Working together to improve the Local Offer

Website content

Preparing for adulthood

The new Preparing for adulthood: Preparing for and finding employment section of the Local Offer website has been reviewed and expanded. It now includes information about:

• The West Sussex, Brighton and Hove Careers Hub website, ‘Your Futures’
• Jobcentre Plus
• supported internships
• apprenticeships
• supported employment
• becoming self-employed
• study and training programmes
• access to Work scheme

The next sections to be completed will be about accommodation and living more independently in the community.

Local Offer service directory

After feedback from the West Sussex Parent Carer Forum (WSPCF) and colleagues, we have reviewed our text at the beginning of our service directory entries. This is to make it clearer that some services are not run by WSCC or the NHS. The new text states: "This is an independent service, which is not run by the NHS or WSCC.

This service is not checked by WSCC and including it on the Local Offer website does not mean that it is a recommended service.

Before using this service, we recommend you make your own checks. Your checks should include being happy that:

• the service will meet your needs
• staff are properly qualified
• policies are in place to keep everyone safe
• you know how much the service will cost

Use this guidance for advice about what to ask to help you make sure that children and young people are happy and protected in clubs, groups and activities. Find out more on our terms and disclaimer."

We have decided that we will continue to include independent, paid-for services in the Local Offer directory so that parent carers can have as much choice as possible. Where a service is run by NHS or WSCC, this is more clearly stated in the title of the page.

Coproduction

We learnt more about the Together for Change Panel, which is hosted by the West Sussex Parent Carer Forum and provides a space for projects, services and information to be developed with engagement from parent carers. More about this panel will be published on the Local Offer website shortly.

The Local Offer is represented at every Together for Change Panel as part of our commitment to coproduction.

Publicity

Local Offer now has a banner and a leaflet to aid the duty to widely publicise the Local Offer and talk to families at events in and around the county.

Website content

Preparation for adulthood continues to be an area of focus to develop content for the webpages, particularly in the areas of participating in the community and finding accommodation.

Transitions between different phases of education are also a focus for information.

A news and events page is currently being developed.

Local Offer website

The homepage redesign is due to go live by the end of March, to make it clearer that the site is made of two parts, the information pages and the services directory pages.

The Local Offer logo will now include the words ‘SEND’ and ‘West Sussex’, to make its purpose clearer to people. We will look into adding a graphic to the logo to support this further.

Publicising Local Offer services and website

We have closed the Twitter ‘X’ site for Local Offer and will continue to focus on the Facebook page to support Local Offer in sharing information and details of local events.

We have published ‘You asked…we did’ information to show how we are responding to feedback and requests from families and practitioners. This will continue to be developed and can be viewed on this webpage.

Also see notes on continuing areas for website development from the meeting on 30 September 2024.

Website content

West Sussex Parent Carer Forum will participate in developing information for the ‘Preparing for Adulthood’ employment web pages.

‘Accommodation’ and ‘Volunteering’ areas of the website are also identified gaps to be addressed.
Content is currently being prepared for the ‘Health’ area of the website to give guidance in oral health and dentistry.

Local Offer website

We continue to work to improve the search function of the website and we will be considering a homepage redesign early in 2025 to make it clearer that the site is made of two parts; the information pages and the services directory pages.

Investigations into the possibility of publishing an events and news section for the website continue.

Publicising Local Offer services and website

It was noted that there is a lot of information about SEND for parents, but that it is not always easy to navigate and can become overwhelming.

Not everyone has heard of the Local Offer or SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIAS) so we need to do more work both to develop suitable and useful content and to make sure that people know how to access it.

 

Action points from the meeting to be followed up and published on the Local Offer website.

Education pages

• How are children with SEND, who are looked after by the local authority, supported?
• How do education providers get the services and equipment required, such as ancillary aids and assistive technology, including Augmentative and Alternative Communication?
• How do education providers support children moving between phases of education and preparing for adulthood and independent living?
• How is education and training provision for those with SEND assessed and evaluated?
• How do local settings work together to support those with SEND?

Education, Health and Care Plan pages

• What services across education, health and social care lend themselves to the use of Personal Budgets?
• Information about controlling funding through direct payments and third-party arrangements.
• Clear and simple statements setting out eligibility criteria for personal budgets and the decision-making processes that underpin them.

Preparing for adulthood - Employment pages

• How can employment services, such as job coaches, support in finding employment?
• How to get specialist advice on Work Choice, Residential Training and The Work Programme.
• How are children from year 8 to helped to plan their careers, including signposting to where they can obtain information and advice about setting up their own enterprise.

Preparing for adulthood - Housing, safety and community life pages

• What volunteering opportunities are there and is there support to access them?
• Support in using the internet and social media to find information and develop and maintain friendships, including where they can go for guidance on using the internet safely and how to protect themselves against cyber-bullying and exploitation.
• Information about finding accommodation, including information about different housing options such as social housing, housing association accommodation, private renting, shared housing and shared ownership.
• What support is available to help people personally, for example in managing their Personal Budget or recruiting a personal assistant?
• What support is there to learn the skills needed to live in supported, semi-supported or independent accommodation?

Health

• How do GPs, health visitors, dentists and hospitals make their services accessible to those with SEND?
• Information about wheelchair services and community equipment, children’s community nursing, continence services.
• Information about emergency health and Social Care provision.

Local Offer website

We are currently working to improve and create:

• a search function across the whole Local Offer website
• an events diary to help families be informed about what’s going on in and around West Sussex
• easy-print versions of information for those not able to access the information online

Thank you to the West Sussex Parent Carer Forum for giving us feedback on the experiences of families using the website. We will keep you updated.