The Local Offer website publishes information about available services for children & young people (0-25) who have special educational needs and / or disabilities.
 Happy New Year
I hope you all had a great Christmas and have had a good start to the new year!
I would like to remind you of the importance we place on developing the Local Offer to make it an easy to use, accessible and informative site. Read our Local Offer Annual Report here.
We are keen to continue to develop the site by working together with children and young people, parent carers and professionals.
We are expecting to have a development sprint coming up soon. The development sprint provides the opportunity to improve the current features on site and suggest new developments for the future.
We have previously run scoping workshops prior to development and after to test the features. Interactions have been face to face and/or through email discussions.
If you would like to be a part of the next sprint please share your interest and we will keep you informed of the opportunities coming up.
I also look forward to seeing some of you at the multi-agency events, Working Together to Make a Difference: SEND Reforms One Year On. Here I will be delivering a presentation on the Local Offer and how it is, and will continue to, make a difference to supporting children and young people aged 0-25 with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (and parent carers).
Charlotte Smith
(Local Offer Officer)
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Dates for your Diary
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View all events/activities/workshops on our Local Offer Calendar here.
TIP Did you know that you could save these dates to your devices by clicking 'Add to Google Calendar' or 'iCal'?
New Services:
View all services on our Local Offer here.
Searching tip - In order to find services relevant and beneficial to you or your young person please remember to use:
- filters: age, postcode, and/or categories
- search by keywords, name or town
If you haven't found what you're looking for please don't hesitate to contact your Local Offer Officer. You can also leave feedback on site through the 'feedback button'.
You may already know services 'Sign up' on our Local Offer themselves. They can do this through signing up on the homepage 'Promote your services and events'.
If your a parent carer and you use a service that isn't yet listed on our Local Offer:
- Tell the service about the Local Offer
- Let us know of the service and we will contact them
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 SEND Information, Advice and Support Service
Keeping parents and carers of children with SEND In touch with the latest information and events Newsletter
SEND Hub Networks
Over the last few years West Sussex County Council has been supporting maintained schools, academies, early years settings and post school partners to establish networks of SEND Hubs across the County. To celebrate the progress of this work SEND Hub Networks have produced the attached newsletter. We would like to express our sincere thanks to all those who have volunteered to be involved in this exciting example of school to school support which benefits children and young people with SEND in West Sussex.
SEN&D Reforms
A regular SEN&D Newsletter is being produced bimonthly to help everyone interested and involved in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities – including parents/carers, young people and anyone who works with children and young people with SEND, keep up to date and informed about the delivery of the Children and Families Act (Part 3) in West Sussex.
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Helpful Diagnosis Fact Sheets
The moment a parent is told their child has a life-long condition that will affect their physical, emotional or intellectual development can be a profoundly painful experience. For some it can also bring some relief. But either way, for those parents who do receive a diagnosis for their child (some never do) the moment begins the journey of understanding your child’s needs and learning to secure the support they need from relevant professional services.
Sadly, many parents report that they have left the consultation when they received their child’s diagnosis without any further information on their child’s condition or where to start looking for relevant support. As a result, parent-carer led charity, Reaching Families, have published a series of factsheets on major childhood disabilities (and one on rare conditions) that combines clinical information on a given condition – its prevalence, symptoms, typical therapies, etc. with local information on relevant projects and services, national resources and further reading.
The factsheets have been designed for practitioners to give to parents when giving them their child’s diagnosis. They are updated regularly and available to download from
Reaching Families have also produced factsheets on a wide range of other subjects including behaviour, bullying, communications tools, DLA, sensory issues, sleep, etc. The charity are also working with Brighton charity Amaze to publish both charity’s range of factsheets across both Brighton & Hove and West Sussex. These will be made available to parents and professionals in the Spring.
Add your Events/Activities/Workshops
Did you know that your organisation, charity or service can also add events to our Local Offer? You can do this through your existing summary card - click 'Add an Event' or through the Local Offer homepage.
For more information please email localoffer@westsussex.gov.uk
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We would like to hear from you
We would be interested to know of examples of how you have been using the West Sussex Local Offer as a young person, parent carer, school, charity, organisation or service provider. If you would be happy to let us know please send us an e-mail - you can also leave feedback on site through the feedback button on site.
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