Local Offer Engagement Event

“Preparing for adulthood: What is the local offer for young people post-16 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and including complex needs?”

Author: Sarah Sinclair, Commissioner, Children and Young People’s Services

Date of report: 27.07.16

Summary

A free drop-in market place event was organised for parents, carers, children, young people and professionals. The event was hosted by Royal School for the Blind, Wavertree, Liverpool, on 04.07.16, 9.30am-12pm. Local authority, healthand commissioned services for young people post-16 with SEND were invited to attend and have an information stall. The event was attended by a total of 125adults and 40services agreed to have a stall. A questionnaire was developed and used to gather feedback at the event about people’s experience of using Liverpool’s Local Offer, and to identify gaps in provision and services to inform commissioning.

1 Aim

  • To arrange local offer engagement event “Preparing for adulthood: What is the local offer for young people post-16 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) andincluding complex needs?” for parents, carers, children, young people and professionals.

2.1 Outcomes for Preparing for Adulthood

  • In section 7.38 of the SEND Code of Practice: 0-25 Years (January 2015) it states that preparing for adulthood means:
  1. Higher education and/or employment – this includes exploring different employment options, such as support for becoming self-employed and help from supported employment agencies.
  2. Independent living – this means young people having choice, control and freedom over their lives and the support they have, their accommodation and living arrangements, including supported living.
  3. Participating in society, including having friends and supportive relationships, and participating in, and contributing to, the local community.
  4. Being as healthy as possible in adult life.
  • Throughout this report these 4 areas are referred to as the outcomes for preparing for adulthood.

2.2Anticipated Outcomes for the Event

  • Parents/carers, children and young people and practitioners know about Liverpool’s Local Offer.
  • Informationabout services that support young people with SEND to prepare for adulthood is available to parents, carers, children, young people and practitioners.
  • Parents, carers, children, young people and practitioners give feedback about Liverpool Local Offer.
  • Parents and carers attending the event have opportunities to connect with parent/carer forums, and access training and information.

3Resource Implications for the Event

  • A grant application was submitted to the SEND Operations Group by the Commissioner and was agreed.
  • £322was requested; this covered the hire of tables for the market place stalls,marketing and tea and coffee.
  • The time allocated to the planning and delivery of the event of all local authority staff involved was not calculated.
  • The Principal of RSB closed the school for the morning of the event so that school staff could manage the car park, greet people at the school’s entrance, direct people to the market place rooms, take photographs (available on the school’s website and Facebook page) and serve refreshments.
  • RSB provided the school hall and sports hall for the market place free or charge.
  • RSB also had provided stalls e.g. post-16 and post-19 provision.

4Methodology

  • A market place event was planned at RSB on 04.07.16, 9.30am-12.00pm.
  • Three planning meetings took place between the Commissioner, the Principal and a teacher from RSB.
  • Providers, forums and local authority services that support young people to achieve the outcomes for preparing for adulthood (see section 2.1)were contacted by the Commissioner and invited to have a stall at the event.
  • The majority of services contacted accepted the invitation; 2 services that were unable to attend provided written information and leaflets for an information stall.
  • A flyer was produced and widely distributed, including to all maintained special schools, parent/carer forums, SEND services, CAMHS, Health services, children and adult social care, non-maintained and independent special schools (NMISS) and colleges.
  • An invitation was also extended to local authorities in Greater Merseyside.
  • A questionnaire was developed by the Local Offer Engagement Officer to gather feedback about people’s experience of using the Liverpool’s Local Offer and to identify gaps in services to inform commissioning.
  • ‘The Guiding Principles for Organisations and Agencies Engaging with Parents and Carers’ were applied to develop this event.

5Services Represented at the Market Place

Table 1,Services thatAttended the Event

(Table 1 includes the number of representatives present and their service area/s in relation to the outcomes for preparing for adulthood, see section 2.1).

