Tell us what you think about the local offer

Table of Contents

You said, we did

Have your say and tell us what you'd like to see, what we’ve missed and what we can do to improve the information and support we provide. When we receive feedback from surveys, focus groups and email we demonstrate how we've responded to this through a 'you said, we did' approach. This helps you to see what impact your feedback has had directly on a service, process, or information area.
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If you have any comments about the SEND Local Offer, including this website, you can use the online feedback form available by clicking at the top of the page. You can give us quick feedback by clicking on the feedback icon at the side of the page. You can also email us directly.

Email: SendLocalOffer@rotherham.gov.uk

Changes made in 2026

July

In July we have been working on adding new information and updating existing information to make sure the Local Offer is as current as possible. We have also been spending time reaching out to more activity and day service providers. We will be adding these to the website in the near future so that you can find out about a range of opportunities in the local area.

New content

We have added new content under the following categories:

News

We added articles about:

  • The summer 2026 Healthy Holidays Programme.
  • Autism and ADHD support available over the summer

Latest News

Activities

We have added new groups to the directory which are:

  • The A.L.D Club: Adult Learning Difficulties Club provides support in the community for adults with learning difficulties.
  • MyLife Day Service: offering holiday clubs and after school activity clubs for young people aged 8 to 18 years with mild to moderate learning disabilities.
  • Base2Fitness: indoor sports facilities for individuals with autism and learning disabilities.

SEND Groups

Health and Wellbeing

  • We have added a Right to Choose Checklist that has been developed by Rotherham Parent Carers Forum to support families who are considering the right to choose pathway.

Right to choose checklist

Updated content

We have updated and amended information under the following categories.

Education and Childcare

  • We have revised the information on part-time timetables following updated information from the Access to Education team.

Part-time timetables

  • The British Sign Language information has been updated with information on courses for 2026 to 2027.
  • We have updated the Hearing Impairment newsletter with the latest version.

Hearing Impairment Team

Health and Wellbeing

  • We have been sent final versions of the multiple medications plans by colleagues in the NHS. We have updated these on the Local Offer.

Health passport information

Feedback

We work to ensure that the information on the Local Offer is comprehensive, correct and up to date. If you spot any errors or omissions, please let us know.

We want your feedback!

June

June has been a busy month! We have been meeting youth voice groups and working on updates from services. This includes new and updated content as well as work on ongoing projects.

New content

We have added new content under the following categories:

News

We added articles about:

  • Women’s VI cricket taster day
  • Inclusive physical activity event
  • Rotherham Parent Carers Forum activities over the summer

Latest News

Activities

We have added new groups to the directory which are:

  • Define Fine, specialising in Parent Carer Peer Support for parents of children who are unable to attend school due to their needs not being met.
  • Brookfield SEND drop-in group, a support group for parents and carers who have children with additional needs

SEND Groups

Updated content

We have updated and amended information under the following categories.

News

We archived any expired news articles

Archive News

Education and Childcare

  • We have updated the alternative provision inclusion menu for Summer Term 2

Alternative Provision

Health and Wellbeing

  • We have replaced the health passport guidance notes.

Health passport information

Advice and Support

  • Updated the dates for the AIAS sensory training session in July
  • Added extra date for 0 to 5 parent workshops

Advice and support

Early Help and Social Care

  • Updated recognised provider lists for direct payments

Direct Payments

Social media

We sent out a social media post to celebrate Learning Disability Week (15th June) and to encourage feedback on the Local Offer. This was posted on Rotherham Council’s corporate Facebook page, and on the Families Information Service Facebook page.

Events and Visits

This month we had the opportunity to meet with students from the Pupil Parliaments at Hilltop School and Kelford School. We had a wonderful welcome from both groups, and we look forward to working with the young people to listen to their voices and improve the local offer.

Feedback

We work to ensure that the information on the Local Offer is comprehensive, correct and up to date. If you spot any errors or omissions, please let us know.

We want your feedback!

May

In May we have been working on feedback and updates from services. This includes new and updated content as well as work on ongoing projects.

New content

We have added new content under the following categories:

  • Health and Wellbeing
    We added health passport information. We have included several different types of health passport. These can give health practitioners more information about a child or young person they are working with.
  • News
    On Latest News, we added an article about the upcoming Futures Fair event in October
  • Activities
    We added InspirePlay to the SEND Groups directory of inclusive activities.
  • Preparing for adulthood
    We added to the section on support from Rotherham Council to help with independent living. This month we included the Mental Health Enablement Team

Updated content

We have updated and amended information under the following categories.

Social media

We have sent posts to go on partner Facebook pages this month to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day on 21st May.

Feedback

We have had no feedback from the online forms this month.

We work to ensure that the information on the Local Offer is comprehensive, correct and up to date. If you spot any errors or omissions, please let us know.

We want your feedback!

April

In April, we have been working on updates for the Local Offer. We have been checking links and reviewing content across the website.

New content

We have added new content under the following categories.

Updated content

We have updated and amended information under the following categories.

  • Education
    We have made the following amendments in the Education and Childcare category:
    • Changed all references to Doncaster School for the Deaf and Communication Specialist College Doncaster. These are now known as the Doncaster School for Deaf Children and Yorkshire Rose College
    • Updated the section on Early Years and Childcare

Social media

We published an article in the April edition of the Family Hubs Newsletter. It focussed on sensory needs.

We also had a post on the RMBC Corporate Facebook Page for Autism Acceptance Month. It highlighted information available across the Local Offer website.

Feedback

Following online feedback, we reviewed and updated the contact details for CAMHS in the Health and Wellbeing category.

