This report gives an overview of how the SEND local offer has developed over the past year and the difference this work has made. The local offer is an important source of information for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), as well as their families, helping them to find clear, up-to-date details about the support and services available.
In this report, we highlight the key improvements we have made and show how feedback from families has helped shape these changes through our ‘You said, we did’ approach. We also share our commitment to continuing to improve the local offer over the coming year.
Our SEND local offer is designed to help families easily find information about the support available for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It brings together details about education, health and social care services in one place, making it easier to understand what help is available, how to access it, and what to expect. For families, the local offer is a key starting point for guidance, helping them feel informed, supported and more confident in making decisions about their child’s needs and future.
Over the past year, we have focused on working closely with families and partners, making the website easier to use, and updating the information available. By working in partnership with PCV Herefordshire, our local Parent Carer forum, and professionals across education, health and social care, we have continued to improve and update the local offer so it better reflects what families need locally.
Our work is also informed by Herefordshire’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA), including the 0-25 years Special Educational Needs and Disability Needs Assessment 2024-2026. This SEND needs assessment brings together local data, evidence and insight about children and young people with SEND, including their needs, experiences and outcomes. We use this information alongside feedback from children, young people, parent carers and partners to understand local priorities, identify gaps in information or support, and make sure the SEND local offer continues to reflect local need and support wider SEND planning and improvement work.
Over the next year, we will build on this work by making the local offer even easier to access and use, and by improving the information so it better meets the needs of families, young people and professionals. We will continue to improve the local offer website by regularly reviewing and updating information so it stays accurate and useful for families. Feedback from children, young people, and parent carers will remain central to this work, helping us make changes that reflect what matters most to our community. We will also continue to develop the local offer in line with national changes, including the SEND reforms set out in the schools white paper, to ensure it remains relevant, accessible, and supports families effectively.
Statutory guidance
The SEND code of practice (2015) says that local authorities must provide a local offer. This brings together information in one place about the support and services that should be available across education, health and social care for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those who do not have an education, health and care (EHC) plan.
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.
- To make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving disabled children and those with SEN and their parents, and disabled young people and those with SEN, and service providers in its development and review.
Local offer partners
Parent Carer Voice Herefordshire
Parent Carer Voice Herefordshire (PCVH) is the recognised, independent Parent Carer Forum for Herefordshire, funded through the Department for Education Participation Grant. Over the past couple of years, we have worked in partnership with Herefordshire Council to ensure that the offer reflects the lived experience of children and young people with SEND and their families.
Through our annual survey, engagement sessions, events, and ongoing feedback from parent carers, we have provided insight into how the local offer is used in practice, what information families value, and where gaps or barriers remain. This evidence has supported continued development of the local offer to make it more accessible, relevant, and responsive to the needs of local families.
We have seen progress in strengthening the local offer as a central source of information for families, particularly through clearer signposting and improved content and social media coverage. We actively promote the local offer through our communications, including newsletters, social media, and events, which help families to access up-to-date information and support.
We will continue to work in co-production with all partners to ensure the local offer develops as a trusted and user-friendly directory of services, shaped by parent carer voice and reflective of the realities families face across Herefordshire.
Debbie Hobbs - Parent Carer Voice Herefordshire
SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS)
As an empowerment service, we want to help families feel confident in supporting their children and speaking up for them. One of the ways we do this at SENDIASS is by guiding parents to, and helping them navigate the Herefordshire local offer website. This is a helpful place where families can find clear information about the support, services and opportunities available for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities in Herefordshire. By using the local offer, parents can learn more about what is available, understand their options, and feel better equipped to make informed choices for their child as well as finding out about the support SENDIASS can offer.
Signposting families to the local offer website can be a valuable part of our work, whether that be during telephone conversations, email correspondence, at our training workshops, or during face-to-face meetings.
Chris Boxall - Herefordshire and Worcestershire SENDIASS
Review and development
From April 2025 to October 2025, we were unable to carry out significant redesign or updates to the local offer website due to the planned migration to a new platform. During this period, work was focused on supporting the transition process to ensure information could be transferred accurately. This helped lay the groundwork for future improvements once content had been transferred successfully.
We worked in partnership with PCV Herefordshire and the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care System to co-produce the “While you wait” information available on its website. This resource brings together helpful advice, services and support for children, young people and families who are waiting for health appointments, and forms an important part of Herefordshire’s local offer. It ensures families can access practical guidance and local support during waiting periods, helping them feel informed and supported.
To help improve SEND knowledge and understanding of professionals and practitioners within the Primary Care sector, we worked in partnership with the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care System (ICB), Parent Carer Voice (PCV) Herefordshire, and children and young people to co-produce the Primary Care Practitioner SEND Handbook. By combining professional knowledge with the real experiences of families and young people, we have helped to develop a resource that supports practitioners to better understand SEND and respond to the needs of children and young people. This document forms part of Herefordshire’s local offer and helps to improve how services support families across the area.
