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Your voice - You asked, we responded

We are committed to developing the Local Offer in partnership with children and young people, parents and carers in North Somerset.

If you want to see other information here, or have suggestions about the Local Offer, please let us know by emailing nsod@n-somerset.gov.uk. Also, if you have questions about the services, processes or policies we mention on the site, please drop us a line.

We welcome honest, open feedback and as part of our co-production charter, we want to assure everyone that we will not record your comments or feedback in case files, or use them in any way to influence decisions about support or services.

Below are some examples of recent comments and our responses including changes we have made.

Give feedback

Feedback about our services for SEND

From time to time we run consultations on our services. We will always highlight these on the Local Offer, but all current consultations can be found on North Somerset's eConsult website.

If you have any feedback on the Local Offer website please email nsod@n-somerset.gov.uk 

You asked, we responded...

We take your feedback seriously and alwasy look at ways we can improve our services and the information about them. Here are a few areas where parents and carers views have resulted in a change in how things are done:

Meetings with parents should be arranged around suitable times for parents/carers to be involved.

The SEND Progamme Board now meets between 11am - 1pm as indicated as being a good time by parents and carers. We always try to organise other meetings at similar times wherever possible.

Parents were concerned about upcoming changes to Home to School Transport which may have an impact on their child's journey

The SEND Programme Board looked at these concerns, and asked the Integrated Transport Unit to delay the changes, which they agreed to do. A Working Group including parent and carer representatives was formed and the ITU held a longer period of consultation and co-production around a revised School Transport Policy. The new policy, including the Journey Care Plan to improve the service for children with SEND can be found on the North Somerset Council website.

Parents/carers were not happy about the amount of information on the landing page of the Local Offer, they wanted this condensed

The landing page information has now been reviewed and the amount of advice and guidance pages reduced. We have tried to focus on the most frequently viewed items, and those which we must publish by law.

Parents/carers suggested that it should be easier to find 'autism friendly' venues and services which are now becoming more common in retail and entertainment

We have begun to gather information on these venues and activities, and we are experimenting with the best way to feature them. You can find our current list here. We also received feedback that some people prefer to refer to these activites as Sensory-Friendly - we have tagged the records with both terms and changed our site to reflect this.

Parents/carers suggested that the design and interface of the Local Offer could be more friendly and accessible for children and young people

The site is currently designed to meet North Somerset Council's corporate standards on web design and accessibility. We are in the process of looking to move our Local Offer onto our main council website.  

What will you do with my questions and comments?

Your comments will help us to understand the kind of services which are needed by children with SEND and their families, and will inform the strategies and policies we develop and the services we commission to meet these needs in the future.

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