We were notified that Kiverton Park Football Club is now training as Treeton Terriers JFC. We updated the details on SEND groups.

We work to ensure that the information on the Local Offer is comprehensive, correct and up to date. If you spot any errors or omissions, please let us know.

We want your feedback!

March

In March, we have continued to work on maintaining and developing the Local Offer. We are still focussing on our priority to gather the views of young people with SEND in Rotherham. We aim to use their feedback and ideas in improving the Preparing for Adulthood section of the Local Offer.

Content

We have added new content across the website this month:

News

  • We have updated the NHS Easy Read newsletter to the latest version
  • We added Healthy Holidays information for the Easter holidays

Latest News – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

Education

  • We have added an updated alternative provision inclusion menu for the summer term

Education and Childcare – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

Early Help and Social Care

  • We have added a link to Family Hubs newsletter

Early Help and Social Care – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

Activities

  • We have added a new LGBTQ+ group to the activities directory
  • We have added The Base to the activities directory

SEND Groups – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

Preparing for adulthood

  • We have included a link to Gismo (Adult Social Care directory of activities)

Preparing for Adulthood – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

Policies

  • We have added the Rotherham Learning Disability Strategy 2024 to 2027

Policies, procedures and guidance – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

Social media

  • We have posted via the RMBC Corporate Facebook Page for World Down Syndrome Day directing to inclusion information on the Local Offer.  

Feedback

We haven’t had any online feedback this month.

We do our best to ensure that all the information on the website is correct. We continue to fix broken links, correct misspellings, and remove out of date information. If you spot anything we have missed, please let us know.

February

In February, we have continued to work on maintaining and developing the Local Offer. We have been focussing on our priority to gather the views of Young people with SEND in Rotherham. We aim to use their feedback and ideas in improving the Preparing for Adulthood section of the Local Offer.

New content

We have added new content across the website, including:

Updated content

We want to keep the information we already have as up to date as we can, and we have amended the following sections:

Health and wellbeing

Education and childcare

Support in Education

Events

We attended the SENCO Network meeting on 26th February 2026. We gave a Local Offer update to SENCOs from across Rotherham.

Social media posts

We have posted about the Local Offer on partner Facebook pages, including:

  • Families Information Service
  • Early Help North

Feedback

We haven’t had any online feedback this month. At the recent SENCO Network meeting we received positive feedback. 85% of respondents said that they thought that the Local Offer meets the needs of families. This is up from 62% a year ago.

We do our best to ensure that all the information on the website is correct. We continue to fix broken links, correct misspellings, and remove out of date information. If you spot anything we have missed, please let us know.

January

In January, the Local Offer have been busy planning for priorities for the year ahead. We have been arranging to attend Youth Groups to gather the voices of Rotherham’s young people with SEND. We have added some new information, revised existing information, and been out and about telling people about our website.

These are the areas we have been working on for you.

Advice and Support

  • There is a new section with details about workshops for parents of children aged 0 to 5. We have now completed these details to include the location of the workshops.

Workshops for parents of children 0 to 5 years

Education and Childcare

  • The Visual Impairment Team asked us to add some leaflets which include top tips for teachers. They can be found under the ‘Information for Schools’ drop down.

Visual Impairment Team Information for Schools

Activities

  • We have updated the group activities for peer support services and former RANSS activities following the changes to Rotherham Parent Forum Limited.

SEND Groups

News

  • We have added a news item detailing the upcoming swim sessions run by FEAR: Face Everything and Rise

Latest News

We removed articles about events that have finished. These can usually be found in the archive news section:

Archive News

Events

We look forward to planning more events for 2026 so that we can share how the Local Offer can support SEND families as well as listening to how we can improve. This month we attended the Landmarks College i-Fest Event at the Rotherham site. It was an opportunity to raise awareness of the Local Offer to the learners, their families, college staff, and other organisations.

Social media

We are aiming to raise awareness of the Local Offer with as many families as possible. Colleagues in the Families Information Service have kindly started to share links to the Local Offer with their Facebook followers. The Families Information Service provides information and advice on a range of services to families. We hope that by working together we can connect families of children with SEND to the Local Offer earlier.

Feedback

  • We have not received any feedback this month from our online short feedback form.
  • The long form is now active again for you to give us more detailed feedback. Please remember that we don’t know which page of the website you are looking at when giving feedback, so give as much detail as you can.
  • The top search terms last month were:
    • Sensory
    • Respite / Short Breaks
    • EHCPs

Ongoing Improvements

We do our best to ensure that all the information on the website is correct.  We continue to fix broken links, correct misspellings, and delete out of date information. If you spot anything we have missed, please let us know.

Changes made in 2025

December

We had a busy month in December on the Local Offer in Rotherham. We have added some new information, revised existing information and been out and about telling people about our website.

These are the areas we have been working on for you.

Advice and Support

Education and Childcare

  • We have updated contact details and eligibility criteria for several educational services, including:
    • Educational Psychology Service
    • Hearing Impairment
    • Visual Impairment

Education services

Travel

  • We have removed the information about SEN transport applications for the current academic year and are ready to add details for the coming academic year once they are available.
  • We have updated responses in the FAQs section, following feedback from transport services
    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Activities

We have added, updated and removed activities, following feedback from services and service users:

  • Geeks Room added
  • Life Skills Yorkshire updated
  • Guiding voices updated
  • Groups no longer running removed

SEND Groups

News

We added news items about seasonal services and activities.