In response to feedback from families whose early years child has received a diagnosis of autism, we created an online resource of information, support and guidance to help families navigate the wealth of information that is provided. This is intended to supplement and in some cases replace the printed formats that had previously been handed to parents and carers at their in-person appointments. This gives parents and carers a faster and more accessible way of finding information and links directly to sources of support.
We regularly review and update pages on the SEND local offer to ensure they reflect changes to referral pathways, services and support available, local and national information, and any other relevant updates.
Key local offer website updates:
- New page for targeted short breaks terms and conditions
- Targeted short breaks guidance spending guidance added directly to webpage instead of a separate PDF
- ICB While You Wait webpages live and signposted from the local offer
- emotional and mental health support page updated with newly commissioned services (Melo)
- GP/Practitioner’s SEND handbook added to universal health services page
- Moving to primary school page updated with reference to accessing local schools
- Early years autism page redeveloped to support families when their child first receives a diagnosis
- Right to choose information added to neurodivergence zone
- Added developmental language disorder (DLD) information and resources to neurodivergence zone
Coproduction
Opportunities to hear and understand the views of parent carers about the local offer are included in the PCV annual survey. Each year, PCV gathers feedback from families of children and young people aged 0-25 about their experiences of education, health, social care and community services.
In addition to the annual survey, PCV also runs short, focused surveys on different topics throughout the year. Feedback is further gathered through regular coffee mornings and other parent engagement events attended by colleagues across the SEND partnership, providing ongoing opportunities for families to share their views and experiences.
The voices of children and young people are captured through their annual reviews and the Quality of Life Survey, as well as through direct participation work led by the council’s children and young people (CYP) SEND participation officer, Tracey Duffy.
All feedback and suggestions gathered through these activities are captured and evidenced through our ‘You said, we did’ process. This shows how feedback is listened to, explored, and acted upon in partnership with key stakeholders, helping to shape improvements to the local offer.
Raising Awareness
Throughout 2025-26, the team attended and participated in a wide range of community-based events to promote the local offer, including:
- PCV coffee and chat with colleagues coffee mornings
- Child development centre coffee mornings
- Holiday activities and food programme family activity days
- Herefordshire Families First Partnership launch
- Visible and valued events
- Healthy Tots event
- Child readiness day
- Herefordshire parish summit
- Hereford Community Farm SEND family days
- Little Play World SEND session
- SENCO network meetings
- SENCO conference
In addition to face-to-face engagement, timely information about upcoming events, service developments, and support pathways is shared through the Herefordshire SEND newsletter. The newsletter is published at the end of each half term and includes a regular message from the Head of Service for Additional Needs, updates across education, health, and social care and signposting to activities and events for children and young people with SEND and their families. Contributions from our parent carer forum, PCV Herefordshire, SENDIASS and Talk Community are also featured to promote joined up working and local engagement.
Information is also shared through our Herefordshire SEND local offer Facebook page, including posts about local SEND activities, signposting to information and support services, updates from local and national organisations and promotion of SEND events in Herefordshire.
A linktree page has been developed for Herefordshire SEND to provide families with a clear, accessible route to key information within the council’s SEND local offer. By bringing together essential links in a single, easy-to-navigate hub, it reduces the time and effort required for parents and carers to find relevant guidance, services, and support. This streamlined approach supports improved user experience, enabling families to more quickly access the information they need and make informed decisions about support for their children and young people.
During spring 2026 (22 January - 31 March 2026), a paid Facebook advertising campaign focused on key messages and information for families. Promotional posts were selected in response to feedback received from families and the priorities in the SEND Partnership Post-Ofsted Action Plan. This campaign had a positive impact on engagement and the reach of the as follows:
- Subscribe to the SEND Newsletter - Subscribers to the SEND newsletter increased by 62%, from 171 to 278. Visits to the SEND Newsletter webpage increased by 1660%, from 10 to 176 during the paid promotion period.
- Get a social care assessment - Visits to the Children with Disabilities Social Care page increased by 82%, from 274 to 501 compared with the previous period.
- Visit the neurodivergence zone - The neurodivergence zone had a 330% increase in page visits, from 529 to 2,279 compared to the previous period. When comparing quarterly analytics, there were 1,007 visits to the Neurodivergence Zone from October to December 2025, compared with 3,112 from January to March 2026 – an increase of 209%.
- Find information on the SEND local offer - Page visits on the SEND local offer increased by 32% overall, with 7,284 visits from October to December 2025, rising to 9,657 from January to March 2026.
