About the Plymouth Local Offer

Plymouth's Local Offer contains information about services and support for children and young people from birth to 25 years old who have Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND), and for their families and carers.

Our Local Offer has been developed working with children and young people, parents and carers, schools, health services and voluntary organisations.

We want all children and young people to have a good start in life. Some children and young people have special educational needs and these differing needs mean varying levels of support are required at different times. We aim to provide a range of support so that children and young people with special educational needs can be educated and enjoy social opportunities alongside their peers, in their local community.

Not sure what SEND means? It's an acronym for Special Educational Needs and Disability. 

Definition of Special Education Needs or Disabilities (SEND)

Children with special educational needs have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn than most children of the same age.

Special educational needs fall under four broad areas:

• communication and interaction
• cognition and learning
• social, emotional and mental health
• sensory and/or physical

 Children with special educational needs may need extra help with:

• thinking and understanding
• physical or sensory difficulties
• emotional or social difficulties
• difficulties with speech and language
• how they relate to and behave with other people

Schools and other settings can help most children quickly and easily, but very few children will need extra help for some or all of their time in school. This will be decided after a statutory assessment of the child's educational needs has been made.

What we must do

We have to tell you:

• what services are available across education, health and social care
• who the services are for
• how to access the services 

You can find the legal requirements about who is required to do what in:

• sections 27, 28, 30, 32, 41, 49 and 51 to 57 of the Children and Families Act 2014
• section 4 of the SEND Code of Practice 2015 
• the Care Act 2014
• the Mental Capacity Act 2005
• the Equality Act 2010

For more information about SEND, please have a look at the following pages on the GOV.UK website:

• SEND guide for parents and carers - GOV.UK
• SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years - GOV.UK

Universal, targeted and specialist are terms applied to services available for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

We maintain a Register of Disabled Children who live in Plymouth in accordance with duty set out in the Children Act 1989. Although registration is not mandatory, parents are encouraged to include their child's names on the register in order to assist the Local Authority and partner agencies to plan future services and target resources more effectively.

This short film aims to give children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities information about the Local Offer. It also covers how children and young people and their families can get involved in their local area to give their views and opinions on what services should be offered.