  • 0 to 5 workshops
  • Energy crisis support scheme
  • Healthy Holidays
  • Support services over festive holidays

Latest News

We removed articles about events that have finished. These can usually be found in the archive news section:

Archive News

Events

We look forward to planning more events for 2026 so that we can share how the Local Offer can support SEND families as well as listening to how we can improve. This month we:

  • Presented at a Council Lunch and Learn session, where RMBC staff learned more about the Local Offer, and how to use it either personally or when supporting people through their work.
  • We were nominated and shortlisted for the Support Service Hero award at RMBC’s Big Hearts, Big Changes awards ceremony. Unfortunately, we didn’t win, but we were very grateful to be recognised.

Feedback

  • We have not received any feedback this month from our online short feedback form
  • The long form is now active again for you to give us more detailed feedback. Please remember that we don’t know which page of the website you are looking at when giving feedback, so give as much detail as you can.
  • The top search terms last month were:
    • Sensory needs/support
    • Support for specific conditions
    • Education services
    • Assessments for Autism, ADHD or therapy services
    • Courses and workshops

Ongoing Improvements

We do our best to ensure that all the information on the website is correct.  We continue to fix broken links, correct misspellings, and delete out of date information. If you spot anything we have missed, please let us know.

November

This month we have made the following updates to the Rotherham SEND Local Offer:

News

To the Latest News section, we have added:

  • Information on a Carer’s Rights Day event
  • The latest easy read NHS Newsletter
  • New Rotherham Threshold of Needs Documents for SEND Children and Young People

You can view the Latest News here:

Latest News

Content

We have made updates and amendments to the content on the website following input from contributors. We have:

  • Added Millcourt School, Stafford Hall School, and Edan Court School to the Schools directory

Schools

  • Updated details for ACE at the Chislett Centre Alternative Provision provider

Alternative Provision

  • Updated some session dates for Autism Information and Advice Service.

Autism Information and Advice Service Training Schedule

  • Added Visual Impairment Team Autumn 2025 newsletter

VI Team Autumn 2025 newsletter

  • Updated the information on Early Years and Childcare

Early Years and Childcare

  • Amended the transport information

Communications Activities

As part of our communications plan we are working on raising awareness of the SEND Local Offer. We are looking for opportunities to engage with groups of families, young people, and practitioners. If you are aware of any groups that would benefit from having the SEND Local Offer team attend to give an introduction or update, then please do not hesitate to contact us via email at SendLocalOffer@rotherham.org.uk. This month we have:

  • Delivered a presentation to the RMBC Staff Engagement Event.
  • Visited a BME Young People and Carers Group session. We introduced the Local Offer to the families, and supported some parents to use the Local Offer.

Ongoing Improvements

We continue to fix errors across the website. We correct broken links, spelling mistakes, and out of date information. We want to ensure the information remains accurate and accessible. Please let us know if you notice anything that needs changing.

October

This month we have made the following updates to the Rotherham SEND Local Offer:

News

To the News section we added:

  • A post promoting the LEAF Jobs & Careers Fair 2025.
  • A post about the changes to the Rotherham Adults Neurodiversity Support Service

These can be viewed in:

Latest news and Archive news

Amendments

  • We responded to a contact asking us to update the information on some schools within the Witherslack Group. You can view the school directory by clicking below:

Schools

  • We updated the Autism East Midlands workshop dates. These can be seen here:

Autism East Midlands

  • We have removed the RANSS logo from activities due to service name change.
  • We have updated the Inclusion Menu. This can be found in the Alternative Provision section.

Alternative Provision

Communications Activities

Rotherham’s SEND Local Offer team have been working hard to increase awareness of the Local Offer. In October, we visited the SENco Network Meeting and gave an update to the professionals who attended. We value the opportunity to gain feedback at these meetings. We have also distributed flyers to the Portage team to be included in their packs. We have numerous outreach and engagement activities booked in for the coming months.

Ongoing Improvements

We continue to fix errors across the website. We correct broken links, spelling mistakes, and out of date information. We want to ensure the information remains accurate and accessible. Please let us know if you notice anything that needs changing.

September

This month we have made the following updates to the Rotherham SEND Local Offer:

News

To the News section we added:

  • Details of an eating and sensory awareness workshop.
  • Details of a family swim session from Face Everything and Rise.
  • Ask about Asthma open evening 2025 details.

Latest news and Archive news

Amendments

We continue to respond to feedback and make amendments to keep the Local Offer up to date. This month, we have made the below amendments.

  • Following feedback, we have moved the Blue and Green books of strategies to appear under “B” and “G”. The Blue Book is for educational settings and the Green Book is for Families.

Autism resources: A to Z

  • We have updated the academy information for Brinsworth, Brinsworth Manor Infants, Wingfield, and Dinnington.
  • We have added academy information for new members of the St. Francis Academy Trust.
  • Updated all schools’ information relating to multi-academy trusts.

These changes to schools information can be viewed in the schools directory:

Schools

  • We have updated the continuing care information:

Continuing Care

Activities

We have included more activities in
SEND Groups

  • We added details of an LGBTQ+ Youth group
  • Added and amended details of Kiverton Park FCs Pan-Disability Football groups
  • Added Andy’s Man Club
  • Added Mini-Athletics details
  • Added Underwhelming Adventures Ltd / Climbing and Bouldering
  • Removed groups that are no longer running

Ongoing Improvements

We are working on the school directories. We met with website hosts to discuss ways to simplify the directories.

We continue to fix errors across the website. We correct broken links, spelling mistakes, and out of date information. We want to ensure the information remains accurate and accessible. Please let us know if you notice anything that needs changing.

