- Wakefield SEND Local Offer
- Important information
- What is the Local Offer?
What is the Local Offer?
Purpose of the Local Offer
Special Educational Needs and or Disabilities is called SEND.
The SEND Local Offer is something every Local Authority has to have. It tells you things and helps children and young people aged 0 to 25. It also helps parents, carers and professionals.
Lots of different people contribute to the Local Offer. These can be from education, health care or social care. They can also be parents, carers, children or young people. The Wakefield SEND Local Offer is where you find this information in one place.
There is more information about the Local Offer in Chapter 4 of the SEND Code of Practice 2015..
Wakefield's Local Offer is more than just a website
Newsletter
We produce a Local Offer Newsletter 3 times a year. It is called News and Views. This has services, support, activities, events and news about what is available in the local area.
Social Media
We also use our Local Offer Facebook page to tell you about what's happening and what support services are available.
What is the Local Offer?
How the SEND Local Offer has been developed
2015 to 2020
In the Wakefield area, a working group was set up to work out what the Local Offer website would look like and how it would be produced. This group was made up of Parents, the NHS, Wakefield Council, the Voluntary/Community Sector, Schools, Colleges, the Connexions Service and WESAIL and using the views of service users.
As part of making sure the Local Offer website still met the needs of families across our area, we used feedback received through the website, engagement exercises, Listening events, You Said…. We Did…. etc. In November 2017 we asked people to tell us specifically what they thought about the website and how it worked. From this and previous feedback received, we improved the search and navigation on the website as well as some other minor changes.
2020 - 2022
A group was set up called the Local Offer Together (LOT) group. This group met 4 times a year to talk about the Local Offer. The group was made up of people from the WESAIL service, the Wakefield Parent Carer Forum, education, health care and Wakefield Council. They worked together to audit and improve some of the information. An audit is when something is checked.
We worked with Wakefield Awareness Support Project (WASP). Together, we created the new Easy Read section on Autism. We listened to what information WASP wanted and thought was most important. The WESAIL service also contributed to this work.
The Young People's Advisory Group, known as Kid Sqad, also helped to audit and improve the Local Offer. They created information for the newsletter as well as looking at the website.
More Information
For more information on how the Wakefield SEND Local Offer has been developed, please see our Feedback section. This includes the You Said We Did response to feedback as well as the Local Offer Annual Report.
Joining the Local Offer
The Local Offer website is free for suitable services and providers to join.
How do I add my service or activity
You can add your service or activity by filling out a signup form.
You can also ask for an application form by emailing wakefieldlocaloffer@family-action.org.uk.
How do I tell you about a service or activity
If you know of a service that would be good to have on the Local Offer, you can email us at wakefieldlocaloffer@family-action.org.uk.
You can also send them the link to this page where they can add their service directly onto the Local Offer.
Who to contact if you need help
If you would like more help and support, you can contact the Wakefield Early Support, Advice and Information Liaison Service (WESAIL).
This service is provided on behalf of Wakefield Council by Family Action. You can contact them by calling 01924 965588, or email wakefieldlocaloffer@family-action.org.uk.
You can contact WESAIL directly by emailing WESAIL@family-action.org.uk.