January 2023 Kirklees SEND Newsletter

Local Offer Live 2022

We would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to everyone who attended the Local Offer Live event at the John Smith’s Stadium, Huddersfield.

Local Offer Live, which was organised with help from local parent/carer forum PCAN (Parents of Children with Additional Needs), helped families to discover more about services, support and activities across the district.

Around 550 people attended the event, giving them a perfect chance to meet providers, find out what’s on offer and visit over 60 stalls featuring a range of SEND information. There were also workshops on subjects that families said they would find useful, such as emotional wellbeing, sensory needs at home, behaviours that challenge and financial help.

Feedback from families included:

• “Today has helped me feel confident, not alone and that solutions can be found”
• “The workshop topics were spot on and there was such a variety of stalls”
• “This has really opened our eyes as to how many places exist”
• “Thanks for organising- a great opportunity to get information all in one place”
• “It was amazing to find out what’s out there and to meet new groups”

We are now looking at ways to bring the Local Offer to life again in the future.

Message from Mel Meggs, Strategic Director of Children’s Services, Kirklees Council

As a SEND partnership, we truly value feedback from local families and the views you share with us on many different topics.

We also know the world of SEND is wide ranging and complex, so we have made a video about our plans to improve support for children and young people in Kirklees.

The video explains what we have learned from speaking with families and what the recent Local Area SEND Inspection has told us. It looks at:

• How the local area works together in helping children and young people to reach their potential and have the best possible start in life. This includes working with mainstream schools so they can provide high-quality, inclusive support for all.
• Developing specialist staff to cover more areas of need. This includes Additionally Resourced Provisions, which allow pupils with more complex needs to stay in mainstream schools but receive specialist help.
• Plans to expand our current special schools offer so that children and young people can be educated locally. This includes excellent new facilities, as well as Special School classes being run in some mainstream schools.
• How support from education, health, social care and the community will work in a more linked-up way so that families get the best possible experience.

For full details, please watch the video above.

If you would like a PDF version of this newsletter then please use the download link below.

Kirklees SEND Newsletter January 2023 (downloads PDF) (opens link in new window)