annual Review feedback form could be simplified.
I would like a stronger link to the data privacy notice.
It would be more useful to have the child befined by age not year group.
I would like Carers Support Centre to be added to places people get support.
Could you add the option to leave your details for a follow up.“

We simplified the introduction and added a link there to our data privacy notice. You will tell us your child’s age. Carers Support Centre is now an option of places you get support. You can chose to leave your details for a professional to follow up with you.

January

You said- “We want a quick way to give feedback.“

We have added an instant ‘Vote up/Vote down’ feedback button to the bottom of every page on the Local Offer.

We will look at these to see how well each page is performing and hope you will take a minute to give us a few more details on the Local Offer Feedback form so we can get it right for you. You’ll find a quick link to the feedback form just underneath the button in the blue footer.

You said- “We want it to be easier to see who to contact in the Access Pathway and how soon the queries are answered. “

We have made the contact details for the Access Pathway Team more visible by moving it to the top of the page. We have also made it easier to see that your queries will be answered within five working days.

You said- “There’s a gap before people know about the Local Offer. We think there should be a leaflet given to GP’s, food banks, Carers Support, and other services.“

We are developing a flyer with details about the Local Offer and key services for support that will be given to all schools, GP’s, charity and volunteer sector, Carers Support and other relevant services. This is being coproduced with parents so check back to the ‘Have your say page’ to see current projects you can give feedback on.

You said- “Simplify the feedback form.”

We have simplified the form so it’s easy for you to let us know what you think whether you are a child or young person, parents or carer, or a professional.

Leave us your feedback on our ‘Have your say section.’

You said- “SENCo’s asked for advice on medical needs in schools.

Sarah Harding, the Designated Clinical Officer, worked with the School Nursing Team to develop the Managing medical needs in schools page.

NELC SEND Local Offer | Managing medical conditions in schools (nelincs.gov.uk)

You said – “Can you share information and resources on how to support children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide links to other websites with useful information on money and benefits”

We created the COVID-19 page with useful information and links for parents/carers, young people and professionals.

There are also pages from the specialist teaching teams who have created specific pages to support parents, supporting children with specific needs, such as deaf/hearing impaired or children with autism.

We now include regular money, benefits and financial support information on the weekly SEND newsletter published on the Local Offer. This includes national and local options. We recognise that some families may need help to access these sources of support and have links to Early Help and The Carers centre who can give guidance on form filing and applications.

You said – “Can we have access to the new weekly parent/carer SEND newsletter through the Local Offer?”

Yes. We have created a news feed on the first page of the Local Offer which includes the weekly SEND parents/carers newsletter information.

You said – “The layout of the local offer is really confusing and some links don’t work”

We have redesigned the local offer and fixed all the links. We have asked parents to tell us what they think of the new look draft SEND Local Offer and look forward to their feedback in December 2020.

You said – “The search facility is poor and leads you to very old information”

The New Local Offer has a brand new search option which takes you to the latest related information. We have a Local Offer Co-ordinator to help keep the Local Offer up to date and relevant to users.

You said – “There is no information for teachers and other professionals. The old local authority website ‘The Lighthouse’ used to have useful resources for teachers. This should be brought back.” and “There should be a chance to share SEND teaching resources on the Local Offer a bit like on the TES website.”

The new Local Offer has a section aimed at providing resources that teachers may find useful. We also encourage professionals to send us resources they would like to share with colleagues and rate their usefulness. Parents/carers can also access these and take a look at anything that they might find useful to use at home.

You said – “There is nothing much about Early Years, Child Minders or childcare vouchers”

The new Local Offer has an Early Years section that is regularly updated. The Early Years team attend our weekly parents/carers meeting and information on SEND Early Years funding is shared in the SEND weekly newsletter and published on the Local Offer.

You said – “The information on personal budgets isn’t clear and doesn’t tell me what my options are”

A review of our personal budget information is taking place in Oct/Nov 2020. The new information will be published on the Local Offer in December 2020 after we have asked parents/carers to help us make it as accessible as possible.

You said – “Nobody knows about the Local Offer. Schools don’t use it and neither do the Family Hubs, health or social care. It’s pointless having it.”

In December 2020 we will be launching the new SEND Local Offer and a communication strategy to ensure best possible use is made of the Local Offer and that our local communities are aware of what it is and how it can help them.

You said – “I have been looking for help for SEND issues but I have not known where or who to turn to. The local offer doesn’t help because nobody knows about it .’ and ‘I have never heard of the Local Offer. How can it help me if I don’t know about it.”

