Guidance and information about support services for children and young people with SEND, and the additional responsibilities for schools.
As part of the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Reforms in 2014, local authorities must have published a Local Offer. This sets out in one place information about education, health and social care provision for children and young people in their area who have special educational needs or a disability.
The Derbyshire 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 children and young people with SEND, their parents and carers and service providers in its development and review.
Derbyshire's Local Offer has information about support and services for children and young people (birth to 25 years) with special educational needs and disabilities and their families.
Derbyshire's Local Offer website also signposts families to school websites for further information about the SEN provision available.
Additional responsibilities for schools
Under the Special Educational Needs and Disability code of practice, schools and governing bodies must publish more detailed information about their arrangements for identifying, assessing and making provision for pupils with SEN (see chapter 6, Schools - Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years).
The information must also include details about the arrangements for the admission of pupils with disabilities, the steps taken to prevent pupils with disabilities from being treated less favourably than other pupils, the facilities provided to assist access for pupils with disabilities and the school accessibility plans.
Derbyshire schools should also include a link to the Derbyshire SEND Local Offer in the SEND section of their website as set out in chapter 6.81 of the code of practice.
More information about the role of early years settings, schools and post 16 institutions is given in chapters 5 to 7 of the code of practice.