- Follow Herefordshire SEND local offer on Facebook - Follower numbers increased from 1,302 before the paid promotion period, to 1,756 on completion. This represents an increase of 35%.
The data from the paid campaign demonstrates improved reach and accessibility of information for families who may not previously have engaged with traditional communication routes. Further paid advertising is planned for 2026-27 to continue to increase engagement and the reach of the messaging on the page to ensure more parents and carers are aware of and connect with the SEND local offer and find the information they are looking for.
Young People’s Voice
In response to key priorities highlighted following the Local Area SEND Inspection, it was highlighted that children, young people and their families need improved information about the range of support services available to them while waiting for an assessment of neurodevelopmental conditions. Through direct work with young people in a range of contexts, we have gathered feedback on the Neurodivergence Zone of the SEND local offer from a young peoples’ perspectives.
Young people were introduced to the existing Neurodivergence Zone and through interactive discussions, they shared their views on what worked well, what was missing and how they wanted information to be presented. Key themes raised were:
- Lack of awareness that the zone existed
- Content aimed at parents and other adults
- No practical advice
- Signposts to other websites
As a result of their feedback, we are now bringing together a group of young people to help design young people’s content about neurodivergence that will form part of a new Young People’s Zone on the SEND local offer in 2026-2027.
What’s next?
Local inclusion support offer (LISO) and SEND portal
Herefordshire is part of the West Midlands SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Change Programme led by the Department for Education to improve support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The aim is to make things better for children and young people, improve experiences for families, and make sure support is consistent and sustainable for the future.
A new approach called the Local Inclusion Support Offer (LISO) is being introduced in Herefordshire. This will help schools and settings to better support children earlier on by:
- Identifying needs as soon as possible
- Putting the right support in place quickly
- Helping staff build confidence and skills to support a wide range of needs
It will bring together different services into a more joined-up approach, so support feels more coordinated for families.
The goal is that children and young people in Herefordshire will:
- Get help earlier and more quickly
- Have better support within mainstream settings where appropriate
- Experience more consistent and inclusive practice across schools
To ensure schools and settings have access to the LISO, they will use a new online SEND Portal (accessed via the local offer) to access guidance, resources and support. This will replace the current SENCo pages on our website and will make it easier for professionals to find clear, up-to-date information. Schools and settings will be given login details to access the SEND Portal.
Website improvements
We are redesigning parts of the SEND local offer to make it clearer and more accessible for parents and carers. Information intended for professionals will be moved to the SEND Portal, allowing the website to focus on what families need most. This will create a simpler, more user-friendly experience, making it easier for parents and carers to find relevant information and navigate support.
Young People’s Content
We will be working with a group of young people with SEND to review sections of the SEND local offer and make it more accessible and relevant for young people. Feedback will be used to create new content which is written in language aimed at young people as the target audience. More visual resources will be included in new young people’s pages to ensure the content includes videos, images and easy-read formats that are more appropriate and accessible for young people with SEND.
SEND Local Offer Drop-in sessions
We will offer regular drop-in sessions for parent carers to meet professionals, ask questions, get further information and signposting without an appointment or a diagnosis. Sessions will be held in partnership with our local partners including PCV and SENDIASS in locations across the county.
Delivering improvements in line with the schools white paper
We will develop the SEND local offer to align with the schools white paper by making it clearer, more consistent and easier to navigate. This includes improving information about what support is ordinarily available, clarifying pathways and next steps, strengthening early help information, and ensuring content is co-produced, joined-up and accessible for families.
Website analytics
We use a tool called Google Analytics to help us understand how people use the SEND Local Offer website. This shows us things like how many people visit, how they found the site, and which pages they look at. This information helps us make the website easier to use and ensures families can quickly find what they need. We review this data regularly to help us keep improving the site.
A page view represents the number of times a specific page is loaded or displayed, while a user refers to the total number of individual visitors to the website.
Total page views (1 April 2025 – 31 March 2026): 27,945
Total users (1 April 2025 – 31 March 2026): 11,102
Quarterly trends
| Quarter | Total page views | Total users |
| Q1 Apr 2025 - Jun 2025 | 5,408 | 2,296 |
| Q2 July 2025 - Sep 2025 | 5,596 | 2,332 |
| Q3 Oct 2025 - Dec 2025 | 7,284 | 2,563 |
| Q4 Jan 2026 - Mar 2026 | 9,657 | 3,911 |
The data shows a clear seasonal pattern in how the website is used. We typically see a slight dip in activity over the summer months, as reflected in Q2 (July–September), when page views and user numbers level off compared to the previous quarter. This is followed by a noticeable increase in the autumn term (Q3, October–December), when children return to school and demand for information rises. This upward trend continues into Q4 (January–March), where the highest levels of engagement are likely supported by a paid Facebook advertising campaign, alongside growing awareness of the Local Offer website over the course of the year.
