What is the Local Offer?
Herefordshire Council's Local Offer sets out the support, services and information available for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The Local Offer includes information about:
- Education, health and social care services from birth to 25 years of age
- Eligibility criteria to access specialist support services
- The support arrangements available to help you access the services you need
- Leisure activities and support groups
- How to make a complaint
Herefordshire's Local Offer is continuously being developed in consultation with young people and their families, with workshops and consultation events to ensure the right information is available, in the right format, at the right time. You can see recent feedback on the Feedback on the Local Offer 2022 page.
To find out more about understanding and accessing the Local Offer, please read the Council for Disabled Children's Local Offer guide.
If you'd like to share your views about the Local Offer in Herefordshire, please e-mail localoffer@herefordshire.gov.uk.
We understand that some people who need this information may not be able to access it using the internet for a variety of reasons. The information is in addition to the ways services have always communicated.
Providing information digitally is the most effective way for us to make it available and keep it up to date. This has been especially true during the pandemic. It does not mean that you cannot access helpful information if you do not have a computer or access to the internet.
Once you contact a service it is highly likely that a member of staff will contact you to discuss your situation and your child's needs. Do let them know that you are not able to use the internet. Tell them the best way to give you information.
Many services offer drop in sessions or offer phone advice lines where you can speak with professionals about your situation.
We regularly send information to schools, health settings and the parent carer forum PCV Herefordshire. We ask them to share and display information so staff and parents and carers can see it.
You can ask service providers working with you, your family or child or young person to help you find or print information.
The ‘My Information Booklet’ function on Talk Community allows you, or someone helping you, to save the information you need. If you do not have access to a computer, ask someone who does to print the information you need. This can be done from any computer with a printer.
There are computers available in various locations in Herefordshire for the public use. These can be found in:
- Herefordshire Libraries (find your nearest library)
- Children’s Centres (find your nearest centre)
- Talk Community Hubs (find your nearest hub)
- Community and voluntary services (find local services)
- Find a map of publicly available computers in Herefordshire
- Herefordshire School SENCOs may also be able to help you access information from this website
You can email localoffer@herefordshire.gov.uk with a brief outline of what you are trying to find. We will do our best to find the information and send you the relevant links on our website. If you would rather we contact you by telephone, please include your number in your email.