August

This month we have made the following updates to the Rotherham SEND Local Offer:

News

To the News section we added:

  • A session for parents on managing their child’s emotions.
  • Details of a sleep-sensory awareness workshop. 
  • An advice day event hosted by Citizens Advice and Grimm & Co

These can be viewed in:

Latest news and Archive news

Autism Resources

We have added more resources to the Autism A to Z resources.

  • Oral Health
    • We included the ToothPASTE resource for autistic children’s oral health under “O”.
    • We added oral health advice produced by The British Society of Paediatric Dentistry aimed for the parents and carers of autistic children and young people, again under “O”.
  • Strategies
    • The Blue and Green books of strategies have been added under “B” and “G”. The Blue Book is for educational settings and the Green Book is for Families.

Autism resources: A to Z

Amendments

We continue to respond to feedback and make amendments to keep the Local Offer up to date. This month, we have made the below amendments.

Activities

Updated inclusive activities in
SEND Groups

  • updated details of accessible swimming
  • added the contact email for FEAR swimming sessions

Ongoing Improvements

We are working on the school directories. We met with website hosts to discuss ways to simplify the directories.

We continue to fix errors across the website. We correct broken links, spelling mistakes, and out of date information. We want to ensure the information remains accurate and accessible. Please let us know if you notice anything that needs changing.

July

This month we have made the following updates to the Rotherham SEND Local Offer:

News

  • We have added the Rotherham Healthy Holidays Summer 2025 programme

News – Healthy Holidays Summer 2025

  • We added a workshop on managing your child’s emotions. This session has now passed, but there is another in September.

News – Supporting your child with their emotions

Education

  • The Visual Impairment Summer 2025 has been added to latest news, and also under the ‘information for parents’ tab on the Visual Impairment Team drop down.

Education and Childcare – Visual Impairment Newsletter Summer 2025

Advice and Support

  • We have updated the Autism Information and Advice sensory workshop information

Advice and Support – Autism Information and Advice Sensory Workshops

Activities

  • We continue to add inclusive activities to our SEND Groups directory. You can view the activities by clicking the link below.

SEND Groups – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

Ongoing Improvements

We continue to fix errors across the website. We correct broken links, spelling mistakes, and out of date information. We want to ensure the information remains accurate and accessible. Please let us know if you notice anything that needs changing.

June

This month we have made the following updates to the Rotherham SEND Local Offer:

Health and Wellbeing

  • Some families and professionals are struggling to complete the current sensory referral forms. We have added an email contact address so that people can ask for an Word version instead.
    Health and Wellbeing – Sensory needs

About SEND

Advice and Support

Activities

News

Events

  • We attended the RPCF Morning Meet-Up on 23rd June. We spoke to parents and carers in Rotherham about their concerns. They gave us some good advice, too!
  • We attended the SENCO Network Meeting on 25th June. We told the staff about the progress we have made on the Local Offer website over the last two years.

Feedback

We had some specific feedback this month about the following content on the Local Offer:

  • Referral forms for Occupational Therapy (OT)
    There are no direct links to OT referral forms on the Local Offer . These are on the SENDCO Rotherham website. We contacted the OT service to ask whether we should add the referral forms to the Local Offer.
  • Accessible swimming
    We were told that the details are out of date for this activity. We have contacted the service to ask for any updates.

Ongoing Improvements

We continue to fix errors across the website. We correct broken links, spelling mistakes, and out of date information. We want to ensure the information remains accurate and accessible. Please let us know if you notice anything that needs changing.

May

Here are the latest updates from the Rotherham SEND Local Offer for May 2025:

Education

We have made the following changes relating to schools and education.

  • We have made all the school listings look the same to make them easier to read.
    Schools

Transport

  • You can now find clear information on how to apply for SEN transport to school or college in September 2025.
    Transport/Getting Around

News

We continue to add news items about SEND in Rotherham. This month, that includes events such as the Activ8 Rotherham: Inclusive Sports Festival on Saturday 14th June:

Feedback

We did not get any feedback through the website this month. We would love to hear from you.

You can send us feedback by emailing us on SendLocalOffer@rotherham.gov.uk or using any of the feedback options on the website.

The top 3 things people searched for this month were:

  1. Dyslexia assessment
  2. Out of school club
  3. Right to choose

We noticed we do not have much information yet about dyslexia assessments or out of school clubs. We’re working on adding more soon.

We added new information about Right to Choose last month.

You said, we did – April 2025

We continue to fix broken links and make corrections to improve the website wherever we can.

April

This month, we updated the following sections:

We have added new information in the Health and Wellbeing section on Requests for Neurodevelopmental Assessments under Patient Choice in Rotherham. This is also known as “Right to Choose.”

Over the month we continued to add Latest news items such as details of the Sheffield Autism Awareness Festival

We also met with Guiding Voices as we continue to seek the advice of users to improve the Local Offer website.

Unfortunately, the only feedback we received through the website did not provide us with enough details to be able to know where to make any changes. Please continue to give us feedback so that we can continue to improve the website:

This helps us as we work to keep the website accurate and up to date: fixing broken links, correcting spellings and revising contact details.  

March

We continue to review and update content on the Local Offer. This month we looked at the information around Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).

We have also updated the list of Autism resources to include more advice that may help when supporting an autistic child or young person.

We have added some new content, including news articles and activities:

We also attended a SENCO network meeting. The main topics under discussion were the work of CAMHS and the Neurodevelopmental Team. We hope to add some more information about Autism and ADHD assessments and mental health support in schools soon.

We continue to correct errors, fix broken links and make updates as we become aware of them. As always, we welcome feedback which helps us to continue to improve the Local offer website.