We created links to support for a range of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

We asked SENDIASS to help promote the Local Offer with parents/carers. All education officers in the LA added the Local Offer link to their email footers. We asked schools and academies to ensure they have a link to the SEND Local Offer on their school websites.

You said – “I have never seen a SEND newsletter but my child is on the school’s SEND register” and “I would like a SEND newsletter from my school with what is happening in our local area.”

We added the NELPFF/SENDIASS bi-annual SEND Newsletter to the SEND Local Offer for all parents/carers to access. We also asked SENCos to ensure all children and young people on their SEND register were signposted to the newsletter or given a hard copy.

You said – “The Local Offer doesn’t have any useful information about short breaks.”

We have a review planned of the Short Breaks offer and will include the revisions in the Local Offer.

You said – “I don’t know when things are happening. The Local Offer doesn’t tell me about any workshops or events.’”

We added an events page with links to Eventbrite so parents/carers and professionals can see in advance what events are being offered, where and when.

You said – “Parents of young children don’t use the Local Offer because it doesn’t have the information we need on it for Early Years.”

We worked with parents and a range of Early Years professionals to audit our Local Offer using the Children’s Disability Service Audit Tool. We made changes to the Early Years Information that is available.

You said – “Young people don’t want to use a local authority Local Offer, we want links to websites that are more set up for Young People, particularly about Mental Health.”

We developed a Young Minds Matter and Futures in Mind social media, text and on line offer and published details of these on the Local Offer.

You said – “We want some information about Sleep Difficulties’.

We provided a link to Sleep Solutions Services in our Local Area and links to relevant Sleep Support websites.

You said – “Schools do not use the Local Offer to signpost parents’.

We asked SENCOs at the SENCO Forum to help us promote the local offer and use it to support parents in their decision making.

You said – “The Local Offer is needs icons to help navigate the pages.”

We asked Barnardo’s Young People’s M and M group to help us add suitable logos to the tabs on the Local Offer.

You said – “We would like more videos on the Local Offer because not everyone likes to do a lot of reading.”

We added Barnardo’s information Videos, Children’s Disability Service videos  and other You Tube information in video format to the Local Offer.

You said – “Parents cannot find the information they need from schools and academies about SEND their SEND offer.”

We asked all educational settings to review their websites and ensure their SEND Information Reports were up to date. We provided the updated links to all educational settings on our Local Offer.

You said – “Parents and carers still don’t know what the local offer is.”

We asked NELPPF and SENDIASS to help us promote the NE Lincs SEND  Local Offer when they speak with parents/carers. We gave social care and health care professionals the link to the NE Lincs Local Offer and some training about what it is and how they can use it to signpost parents/carers.

You said – “There is not enough information about Social Care Short Breaks on the Local Offer and the information that is there is too confusing.

We asked the Children’s Disability Service to update the Local Offer provide relevant information in a plain English.

You said – “NELPPF’s  SEND Newsletter is not on the Local Offer.”

We have made sure all past and future SEND Newsletters are published on the Local Offer.

You said – “There is nowhere to easily give feedback about SEND on the Local Offer.”

We created a feedback button for all users of the site to give feedback.

You said – “Teachers would like a professionals page with useful information about SEND.”

We have given all schools and settings a passcode to a professionals SEND section.

You said – “There is no information about out of area schools on the Local Offer.”

We have put links to a range of out of area provisions on the Local Area to support parents and carers with informed decision making.

You said – “Parents  at the SENDIASS steering group meeting stated that they don’t know what ‘The Local Offer is and that a search for ‘SEN’ on NE Lincs website would be more useful.”

We titled our Local Offer as Special Educational Needs – Local Offer.

You said – “NELPPF asked us to make available a paper copy of the Local Offer.”

We are currently exploring the best way to do this.

You said – “The contract lead for the carers support service contacted us on behalf of their carers to ask us to update details of the service.”

We provided a brief summary of the service, attached the most up to date Carers Alert card leaflet  2016, deleted the outdated information regarding pathways.

You said – “NELPPF asked us to update our Social Care.”

We have asked our partners in school care to develop this area of the Local Offer and aim to have this in place by January 2017.

You said – “Parents told us the language used in the Local Offer was to technical and full of jargon.”

We invited parents and SENDIASS  to form a ‘Local Offer Working group’ to rewrite the information about Special Educational Needs, Education Health and Care Plans and support in their own words. The part of this project has been published on the Local Offer. Further work continues.

You said – “Parents asked us to provide a link to social media for SEN.”

We now have a Facebook link on the Local Offer.

You said – “Parents from a local Special School asked us to put the Disability Register on line on the Local Offer.”

We have put the form on line accessible through the Local Offer. All families who sign up will receive a free MAX card.