Most popular pages
The table below shows the most viewed pages of the SEND Local Offer from 1 April 2025 – 31 March 2026.
You said, we did
We are always looking for ways we can improve the SEND local offer website and make it as helpful, accessible and informative for families as possible. Development of the SEND local offer website is an ongoing process and we use a 'You said, we did' approach. This means listening to feedback, exploring issues, and responding with the relevant actions.
In the PCV Annual Survey 2025, around half of respondents had used the SEND Local Offer; those who rated it gave middling scores overall - most commonly 6/7 out of 10. In addition to the PCV Annual Survey, a workshop was held at the HANDS Hub to gather feedback specifically about the Neurodivergence Zone of the SEND Local Offer. Comments received from the workshop are included below with responses.
Below you will find comments that ‘you said’ and a response of what ‘we did’ on the SEND Local Offer website in 2025-26:
You said, we did - Parents carers
| You said | We did |
| Can we have more clips rather than text. It's very wordy for young people (Referring to neurodivergence zone). | A project to coproduce a children and young people’s zone on the SEND local offer is planned for 2026-2027 which will offer opportunities for young people to influence the content of the pages so it is more accessible for them |
| I feel like signposting and support is available yet a complete minefield to navigate as a parent. | The new SEND local offer linktree gives families direct access to the key pages of the SEND local offer without having to navigate the entire site. The linktree has been and will continue to be promoted through the SEND newsletter and SEND local offer Facebook page |
| Local support and help for CYP and their families should be more prominent on the website. Also, include clear info on where someone can go for urgent help/support and link to mental health support available locally too. (Referring to neurodivergence zone). | A direct link to information about emotional and mental health support on the local offer has been added to the autism page and ADHD page of the neurodivergence zone |
| When the ND handbook is completed, link to health ND handbook as well (Referring to neurodivergence zone). |
A link to the Integrated Care Board webpage which hosts the neurodivergence handbook has been added to the autism and ADHD pages of the local offer |
|
I think parents need more information about what support they can get and where to look for help. I would love to know if there was more available. I literally don’t even know what I can access for him. People listen and caring but the pathway is so muddy, unclear and long that it feels like you aren’t getting anywhere. Easier access to help and support. |
We increased awareness of support through targeted Facebook campaigns, signposting to the Local Offer, assessments, and ways to stay connected. We also promoted services at community events and introduced regular informal coffee mornings, giving parent carers direct access to professionals without the need for appointments or a diagnosis |
|
Accessible information and communication – Families deserve transparency, honesty, and straightforward guidance from the local authority and services. Perhaps a little more parent friendly speak, or the ability to change language settings. |
All information on the council website conforms to the public sector Digital Accessibility Regulations WCAG 2.2 and the majority of pages on the SEND Local Offer have been coproduced with our local parent carer forum, PCV Herefordshire, to ensure they are written in accessible language and are parent-friendly. The language settings can be altered in the settings of the browser being used to access the pages. We are constantly reviewing and updating information and welcome feedback on the SEND local offer, which can be submitted by email to localoffer@herefordshire.gov.uk |
|
Nothing available whilst waiting for diagnosis. Access to support whilst waiting for diagnosis. Help and support while waiting for diagnosis. |
Information on the ICB’s Support While You Wait website has been coproduced with PCV and signposted to from the SEND local offer. The information has been promoted through the SEND newsletter and SEND local offer Facebook page regularly and will continue to be a focus for future signposting activities |
You said, we did - Children and young people
| You said | We did |
| You didn’t know the neurodivergence zone existed. | We’re improving the neurodivergence zone and making sure more young people know about it. |
| It felt like the info was written for parents, not for you. | We’re working with a group of young people to help us rewrite content so it’s clear, relevant, and aimed at young people. |
| There wasn’t much practical help – just links to other places. | We’re adding practical advice to help you understand your options and what you can do next. |
| You wanted things like a quiz to help you understand if you might be autistic, and what to do next. | With our health colleagues, we are exploring ways we might be able to include interactive tools with clear guidance on next steps. |
| You didn’t know how to get an autism assessment. | We’re adding simple, clear information on how to get an autism assessment. |
| You wanted info about real clubs and support groups (like HANDS, Autistic Girls Network, online communities and gaming). | We’re including local and online clubs, groups and communities you can join. |
| There was too much writing and not enough pictures. | We’re updating the pages with more visuals and less heavy text to make them easier to use. |
To ensure the content we create for the young people’s area on the SEND local offer is relevant, accessible and written in appropriate language, we have set up a group of young people to help shape and review the content.
Get in touch
If you have any questions about the SEND Local Offer or suggestions for improvements, please email localoffer@herefordshire.gov.uk