The Local Offer

So what's that then Sue from the Brew? An offer of something which is local in Derby, free drinks, discounted meals?

Well no sorry it's not that kind of offer. It's more like the offer of help and support from your local council for everyone with Special Education Needs and/or Disabilities from 0-25 years. Every council has to provide one and Derby City Council's can be found on their website which I will leave a link for at the end of this post.

Now you may have not known anything about this or you may have had a look and thought it was a bit rubbish? It has now been passed over to the Family Information Service within Derby City Council and they are wanting to revamp it and make it the central hub to go to for all the information you need as a person with SEN and families too.

The Local Offer is for:

• children and young people with SEN and/or disabilities from birth         to 25
• their parents and carers
• practitioners and professionals.

The Local Offer should:

• make it easier to find out what you need to know
• give you information about what is available
• tell you where you can get further information.

quoted from Derby SEND PDF information sheet about The Local Offer which can be found here:
www.derby.gov.uk/media/derbycitycouncil/contentassets/documents/education/The%20Local%20Offer.pdf

That is the plan and this could be really good with your help. They need as much feedback as possible from you to help them make this service more accessible and user friendly. Laura Corden from the Family Information Service is coming to talk to one of the NAS Derby & District Branch Groups to explain all about this improvement on 23rd November at St Clares School, Rough Heanor Road, Derby DE3 9AZ 7pm-9pm.

If you would like to come along and have your say that would be really good and together we can hopefully help everyone by having all the information for families at the touch of a button.

Take a look at the current Local Offer here at the Derby City Council website at: www.derby.gov.uk/education-and-learning/special-education-needs-disabilities/
If you are out of Derby City and want to access Derbyshire County Councils' Local Offer this can be found at: www.derbyshiresendlocaloffer.org

It would be great to get other feedback from other Councils, so if you are in the UK and think your Local Offer is great and working for your local families then please let us know too.

Don't forget this is a service for you and everyone who will follow through in the future. I personally would love to see this be something of help to people as I know how it is to want the right information and support straight away. The SEND team at Derby City Council are very good for support but this would be and added benefit to access that help and support which is out there in some form but it maybe the case that you don't know about it. Well now you can.

Please do feel free to come along to the meeting, it doesn't cost anything and there are refreshments available, yes and even a biscuit or two.

Thanks for reading today, please do come back tomorrow for Pass the Remote but for now please.........

​take care.