You can send us feedback by emailing us on SendLocalOffer@rotherham.gov.uk or using any of the feedback options on the website. There is a short feedback form at the side of the screen and a more detailed one available at the top of every page.

February

This month we have continued to revise the content on the Local Offer to ensure it is up to date. After a full content review of the Specialist Inclusion Team information, we have amended this section to reflect current work.

We have added a link to a useful resource for families where English is not their first language. These videos help to explain Autism in Urdu/ Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Begali and can be accessed by clicking below:

We have updated the contact information for the Educational Psychology Service as it had become outdated.

We have added to the SEND Groups section with groups run by RANSS, and we have updated the information for the RPCF SEND Connect Morning Meet Up.

We currently have some sections of the Local Offer under review to ensure the information is accurate. We will continue to address all requests for updates, corrections and amendments that are sent to us directly or through the website. We welcome feedback, so that we can further improve the Local Offer.

January

This month we have added some new items including a content map of the website. We hope this will be a useful resource to quickly find where content is located on the website. You can view the map here:

Local Offer content map

content-organisation-Nov-2024

We have added three newsletters this month. We are pleased to share the first SEND Sufficiency Newsletter which can be read here:

The Hearing Impairment Newsletter has been added here:

And finally, we have added the NHS Easy Read and Plain English Newsletters to Latest News:

A new provider has been added to SEND groups:

As we continue to ensure that the content on the Local Offer is correct and up to date, we have made amendments to:

In early January we attended the Futures Fair 2025. It was a very well attended event with lots of information on offer. We are working on ways to build on the Futures Fair to strengthen the content for Young People.

We continue to address all requests for updates, corrections and amendments that are sent to us directly or through the website. We welcome feedback, so that we can further improve the Local Offer.

Changes made in 2024

December

Rotherham’s Local Offer team is now fully recruited after appointing to the Local Offer Co-ordinator vacancy.

As we continue to keep the Local Offer updated with relevant information, we have added:

This month we have responded to feedback and corrected the following:

  • Corrected the reference to ‘Easter’ in the Healthy Holidays Winter Programme news item.

We continue to address all requests for updates, corrections and amendments that are sent to us directly or through the website. We welcome feedback, so that we can further improve the Local Offer.

November

This month we have responded to feedback and corrected the following:

As we continue to keep the Local Offer updated with relevant information, we have added:

  • Five policies, including the following, can be found here: Policies, procedures and guidance
    • School Attendance Matters Pathway and Strategic Plan
    • Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2025
    • RDaSH Clinical Strategy 2023 to 2028
    • Rotherham Adult Social Care Strategy 2024 to 2027
    • Rotherham’s All Age Autism Strategy 2024 to 2027.

We continue to address all requests for updates, corrections and amendments that are sent to us directly or through the website. We welcome feedback, so that we can further improve the Local Offer.

October

The OFSTED inspection of SEND provision in Rotherham went well. We will publish the results of this inspection when we have them. The feedback on the Local Offer identified the following:

The Local Offer is clear and easy to navigate, offering lots of activities and services for families with children with SEND.

Thank you for using and contributing to the Local Offer with your feedback which helps us to improve the site for everyone.

As we continue to update the website, we have amended information on the hearing impairment team to mirror that of the visual impairment team. We have also made the contact and referral details clearer:

A review of the searches completed on the website indicate that the majority of searches produce useful results. We continue to act on feedback submitted through the website where we can.

We continue to address all requests for updates, corrections and amendments that are sent to us directly or through the website. We welcome feedback, so that we can further improve the Local Offer.

There are two ways you can send us feedback:

  1. There is a link at the top of every page, which directs you to a feedback form with the words: Tell us what you think about the local offer
  2. There is a link on the side of every page which lets you send us quick feedback on the Local Offer

September

This month OFSTED told us that they would visit us from 30th September for a week to look at SEND provision in Rotherham. We will publish the results of this inspection when we have them.

We have added new information on the following:

We also added some new News articles:

We have amended content to improve the look and consistency across the site, including:

We continue to address all requests for updates, corrections and amendments that are sent to us directly or through the website. We welcome feedback, so that we can further improve the Local Offer.

August

This month we have carried out an audit of the Local Offer to ensure all information is up to date and to identify any gaps in content.

We have included information on Whooping Cough to our Latest news section.

Information on Online Safety has been added to Advice & Support.

The role of the SEND Improvement Officer is now included in About Send.

We have also reviewed content to check for errors and broken links, including in the following sections:

  • Financial Support for accessing University or Higher Education

We continue to address all requests for updates, corrections and amendments that are sent to us directly or through the website. We welcome feedback, so that we can further improve the Local Offer.

July

This month we have added a “What is travel training leaflet” to the travel page.

We continue to add activities to our directory or inclusive groups:

We have also reviewed content to check for errors and broken links, including in the following sections:

  • Visual Impairment Team
  • Education Psychology Service

An online referral form has been added for the Visual Impairment team.

Make a referral to the Visual Impairment Team (RMBC)

We have arranged for an audit of the Local Offer to take place during August to ensure all information is the most up to date and to ensure we have no gaps in content.

We continue to address all requests for updates, corrections and amendments that are sent to us directly or through the website. We welcome feedback, so that we can further improve the Local Offer.

June

This month we have added new information about School attendance to the education & childcare section. Education and Childcare – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

We continue to add activities to our directory or inclusive groups:

  • SEND Groups

We have amended content to improve the look and consistency across the site, including:

  • Times for chat n chill group
  • Information on travel assistance

We have also reviewed content to check for errors and broken links, including in the following sections:

  • Graduated response

We continue to address all requests for updates, corrections and amendments that are sent to us directly or through the website. We welcome feedback, so that we can further improve the Local Offer.

