The Government has reformed the special educational needs and disability (SEND) system for children and young people aged 0 to 25 in England. A key part of these reforms is the production and publication by the Local Authority and its partners of a Local Offer, setting out in one place information about services and provision expected to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people who have SEN or who are disabled.
The Local Offer has two key purposes:
To provide clear, comprehensive, accessible and up-to-date information about the available provision and how to access it.
To make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving disabled children and those with SEN and their parents, and disabled young people and those with SEN, and service providers in its development and review.
The local authority must set out in its Local Offer, an authority-wide description of the special educational and training provision it expects to be available in its area and outside for children and young people who have SEN or disabilities from providers of relevant early years education, maintained schools, non-maintained special schools, pupil referral units, independent institutions approved under section 41 of the Children and Families Act 2014, and the full range of post-16 providers. This includes information about the arrangements the local authority has for funding children and young people with SEN, including any agreements about how providers will use any budget that has been delegated to them. Further work is being carried out on the authority–wide offer. Schools have additional duties under the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014. Schools must publish more detailed information about their arrangements for identifying, assessing and making provision for pupils with SEN.
Each school must produce its’ own ‘School’s Offer’ (SEN Information Report)