Local Offer Champions For professionals working with children and young people with SEND and their families www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer

What is the Local Offer? The Local Offer is all of the information, advice and support that children and young people with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND) and their families might need to use. Sometimes, people call it the SEND Local Offer. The Local Offer website makes all of the information, advice and support easier to find because they are all in one place. Its also got places to go and fun things to do. www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer or www.newcastlesupportdirectory.org.uk/localoffer www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer

Who is the Local Offer for? All children and young people with SEND: aged 0 to 25 years old, with or without a statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN) or an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. Parents, carers and professionals working with families will also find this resource useful. Local Offer Champions will help families at the point of contact to find out about and to use the Local Offer. www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer

What’s the purpose of the Local Offer? The Local Offer has two key purposes: 1. To provide clear, comprehensive and accessible information about the provision available, all together in one place; and 2. To make the provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving children and young people with SEND, parent carers and service providers in its development and review. www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer

Where can I find the Local Offer? www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer www.newcastlesupportdirectory.org.uk/localoffer But the Local Offer is not just a website. We have a range of publicity materials to raise awareness about the Local Offer including leaflets for families and for young people, a postcard for inclusion in other outgoing mail and posters for display at key access points (e.g. council buildings, schools, community centres, GP surgeries, dentists and chemists). The SEND Local Offer is a part of the wider Newcastle Support Directory which has sections for Adults & Families. www.newcastlesupportdirectory.org.uk. www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer

Role of the Local Offer Champion Local Offer Champions can be frontline professionals working with families and can give good, correct information to families of children with SEND. Champions will know about the Local Offer and be able to signpost people to the right information from the right organisation. Where families do not have internet access, staff at local libraries can them online and show them how to use the website. Your local library also runs Internet Taster Sessions. www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer

What does a Champion do? Learn how to find information on the Local Offer website. Share information from the website with people who find it hard to access (for example, people with low literacy, or without internet access). Make sure your own organisation’s information is up to date on the Local Offer, and encourage others to keep their information up to date. Let us know if any information is out of date. Tell us where you identify gaps in service provision, or where customers give feedback to you to pass onto us. www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer

Keeping the Local Offer up to date Working together we can make sure that families of children and young people with SEND have access to good information and feel supported. We want people to have real choice in their lives, to feel included within their communities and to be independent. If we want good quality information about services in Newcastle, we should all contribute and own the idea. Tell us about places to go and fun things to do, as well as relevant information, advice and support. www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer

Website familiarity Please take some time to look at our new website at one of the following domain names. www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer www.newcastlesupportdirectory.org.uk/localoffer If you’re familiar with the website content, you’ll be better able to help the children and young people and their families who need this information. Please always pass on the website address and positively promote what it can do for them. If you have time, you might even sit down and explore the information, advice and support available on this website with them. www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer

Categories When you click on these categories, you will see information, advice and support related to that particular category, places to go and fun things to do and a range of relevant Information and Guidance Articles. www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer

Getting to know the Local Offer Website Using your knowledge of the Local Offer, find out: 1. What’s the phone number for the Alan Shearer Activity Centre? 2. I’m 19 now, can I still contact WEYES about counselling? Browse the Information and Guidance Articles and see if you can find these: 3. What is a Personal Budget? 4. Requesting a new Education Health and Care Plan ….you could try out the Search facility! www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer

Tell us what you think Please always tell your clients about giving us feedback. What else do we need to include in Newcastle’s Local Offer? Have you been to a club, activity or event that was really good – do you want other people to know about it and have a great time too? Is there a particular activity that you want to do, but that isn’t included in our Local Offer? Tell us about it, and we’ll see what we can do about it! Click on the Feedback button at the top of the screen. We’ll consider what we can do, keep a record of our decision and publish them annually. www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer

Who can give us feedback? Everyone! We want the opinions of: children and young people with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities; their families; and professionals working with families. Tell us what you think so that we can change and improve our Local Offer, and ensure that it meets your needs. You could also tell us what is useful in our Local Offer, and what is not. Tell us what is missing from our Local Offer. Click on the Feedback button or Email: localoffer@newcastle.gov.uk www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer

So did you ask about the Flying Penguin yet? Who says penguins can’t fly? Our logo is a flying penguin. Officially, he or she doesn’t have a name yet. It was developed with young people with SEND across two workshops at WEYES and at the Welcome Club. Our flying penguin represents young people’s ability to do surprising things and, given the opportunity, they can reach beyond expectations. The Local Offer is there to promote opportunities to young people with SEND, so they can reach their potential and beyond! www.newcastle.gov.uk/localoffer