Stall / Service / Number of staff / Preparing for adulthood Outcome
1 / Activeme / 2 / 4
2 / Addvanced Solutions / 1 / 1, 2
3 / Autism Initiatives / 2 / 2, 3
4 / Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Training Team / Information only / 1, 4
5 / Autism Together / 2 / 2, 3
6 / Careers Connect / 2 / 1
7 / Clarence High School, Nugent Care / 2 / 1
8 / City of Liverpool College / 2 / 1
9 / Community Integrated Care / 2 / 2, 3, 4
10 / Disabled Children’s Team / 1 / 1, 2, 3, 4
11 / Early Help Information Officer / 1 / 1, 2, 3, 4
12 / Education Officer Post-16 / 1 / 1, 2, 3, 4
13 / Ella Together / 1 / 1, 2, 3, 4
14 / Fusion / 1 / 3
15 / HealthWatch, / 1 / 4
16 / Independent Parental Supporters / 1 / 1, 2, 3, 4
17 / Just One / 2 / 2, 4
18 / Liverpool Parent Carer Forum / 3 / 3
19 / L'Arche Liverpool / 2 / 2 , 4
20 / Lifeways / 1 / 2 , 4
21 / Liverpool Progressive School, Embrace Group / 2 / 1
22 / Local Offer and Commissioning / 2 / 1, 2, 3, 4
23 / North West Community Services Ltd. / 1 / 2 , 4
24 / Nugent Care / 1 / 1
25 / Olsen House School, Kedleston Group / 1 / 1
26 / PANTS Campaign, NSPCC, / information only / 4
27 / Personalisation and Personal Budgets / 2 / 2, 3, 4
28 / Riverside College / 2 / 1
29 / Royal School for the Blind, Post-16 and Post-19 / 2 / 1
30 / St. Joseph's Adult Services / 2 / 2, 4
31 / St Vincent’s School / 1 / 1
32 / SCOPE / 1 / 2, 4
33 / SENSE / 1 / 2, 4
34 / Special Educational Needs and Disability Service / 2 / 1, 2, 3, 4
35 / Transitions Team / 4 / 1, 2, 3, 4
36 / United Response / 1 / 1, 2, 3, 4
37 / Wargrave House School and College / 1 / 1
38 / West Kirby residential School / 1 / 1
39 / WIRED / 1 / 1, 2, 3, 4
40 / Young Person’s Advisory Service (YPAS) / 2 / 1, 2, 3, 4
  • Total-60 people
  • Total of local authority staff-14 people
/
  • Total outcome 1-24 services
  • Total outcome 2-23 services
  • Total outcome 3-17 services
  • Total outcome 4-24 services

*Servicesin bold are local authority services.

6Attendees

  • A staff team of approximately 20 from RSB attended all or part of the event.
  • 60people attended the event and had a stall (see table 1).
  • 14 staff represented Liverpool City Council andhad a stall (this figure is included in the total number of stall holders of 60).
  • RSB’s school hall and sports hall were used for the market place.
  • 5 parents and 1 support worker attended the event from Chinese Wellbeing of which 3 have been identified as Parent Champions. The Parent Champions project was co-ordinated by the Commissioner in partnership with Praxis and trained Parent Champions to support parents in the Chinese community and signpostthem to SEND services.
  • 38 parents/carers signed in at RSB’s reception (including the representatives from Chinese Wellbeing).
  • In addition, 7 parents of children with school placements at RSB attended the event and brought their children.
  • An older young person with SEND attended with their family.
  • A total of 125adults attended the event.

7Local Offer Questionnaire

  • A questionnaire was developed by Dawn McColl, Local Offer Engagement Officerwhich asked 10 questions which focussed on the ease of use, the style and information available on Liverpool’s Local Offer (see Table 2).
  • A total of 14questionnaires were completed at the event by 7 parents or carers and 7 professionals; it is acknowledged that this is a small sample of attendees.
  • No feedback was gathered from young people about Liverpool’s Local Offer.
  • Most people were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with Liverpool’s Local Offer.
  • Most people chose ‘good’ or ‘very good’ when asked to rate the information being attractive, easy to find, clear, accurate and useful.
  • Most people would ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ recommend Liverpool’s Local Offer to others.
  • The gaps identified on Liverpool’s Local Offer included: free training opportunities and volunteer opportunities/community partnership provision.
  • A parent felt Liverpool’s Local Offer should be advertised more and that SENCOs should be making parents more aware of it.
  • Another parent felt that some information is out of date and that it can be difficult to find information at first but the more you use it the easier it becomes.

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Table 2, Responses to the Questionnaireabout Liverpool’s Local Offer.