May

This month we have added new advice to our autism resources, including advice around Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID).

We have also added information about all the services provided by libraries across Rotherham:

We have included more training and consultation opportunities in our Latest news section, including:

We continue to add activities to our directory or inclusive groups:

We have amended content to improve the look and consistency across the site, including:

  • Adding age ranges for all schools: Schools

We have also reviewed content to check for errors and broken links, including in the following sections:

We had specific feedback about wording in the SEN transport eligibility section that a user felt was confusing. We contacted the transport team and agreed to reword the information to make it clearer.

Transport/Getting Around

We continue to address all requests for updates, corrections and amendments that are sent to us directly or through the website. We welcome feedback, so that we can further improve the Local Offer.

User searches

As well as following up on feedback and working with services, we also looked at the search terms that people have used when looking for information on the Local Offer. We found that in May there were 12 searches which did not return any results. They fell into three main categories:

  • Spelling errors
    3 searches returned no results because the search term contained a spelling error. The search function is only able to find exact matches for searches, so unfortunately we are unable to address this issue from our end.
  • Short acronyms or non-word-based search
    6 searches returned no results because the search term used was a short acronym or non-word based search and there was too little information for the search engine to locate relevant content. For example, a search for VI would results in the search engine looking for the letters “vi” in every context, including words such as provide.
    If possible, please use full words in your searches to improve your chances of getting useful results, so in the example above, another search for “visual impairment” produced 6 relevant results.
  • No content
    3 searches produced no results because there was no relevant content on the local offer
    • Family hubs – we are meeting with the family hubs team to plan on adding content soon
    • Drumming – we have added a drumming activity since this term was searched for

April

This month we have had three news items to report:

We have also updated information from Rotherham services:

We have continued to check that the information and advice on the website is accurate and up to date by reviewing content:

  • Money
    We have checked and all the links and benefits information in this section at the start of this new tax year to ensure that all the figures quoted are correct.
  • Latest News
    We have removed news items relating to past events or surveys that have expired.
  • Preparing for Adulthood
    We have checked all the links in this section

We have successfully resolved all requests for updates, corrections and amendments since September. We continue to welcome feedback, so that we can further improve the Local Offer.

March

This month we have added more information to the A to Z of autism resources following comments from users.

We have included information on the following

  • Eating (E), including advice on diets
  • Interoception (I)
  • Masking (M)
  • Periods (P)
  • Toileting(T), including advice on constipation, toilet training and smearing

Autism resources: A to Z

We welcome feedback on any other topics which may be helpful to add to this section.

We have also updated our information on independent travel training:

Transport/Getting Around –Independent Travel Training (ITT)

This section now includes a presentation prepared by a young person who describes his experiences of the travel training programme.

We continue to update information as we receive it from council services, and this month, we added the following:

We have also been making plans for supporting the Local Offer within the community. We are looking at doing some training with library staff so they can help people access the Local Offer at their local libraries.

As always, we continue to fix broken links, amend out-of-date information and correct errors whenever we are told about them.

February

We are continuing to add new activities to the directory of activities and calendar:

We have included new information in the Education and Childcare section, including information on part-time timetables: Education and childcare – Part-time timetables.

We have added information about training and support for families offered by Autism Central in the Advice and Support section: Advice and Support: Autism Resources.

Services have contacted us to update information on a range of topics, including

We continue to correct broken links, update information and correct errors across the website based on feedback we receive directly or through the online feedback forms.

We continue to correct broken links, update information and correct errors across the website based on feedback we receive directly or through the online feedback forms.

January

We added some news items about consultations.

We also supplemented our health and wellbeing information by adding orthoptics to our A-Z of Health Services.

We added some additional guidance to our information about Managed moves and Exclusions.

We have started adding new activities to our SEND group directory: SEND Groups

We also added the three local authority nurseries to our schools directory: Schools

We updated information in the education and health sections, including

We continue to correct broken links, update information and correct errors across the website based on feedback we receive directly or through the online feedback forms.

Changes made in 2023

December

We added the new Visual Impairment (VI) newsletter to the information in the section on educational services.

We updated information in the education and health sections, including

We have been working hard on improving the directories on the website by looking to increase the number of activities on directory. We are also working hard on a new directory for schools and colleges.

We continue to correct broken links, update information and correct errors across the website based on feedback we receive directly or through the online feedback forms.

November

We have added information to our Education and our Health and Wellbeing pages, including information and advice on

We have updated information on other pages, including

We have been adding more to our events calendar, including SENDIASS and AIAS workshops and RPCF Zoom meetings:

Our Events – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

We attended the Rotherham Charter Gold event at Gulliver’s Valley on 23rd November. It was great to see the celebration of inclusive practise in Rotherham.

We have put the Local Offer banner on display in the foyer of Riverside House.

We continue to update information and make corrections across the website.

October

The biggest change to the Local Offer this month is the addition of a new category: Travel.

This new section has information on

  • Home to school transport
  • Independent travel training
  • Travel passes and concessions

In other sections…

We have added links in the Preparing for adulthood pages to information on moving from child to adult health services. We have also added links to adult health services in Rotherham.

Preparing for Adulthood – Health

We have removed out of date information and taken out services that we know have stopped running.

We have been adding workshops to our events calendar:

Our Events – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

We are still updating information and making corrections across the website.

September

We continue to spread the news about the Local Offer in Rotherham.

This month, we attended the Rotherham Show at Clifton Park on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd September 2023.

We have added the Schools Accessibility Strategy 2023-2026. This looks at how services support children and young people in schools in Rotherham. 

