Annual Report 2022/23

The SEND Local Offer Website – Annual Report

Welcome to the 2022-2023 annual report for Birmingham’s Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Local Offer website

Introduction

Birmingham’s SEND Local Offer website provides information, support and services for children and young people from 0-25 years, all in one place. 

It has sections on: Education, Early Years and Childcare; Social Care, Health and Wellness, Travel and Transport, Information and Support, Advice and Resources, Money Matters, Places to go, Things to do, Preparing for Adulthood, Policy and Forms Library, and more.

Parents, carers children, young people and practitioners have been involved in co-producing a revised site which offers better navigation, better explanation of processes and a new directory.  This resulted in the SEND Local Offer website being refreshed last year and relaunched in December 2022 with a new logo, much improved navigation and a new searchable SEND directory.

We continue to improve the content and the style and structure of the SEND Local Offer website.

All local authorities must publish a SEND Local Offer, setting out in one place information about services and support available for children and young people in their area who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Local authorities and their partner bodies and agencies must co-operate with each other in its development and review.

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, and

• To make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving children, young people, parents, carers and service providers in its development and review.

SEND Local Offer Focus Group

There SEND Local Offer Website focus group which met within this workstream, oversaw the work on the refreshed website and worked to co-produce the changes that were incorporated.

Specific Areas for the SEND Local Offer Focus group

  1. To ensure the SEND Local Offer meets its statutory responsibilities as outlined in the Children and Families Act 2014 and SEND Code of Practice 2015.
  2. To involve children and young people and parents and carers in the development and review of the SEND Local Offer.
  3. To ensure the site is accessible.
  4. To promote the site and ensure all stakeholders are aware of their role and duties.
  5. To keep the content under review, ensuring that the SEND Local Offer is:
    • developed and continuously improved
    • reflects services in the local area
    • accurate and up to date
    • easy to understand
    • easy to use
    • meets the requirements of children and young people and parents and carers.

How many have people have visited the SEND Local Offer website?

  • 1 April 2022 – 29 March 2023 = 277,388 page views (216,508 unique page views)
    Compared to 1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022 the SEND Local Offer had 296,296 page views (222,577 unique page views).
  • 1 April 2022 – 29 March 2023 = 67,476 users, 66,031 were new visitors which reflects the success of the promotional campaign compared to 1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022 the SEND Local Offer had 69,777 users.

A user is a visitor who has initiated at least one session during the date range.

Month by month figures

Month

Visitors

September 22

23,494

October 22

23,524

December 22

15,264

January 23

34,418

February 23

27,227

March 23

32,528

 

Top 10 most popular information pages, (after the home page) for 2022/23 were:

 

Device used 2022/23:

Users are now split more evenly between mobile and desktop, again suggesting that parents/carers are now a larger proportion of the audience.

Impact from information provided by website analytics:

  • There is still work to do on promoting the SEND Local Offer website to families.  In a parent/carer survey conducted last May, 75% of those who answered had not heard of the site.
  • Parents and carers value and use the events page and webinars are very popular
  • There is a steady overall rise in viewing figures month by month, but more needs to be done to driver visitor numbers up

Overhauling and refreshing the website

The website has been refreshed and relaunched in co-production with a range of stakeholders including, parents, carers, children and young people.

Our website developer has worked with us to reconfigure our navigation, improve the look of the website and to develop a SEND directory of resources. Staff, partners and practitioners have reworked their own content in order to produce, accurate, up to date and relevant information.

All document downloads on the site have been revised and made fit for purpose.

We have included a Feedback ‘pop up’ which asks website visitors for instant feedback

We have produced a far reaching launch programme which has included virtual and in person briefings, an outdoor media campaign, production of flyers, leaflets, posters, pens and lanyards which are being distributed to schools, child health settings and libraries.

We ran an art competition for children and young people and have displayed the winning entries within the website.

 

SEND Local Offer Content

Latest News – A latest news page has been added to the site where parents and carers can easily access current news and the latest newsletters.  The news is now categorised into newsletters, SENAR updates and general news.

SEND Advice and Support – we have made this easier to find and included a ‘What is SEND’ resource to help parents and carers in the early stages of identifying additional needs.

Health and Wellbeing – The Health and Wellbeing area has also been overhauled and reorganised to make it easier to navigate.  Links have been added to new NHS resources on Neurodiversity and mental health.

Preparation for Adulthood – This area has been improved and includes better information on support for Employment and further education.

Events for parents – this area has been updated and includes more regular information such as webinars.  All past webinars have been categorised and can be viewed anytime for extra support for children and young people with additional needs.

Directory – this searchable tool includes help and support for children and young people with additional need.  It features organisations outside of the SEND partnership including help such as the All Age Autism Directory, Mencap short breaks etc.

Documents Pages – these have been overhauled and brought up to date.  Parents, carers and professionals are now able to find the latest and most relevant copies of SEND documentation on the site.

 

 

 

 

 

Promotion

We continue to promote the SEND Local Offer to parents and carers through schools, using social media, adding an image promoting the website to email signatures, at parent and carer engagement events and in parent webinars.  We have encouraged staff to get to know the site and pass the link on to parents. The site is also promoted through newsletters and updates.

In addition, a print and digital campaign has been underway since January 2023 in order to promote the refreshed site.  In a survey run in summer 2022 it was found that 75% of parents and carers had not heard of the SEND Local Offer website, so a targeted campaign to promote the site has been put in place.

The SEND partnership also has a Facebook page where the website is promoted along with other relevant events and support for children and young people with additional needs.

The SEND Local Offer website includes a page where marketing and promotional materials can be downloaded and used to promote the site

We are always pleased to receive feedback from parents, carers, children and young people. The feedback received and the action we have taken is published on our You said, we did page.   Some examples include:

Feedback Action Taken
A lot of people don’t know about the SEND Local Offer website is hard to use We are working hard to make sure that every SEND parent knows about the SEND Local Offer website, via schools, newsletters and social media.  We have changed the name to the SEND Local Offer website and have improved the search tool on the website.
There is no signposting to help and support We are recruiting co-production champions to help you find what you need in SEND support

Children and young people have told us that they want better and more frequent opportunities to have their voice heard to improve the site

 A working group has been set up to capture champion the views of children and young people.  We are working with the RISE and Wellbeing Youth Forums, as well as young people from the SENDIASS service.  Children and young people are now part of our co-production research and framework.

An example of positive feedback

 

 

 

 

An example of negative feedback – this has been addressed

 

 

 

 

https://www.localofferbirmingham.co.uk/

Email – SENDImpComm@birmingham.gov.uk

Contact the RISE Youth Forum – youthforum@birmingham.gov.uk

Next steps

  • A digital apprentice has been recruited to take over the maintenance and improvement of the website
  • We are constantly improving and updating the site
  • We are constantly seeking feedback and promoting the site as effectively as possible.
  • We are continuing to upload video in order to make the site more dynamic
  • We are continuing to engage with Children and Young People to improve their experience of the site
  • We are merging the A2E and SEND Local Offer websites in order to offer a streamlined resource to professionals, as well as driving traffic to the SEND Local Offer website.

Give us your feedback on the Home Page – https://www.localofferbirmingham.co.uk/

Email – SENDImpComm@birmingham.gov.uk

Look out for parent/carer events where we invite you to feedback in person https://www.localofferbirmingham.co.uk/events-for-parents/

Contact the RISE Youth Forum – youthforum@birmingham.gov.uk