Responses from Parents and Carers / Responses from Professionals
Question / Response / Comments / Response / Comments
Personal information / Parent 6
Carer 1 / - / Professional 7 / -
  1. Have you seen Liverpool’s Local Offer (LO)?
/ Yes7
No 0 / - / Yes6
No 1(Health professional) / -
  1. How satisfied were you with your visit to the LO website?
/ Very satisfied
Satisfied5
Neither 1
Very dissatisfied
Don’t know 1
Did not answer 1 / Not able to access the LO as paid carer / Very satisfied 4
Satisfied2
Neither
Very dissatisfied
Don’t know
Did not answer 1 / -
  1. Ease of use of the site.
/ Very good 2
Good3
Neither
Poor 1
Very poor
Don’t know
Did not answer 1 / - / Very good 1
Good4
Neither 1
Poor
Very poor
Don’t know
Did not answer 1 / -

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Responses from Parents and Carers / Responses from Professionals
Question / Response / Comments / Response / Comments
  1. Attractiveness of design and appearance.
/ Very good 1
Good 4
Neither 1
Poor 0
Very poor 0
Don’t know 0
Did not answer 1 / - / Very good 3
Good 3
Neither0
Poor 0
Very poor 0
Don’t know 0
Did not answer 1 / -
  1. Ease of finding information/services.
/ Very good 2
Good 2
Neither 1
Poor 1
Very poor 0
Don’t know 0
Did not answer 1 / - / Very good 1
Good 4
Neither0
Poor 1
Very poor 0
Don’t know 0
Did not answer 1 / -
  1. Information that was clear and easy to understand.
/ Very good 2
Good 3
Neither 1
Poor 0
Very poor 0
Don’t know 0
Did not answer 1 / - / Very good 1
Good 5
Neither0
Poor 0
Very poor 0
Don’t know 0
Did not answer 1 / -

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Responses from Parents and Carers / Responses from Professionals
Question / Response / Comments / Question / Response
  1. Accurate and up to date information.
/ Very good 2
Good 2
Neither 2
Poor 0
Very poor 0
Don’t know 0
Did not answer 1 / - / Very good 0
Good 5
Neither 1
Poor 0
Very poor 0
Don’t know 0
Did not answer 1 / -
  1. Usefulness of site search.
/ Very good 1
Good 4
Neither 1
Poor 0
Very poor 0
Don’t know 0
Did not answer 1 / - / Very good 1
Good 4
Neither 1
Poor 0
Very poor 0
Don’t know 0
Did not answer 1 / -
  1. How likely are you to recommend this website to a friend, colleague or family member?
/ Definitely 5
Probably 1
Not sure 0
Probably not 0
Definitely not 0
Did not answer 1 / - / Definitely 6
Probably0
Not sure 0
Probably not 0
Definitely not 0
Did not answer 1 / -

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Responses from Parents and Carers / Responses from Professionals
Question / Response / Comments / Question / Response
  1. Are there any gaps in Liverpool’s Local Offer?
/ Yes 3
No 4 /
  1. Free training opportunities (this carer said there were no gaps but added the suggestion)
  2. Volunteer opportunities/community partnership provision
  3. It should be advertised a lot more, SENCOs should be making parents more aware of it
  4. Some information is out of date, it can be difficult to find information at first but the more you use it the easier it becomes
/ Yes
No 4
Did not answer 2
Don’t know 1 / -

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8Discussion

  • This event was delivered on a small budget but with great enthusiasm, commitment and supportfrom local authority services, health and commissioned providers.
  • RSB has offered to host the event again in 2017 but consideration needs to be given to a maintained school hosting future events.
  • During the event and afterwards, practitioners have fed back verbally to the Commissioner that the opportunities to network and learn about other services that could support families they are working with were invaluable.
  • Although limited, the feedback from the questionnaire showed that most people were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with Liverpool’s Local Offer and thought the information and its format was ‘good’ or ‘very good’.
  • The gaps in Liverpool’s Local Offer identified by the questionnairehave been forwarded to the relevant services or addressed e.g. in response to the comment about the lack of free training available for parents and carers, a free annual multi-disciplinary training offer for parents and carers is available from September 2016, developedin partnership with Liverpool Parent and Carer Forum (LiVPaC).
  • The post-16 offer from maintained special schools was not available at the event as none of the schools accepted the invitation to have a stall.
  • Although invited, none of the maintained special schools brought groups of young people to the event.
  • There were very few young people at the event.

9Areas for Development

After carrying out an analysis of the methodology used and consideration given to the verbal and written feedback provided, this event could be improved by having a greater presence of the following services:

Preparing for Adulthood, Outcome 1

  • Maintained special schools.
  • More mainstream colleges.
  • Apprenticeship and supported internship providers.

Preparing for Adulthood, Outcome 2

  • More semi-independent living organisations.

Preparing for Adulthood, Outcome 3

  • Young people’s participation groups.
  • More parent/carer forums.
  • Inclusive youth clubs and other leisure provision.
  • Volunteering opportunities.

Preparing for Adulthood, Outcome 4

  • Continuing Health Care.
  • More CAMHS.

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