Accessibility-Strategy-September-2023.pdf (rotherhamsendlocaloffer.org.uk)

We have updated information about Direct Payments.

Early Help and Social Care – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

We have added information around charities that offer financial support or advice.

Money – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

We continue to update the existing content to fix broken links, revise contact details and correct spelling errors.

August

We continue to spread the news about the Local Offer in Rotherham.

This month, we attended the Rotherham Parent Carers Forum Family Fun Day at Hooton Lodge Farm on 18th August.

We have added several news items this month, including new inclusive spaces in libraries, suggestions for the summer holidays, the Rotherham Learning Disability Strategy and the Rotherham All Age Autism Strategy Consultation:

Latest News – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

We have added new information about support for mental health in education and Education other than at school or college (EOTAS or EOTAC) in the Support in Education section:

Support in education – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

We have updated information about SENDIASS and the Autism Information and Advice Service, including their workshop programme on the Advice and Support section:

Advice and Support – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

We have had feedback that it was difficult to find information about early years and portage, so we have reorganised the Education and Childcare section so that it is arranged in age order starting with Early years through to Post-16:

Education and Childcare – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

We continue to update the existing content to fix broken links, revise contact details and correct spelling errors.

July

We are continuing to promote the Local Offer around Rotherham. We attended a Rotherham SENCO network event on 3rd July and another for Early years SENCOs on 13th July. We also had a stand at the Employment is for Everyone at Rotherham New York Stadium on 13th July. We met young people and their families as well as talking to employment and education providers in the area.

We have added information about eating disorders and CAMHS referral pathways in Rotherham in the A-Z of Health services section of the Local Offer:

A-Z of Health Services – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

We have also added the latest edition of the Information Exchange Newsletter and updates the details on joining the Children’s Disability Register.

Join the children’s disability register – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

We are currently reviewing the content on the Money section. All the links and benefit rates have been checked and corrected where necessary.

Money – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

We have set up a working group to look at improving the information on community and inclusion for the Preparing for Adulthood section of the Local Offer.

We have organised regular meetings with the website host to look at overall development of the website in the long term.

We are setting up a working group to develop a bespoke communication and publicity plan for the Local Offer.

We welcome feedback on all aspects of the Local Offer to help us to continue making improvements to the site.

We continue to update the existing content to fix broken links, revise contact details and correct spelling errors.

June

We have had an official launch event for the Local Offer now. We were pleased to hear that most of the feedback on the look and usability of the new site is positive! We continue to work on improving the content.

We have been out promoting the Local Offer around Rotherham. We attended a Rotherham inclusion event for practitioners on 8th June. We also attended the SEND Awareness Day at Rotherham General Hospital on 20th June where we shared a stand with the Rotherham Parent Carers Forum. We have also sent promotional material to Rotherham GPs and the hospital. Look out for flyers in waiting rooms around the borough!

We have now added information about early years childcare and resource provisions in Rotherham in the education and childcare section of the local offer:

Education and Childcare – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

The added content labelled Early Years and Childcare includes guidance for parents, carers and practitioners on support available when looking at childcare options for children aged 0 to 5 years with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).

The added content labelled Resource Provisions includes information on what resource provisions are, how your child might access them, and a list of the current resource provisions available in Rotherham.

We continue to update the existing content when we are told about services or contact details which have changed.

May

Following the launch of the new website we continue to work on teething issues.

We now have a link to a feedback form at the top of every page:

Click on this link to the feedback form to let us know what you like and what you would like to see improved on the Local Offer.

We continue to meet with service leads. We met with a SEND commissioning officer to discuss additional SEN support in Rotherham schools. We are hoping to add information on resource provision to the Local Offer soon.

We are planning a rota for meeting with service leads covering all the information on the Local offer. This will help ensure that the information on the Local continues to be accurate and up to date.

We continue to remove out of date information, correct spelling mistakes and fix broken links.

April

This month we launched the new website!

We expect that there will be some teething issues and some services or information that didn’t make it over to the new site as well as we hoped. We are working on sorting out any issues that come up as soon as we can.

We have met with the Inclusion Team again. We have updated more of the inclusion information.

We updated information on the Early Help and Social Care pages. We also amended information on Autism resources and training.

We continue to remove out of date information, correct spelling mistakes and fix broken links.

March

Website launch. We have been taking feedback on a test site and collaborating with users, services and the provider to try to get the new site as ready as we can for a launch soon.

On the current website, we have

  • reviewed and updated the information on Alternative Provision.
  • met with the Early Years Team. They are working on preparing new pages on early years information.
  • met with the Inclusion Team. We have updated contact details and they are also working on preparing new pages on inclusion information.

We visited a Local Offer Live Event in Leeds. We are planning a similar event in Rotherham in the autumn. We got some helpful ideas from our regional colleagues on how to stage an event about SEND services for families of children and young people with SEND. We continue to remove out of date information, correct spelling mistakes and fix broken links.

February

We have met with the transport team. They are working hard on preparing a new set of pages on transport information.

The exclusions pages have been updated: School Exclusions

Information about Portage, the home visiting service for children aged 0 to 3 years who have additional needs, has been added: Portage

We have been doing targeted work to increase the number of schools who have a correct link to the Local Offer from their school website.

We continue to remove out of date information, correct spelling mistakes and fix broken links.

January

The Rotherham SEND Local Offer website has now reached number 2 in the league table of UK Local Offers for accessibility. https://index.silktide.com/category/uk-local-offer

Local Offer Coordinators across the Yorkshire & Humber region have worked together to create a video that explains the SEND Local Offer. New to Special Educational Needs (SEND) – Rotherham SEND Local Offer

We have created a page for travel & transport and have begun to develop the content on this page including more accessibility information.

