Read the feedback we received from you in 2019 and what we did in response.

The Preparing for Adulthood Section needs to be clearer and easier to use

A student told us that the preparing for adulthood section on the Local Offer was a little confusing. They explained that the money sections, education sections and employment information were all mixed up.

We have now changed the whole section to make it easier for you to use.

New layout

You told us in the survey that you found the site hard to navigate in areas. So... we changed the layout - there is now a simplistic navigation system on the site to make sure that you can find the information you need as quickly as possible. We now have colourful icons on the main page, which leads you to an easier way of finding the information that you need.

Local Offer Survey

Thank you to everybody that shared our Local Offer Survey. Over 160 people completed our survey and gave us some amazing feedback. Feedback ranged from the quality of the content on the site, to navigation and ease of use. Each and every feedback form that was completed has given us something to work on, how we can make things better for you as users, what you want to see that is not already there and the name of the site.

You chose to rename The Local Offer "York's Local Offer - What York can offer to children and young people (0 to 25) with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities." We're now in the process of:

• making the site easier to navigate and use, as you told us that it was hard to find some information
• ensuring the language which is used is ‘easy to understand’ and public friendly
• changing the layout of the main page – as you told us there was far too much information on the main page
• enhancing our search box facilities
• reducing some of our text down to bullet points
• an area you can go to ‘understand jargon’

Parents said:

the language is hard to understand and I can’t find some information

After a meeting with 2 lovely parents from York's Parent Carer Forum, it was agreed that there was a need for a jargon buster to help parents new into the world of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) with new language and acronyms. In addition, it would be nice for an easy place for policies, documents and forms that you may need in the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) process to be found. Finally, the parents informed us that there is some info on the site that can be hard to understand. These changes are in process now and we would like to thank these parents for taking the time to tell us what they thought.

Name change

After a very successful feedback survey was sent out, we have received some very constructive feedback about the Local Offer. The biggest being a name change for the site. Due to Local Offer being a statutory requirement, this must stay in the name however, you chose "York's Local Offer for SEND - What York can offer to children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities." Thank you for your feedback, we have begun some huge changes on the site and we cannot wait for you to see them.

Local Offer peer review

On Tuesday 26 February, myself (The Local Offer Officer), Alex (Chair of the York Parent Carer Forum), Ruben (A parent involved in York and District Dyslexia Association Online) and Susan DeVal (Commissioning Specialist - CCG Vale of York) met with 8 other Local Authorities from across Yorkshire and reviewed the effectiveness of each Local Offer Website. The aim is to use this feedback to improve our Local Offer so that it is informative and easy to use for parent, carers, children, young people and professionals. We were paired up with Rotherham Council who reviewed our site. The feedback was:

• almost all of the information was easy to find
• the photos and top tips worked well
• the films were useful
• they liked the "What has the Local Offer Officer been up to?" page

However:

• some areas of the site were a little too wordy
• some documents were hard to find
• we needed some branding once you were on York’s Local Offer within YorOK

These issues will be resolved in the very near future.

The health information is out-of-date

When attending a parent group on February 21, Susan DeVal (Commissioning Specialist – CCG Vale of York) informed the Local Offer Officer that the health information could be more helpful and needed updating. In light of this, they are working on changing this section of the site. Some changes have already been made, but others are happening in the near future.

The site is not easily accessible

Some information is hard to find. The Local Offer Officer (Laura Brown) met with Alex Cowen, the chair of the York Parent Carer Forum to discuss the Local Offer and the accessibility of the site. Alex informed us that the site is difficult to use and some information is hard to find. In response to this, the Local Offer Officer is now designing a new main page and gaining regular feedback from young people and parents. This should make it much easier to navigate.

We asked City of York Council colleagues to send us their feedback

The Local Offer Officer sent out an email to everyone working at City of York Council asking for their feedback and opinions of the site. All were asked to review information from their services. We received lots of positive and constructive feedback and, as a result of one piece of feedback, the Local Offer Officer has met with Ruth Robson, a specialist carer adviser (EHCP) and handed her post cards with Local Offer information on, so that she can distribute these out to the parents that she meets.

We met a group of parents on Thursday 21 February, about the Local Offer and the SEND inspection

They provided useful feedback about how to make the Local Offer site more accessible to public and we were keen to arrange more meetings with parents to ensure that the site is nice and simple to use and find the information which is on offer.

We're going to send out a survey regarding the name of the Local Offer, to see who knows about and uses the site and to take any feedback from parents and public users who may not be able to make the meetings in the future.

Parents said that some Early Years settings had not informed them about the Local Offer 

We want to make sure that as many people as possible know about and benefit from the service that the Local Offer provides. So, we have sent the Early Years SENCO team with lots of our leaflets to make sure that more people know about the site.