Local Offer Review Board: 4 November 2014
In Attendance
Ann Thornber (Chair)
Anna Whitfield
Cath Stone
Darren Parsonage
Jo Bromley
Julie Hicklin
Nicky Boag
Bernadette Brooks
Julie McBride
Lisa Rushton
Carol Tarpey
Strategic Lead for Special Educational Needs
Careers Solutions
Parent Rep for Costello Kids
CCG Commissioning
CAMHS
Preparing for Adulthood Lead, Manchester City Council
Health CMFT
Parent Rep for South Manchester Downs Syndrome
EHC Transfer Team (Social Care)
EHC Transfer Team (Health)
Local Offer Co-ordinator, Manchester City Council
Apologies
Dave Calvert
Julie Heslop
Latha Hackett
Andrew Lomax
Lancasterian School
Strategic Lead for Integration and Prevention
Health CMFT
Information, Advice and Support (IAS) Manchester
Purpose of the Board
Local Offer Review Board (LORB) has replaced Learning Difficulties and Disability (LDD)
Board. Ann explained that it is a statutory requirement to:
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review the Local Offer;
report to stakeholders on how it is being reviewed, how development will be
addressed and how it will be kept up-to-date;
ensure that recommendations and feedback from stakeholders, including parents and
young people, are reported on.
Membership of the Board
Initial invitations were sent to members of the LDD Board. Julie Hicklin indicated that the
Youth Council would gather feedback about the Local Offer from children and young people
to feed into the LORB.
It was agreed that there needs to be representation from a wide range of parent groups.
Representatives from these groups could be invited on a rotating basis. Parents attending
the Board meetings would be expected to cascade information to other parents via their
networks.
Action Point 1: Parental Engagement Officer to explore which parent groups, including
those linked to specialist schools, should be invited to future meetings of the LORB.
Action Point 2: Jo Bromley to send details of post-diagnostic groups for parents of
children with autism to Carol.
Action Point 3: Carol to ensure that parent groups identified are included on the Local
Offer.
Action Point 4: Julie Hicklin to develop and circulate standardised Local Offer
presentation so that consistent messages are cascaded to all stakeholders.
Action Point 5: Nicky Boag to invite Anne Ferguson to join the LORB.
Terms of Reference
These were agreed by the Board. Ann confirmed that the LORB will report to the SEND
Implementation Board, who in turn has to feed into the Department for Education.
The LORB will act as the Steering Group for IAS Manchester.
Manchester’s Local Offer
Carol delivered a report on Local Offer activity since 1 September 2014 and gave a
demonstration of the online Local Offer.
Darren expressed concern that we have no baseline data to measure the effectiveness of the
Local Offer. He suggested that a number of questions could be set up on survey monkey to
capture the following:
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Are you a professional?
Are you a parent/carer?
Are you aware of Manchester’s Local Offer?
Have you accessed the Local Offer?
Did you find it easy to use?
Was the information useful?
Any comments
Action Point 6: Darren to ask Tom Openshaw to set up Survey Monkey to run for 2
months
Action Point 7: All board members to cascade links to survey to colleagues working
with families of children and young people with SEND.
Action Point 8: All frontline workers to ask these families the above questions and
capture responses on Survey Monkey.
To raise awareness of the Local Offer, it was suggested that an advertisement could be
included on electronic boards in GP surgeries and on TV monitors in hospitals.
Action Point 9: Julie H and Ann to liaise with Comms about what would be needed and
costings.
Development of Local Offer
Julie H suggested undertaking an audit of Early Help provision being offered in the
community for young people falling within the Preparing for Adulthood cohort (i.e. 14 to 18
year olds). This would involve identifying:
 what are the assets in the area
 what provision is missing
 where do young people go and what works for them
 which provision is not already on the FSD
It was agreed to trial this approach in the Wythenshawe area making links with SRF
regeneration teams.
Action Point 10: Julie H to co-ordinate audit and assign associated tasks.
Dates of Next Meetings
11 March 2015 and 10 June 2015; 10am to 12 noon at Westwood Street Offices