The Adults transitions page has been updated. 

We have rewritten the Things to do page and now have a list of SEND activities.

A brief explanation has been added to the list of policy documents.

We have added information about regional hospital you can find it on the hospital visits & stays page.

We continue to remove out of date information, correct spelling mistakes and fix broken links.

Changes made in 2022

December

We have started a page for Autism Resources A-Z. 

We are currently in the process of moving the current Local Offer site over to a new platform. The current site will remain live, and we will continue to update this on a regular basis. 

The Local Offer Coordinating Officers are due to attend the Rotherham Parents Carers Forum listening event on the 17th January to answer any questions and discuss the Local Offer in further detail. 

We are now working with a new team from Transitions to review and improve all content.

November

We met with SENCOs at an event in November. We told SENCOs about the work going on with the Local Offer and invited them to support us by referring families to the website. We also encouraged them to use the website themselves and give us feedback to support our ongoing improvements.

Local colleagues in the NHS have worked hard in creating Support in school pages. The new pages have lots of details about graduated response in school. They are now available online. We have also updated some information on EHCPs.

We have continued to update schools and college information

We have also continued to respond to requests from parents and services to maintain the quality of links and content.

We have replaced the online feedback form with the one used by Rotherham Parent Carers Forum. We have added the form to more pages on the website.

We have added a banner to all pages to let you know that we are working on improving the website.

October

We met with the young person’s group, Guiding Voices, and agreed strategies to improve the Local Offer:

  • Links – adding simple explanations about links on the Local Offer and showing whether the links are to other Local Offer pages or to external websites
  • Length – trying to cut long pages down by putting details into shorter pages and linking them from an overview page
  • Language – aiming to simplify the language for young people and their families and presenting it in easier to follow ways, such as a greater use of bullet points

Local colleagues in the NHS have worked hard in updating the Health and Wellbeing pages. The new pages are now available online.

We have updated schools and college information

  • Added missing schools
  • Removed schools that have closed
  • Corrected links to schools and their SEND information
  • Added links to sixth form colleges
  • Added links to SEND information for FE colleges
  • Added links to specialist colleges

We have continued to respond to requests from parents and services to

  • Fix broken links
  • Remove services which are no longer available
  • Include relevant links to advice and services
  • Improve the presentation of content by correcting grammar and spelling errors and so on.

September

  • In co-production with Rotherham Parent Carer Forum, we have created and published the SEND Local Offer Newsletter.
  • Local Offer Coordinators attended the regional Local Offer group to create a video explaining what the Local Offer is and what you can expect to find on it.
  • At our weekly IT touchdown, colleagues met to discuss and make changes to the Graduated Response information.

August

  • The background colour of the website has been changed.
  • The font size has been made bigger with more standout headings.
  • The line spacing has increased to make it easier to read.
  • The winning Local Offer logo has been added to the main page.
  • An activities page has been created with activities added to it regularly.
  • We have employed 2 people to the Local Offer Coordinator position. The Local Offer Coordinators will focus on developing and maintaining the Local Offer.

July

  • Interviews have taken place for a Local Offer Coordinator to help develop the local offer on a full-time basis.
  • A number of broken links were identified and fixed through the regular IT check in.
  • We met with the EHC team to discuss changes to their page.

June

  • Interviews have taken place for a Local Offer Coordinator to help develop the local offer on a full-time basis.
  • A number of broken links were identified and fixed through the regular IT check in.
  • We met with the EHC team to discuss changes to their page.

May

Services leads have been asked to attend the weekly IT meetings to focus on their specific areas. July will focus on the graduated response, Early Help and Social Care. If you have any views on these sections, please email: SendLocalOffer@rotherham.gov.uk

April

  • A young person’s representative from Guiding Voices is now present at the Local Offer Sub-group to give views and feedback.
  • School links fixed. Feedback from parents found that some school links were missing. This was feedback at the weekly IT meeting and fixed
  • Young person’s logo competition winner announced. 7 year old Ella won the Logo competition with an amazing logo

She said the theory behind the design is

  • star represents Special,
  • ABC Book represents Education and
  • 2 people show 1 in a wheelchair with a visible disability whilst the other person may have hidden disabilities.

The standard of drawings was amazing which made it very hard decision in picking a winner. We would like to thank everyone that sent in an entry.

January to March

Rotherham parent carer forum drop-ins.

You said:

  • the space bar needs to be at the top – we have changed the layout of the page, so the spacebar is now at the top of the page
  • the EHCP Hub should have its own button – The Hub now has its own button on the Landing page
  • you wanted fewer clicks to get to information – we have been working with the IT department to look at this in our Weekly IT meetings

Weekly IT meetings

To improve the Local Offer, we have been having weekly IT meetings to identify key objectives from previous consultations with parents and carers and implement the changes.

We have:

  • attached the WSOA page as a news item on home page enclosing inspection report and WSOA
  • changed the Search bar and theme
  • made the Guiding Voices young person’s link more accessible
  • added a New to SEND page
  • added the EHCP hub button on the landing page
  • updated numbers and emails for all services – please provide feedback on those that are wrong

Young person’s logo competition

We wanted to involve children and young people in the development of the Local Offer and asked them to design a new logo that embodies the Local Offer.

Here you will find help, advice and information about the services available for your child or young person from birth to 25 years with a Special Educational Need or Disability (SEND).

It is part of Rotherham’s graduated response to special educational need and disability.

Categories

Useful links

Feedback form

Local Offer Feedback Form

Local Offer Feedback Form

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