What is the Local Offer? 
Welcome to our site!
We hope you are able to access information quickly and easily. The information should:
- Support you in understanding the new system for children and young people from birth to 25 years with special educational needs and disabilities.
- Give you information about childcare and early education for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
- Provide you with information about how your child’s school supports pupils with special educational needs. See individual school websites to view their Local Offers.
- Help you to understand your role in ensuring that your child’s needs are met.
- Set out what you can expect from health services that support children and young people with a range of medical needs.
- Make clear what options are available for young people to continue in education, training and/or employment.
- Give you clear criteria for accessing services.
- Guide you through education, health and social care processes that ensure children and young people with the most complex needs are identified early and supported with an Education, Health and Care Plan.
- Make transition a seamless process to independence and adulthood for young people.
It is a legal requirement that the Local Authority seeks from children and young people with SEN or a disability, and the parents of children with SEN or a disability, comments on the Local Offer, specifically on its content, the accessibility of the information contained within it and how it has been developed and reviewed (including how children, parents and young people have been involved in the development and review of the Local Offer). Where comments have been received from parents, children and young people, the Local Authority is required to publish these annually, along with its response to the comments, on its website and any comments so published must be in a form that does not enable any individual to be identified. Any comments which you make on the Local Offer via these webpages may therefore be published on the Local Authority’s website, along with the Authority’s response to those comments; however, neither your name nor any other personal details by which you might be identifiable will be published. By making comments on the Local Offer via these webpages, you consent to those comments being published on the Local Authority’s website.
The Journey So Far
In 2013, Wirral Council along with Community Action Wirral, partners within health and education, parents, carers and children and young people came together to develop Wirral’s Local Offer.
This site is the second version that has been created as all partners are committed to continual improvement and have ensured ongoing and regular engagement to gather views. These views have been listened to and the site developed further as a result.
A series of co-production sessions took place with parents and carers to help define the look and functionality of the site. Headteachers, SENCo’s, Health Practitioners and Voluntary Sector agencies were all part of the process of development and have had regular opportunities to share their thoughts on the site.
The effectiveness of the Local Offer website depends upon how far we can spread the word. We have been working to promote the local offer to health visitors, GP’s, social workers, teachers, SENCO’s, counsellors, youth workers, voluntary, community and faith groups, parents/carers and of course to young people themselves.
Local Offer Promotion
- We are currently working with One Stop Shop and library staff throughout Wirral by attending their team meetings and giving local offer site demonstrations.
- We have worked with Job Centre plus to ensure all work coaches have knowledge of the Local Offer to share with their clients. All Wirral work coaches have received on-line Local Offer information about the site and it’s content. We attended three networking events in Upton, Wallasey and Bromborough to promote the site, hand out promotional material and answer any questions the work coaches may have.
- We demonstrated the site at three early years locality meetings hosted by social care. During these meetings we talked about the local offer to social workers, health visitors, early years providers, and play workers. We gave out promotional items to be shared with parents and carers and invited those present to leave feedback on the site.
- We attended the Wirral Learnining Provider Network Meeting to ensure all learning providers are aware of the Local Offer and able to share it with the young people that use their services. The feedback function was highlighted and learning providers were encouraged to ask students who use the site to let us know what they think.
- We attended a network meeting for community organisations on Wirral. Thirty organisations were present and so the opportunity was used to give a short presentation on the Local Offer site. Questions were taken and services gave a positive response, we were told that a website like this has been long awaited and that it is useful to have everything to do with SEND in one place. We asked organisations to list their services on the local offer and to encourage other services with SEND provision to do the same.
- We have visited a variety of parents and carers groups throughout Wirral to both gather feedback and promote the site. We had pens, keyrings and trolley coins made to provide a functional way for parents and carers to remember the Local Offer is out there.
Some other groups and organisations that we have been spreading the local offer word to include;
NEET Action Group, Tranmere Rovers in the Community, The Youth Federation, PSS, WEB Merseyside, Autism Together, Barnston Dale Activity Centre, Birkenhead Early Excellence, Mencap, the Oxton Gateway Project, Forum Housing, Your Housing Group, Action for Children, Stick & Step, Ferries Families Group, Catholic Children’s Society, Homestart and Creative Youth Development.
We will continue to engage with all partners on Wirral across the public, private and third sector in order to raise the profile of Wirral’s Local Offer. We will also encourage those organisations with SEND provision to list their services and keep them current. If you need support with this please conatct [email protected].
Wirral Partnership Strategies
Wirral’s Strategy for Children, Young People and Families
Local Offer Annual Report