SEND Local Offer Annual Feedback Summary 2020
Gathering and acting on feedback regarding the Local Offer is not only required as part of the SEND Code of Practice, it is also vital in ensuring the Local Offer is as helpful as possible to those who use it
How have we gathered feedback about the Local Offer this year?
- Feedback gathered through the Local Offer website.
- From the SYAS (SEND Youth Advisers Surrey) now called Accept, Teach, Listen, Access, Support (ATLAS) team.
- Through a public consultation about the Local Offer website.
Feedback from the SEND Youth Advisers Surrey (SYAS) group
We asked SYAS (SEND Youth Advisers Surrey) who are now called Accept, Teach, Listen, Access, Support (ATLAS) to provide feedback about the website.
This is a summary of what they told us.
- They liked the layout of the homepage they found it simple, visually appealing and well designed. They did however feel it would benefit from more colour.
- They liked the accessibility feature on the Local Offer but felt this could be easier to find. They felt the texts simplification feature made the text shorter but not easier to understand.
- They also felt there should be separate and easy to understand version of the websites.
- They did not feel there should be any red text on the site
- They didn't feel there should be any red text included on the site.
- They felt the Directory search panel should be at the top of the page and that directory entries should include details of cost and accessibility information. For example, for a Directory entry for a park it should include whether it was accessible for wheelchair users or had disabled parking.
- They also fed back that there should be filters for both cost and accessibility.
In October and November 2020 we carried out and widely promoted a consultation regarding our Local Offer website. This asked about people's experience of using the site, for instance how easy it was to use and how helpful the information was on it. In summary respondents described very mixed experiences of using the site, some finding it very helpful and others not finding it helpful at all.
Public consultation about the Local Offer website
The responses to some key questions about the Local Offer website are included below:
Do you find the Local Offer easy to use?
Option | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|
Strongly Agree | 2 | 3% |
Agree | 32 | 43% |
Neither Agree or Disagree | 14 | 19% |
Disagree | 13 | 17.5% |
Strongly Disagree | 13 | 17.5% |
Don't Know/No Opinion | 0 | 0.00% |
Are you able to find what your looking for?
Option | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|
Strongly Agree | 3 | 4% |
Agree | 24 | 32% |
Neither Agree or Disagree | 15 | 20.5% |
Disagree | 15 | 20.5% |
Strongly Disagree | 16 | 22% |
Don't Know/No Opinion | 1 | 1% |
Do you find the information on the Local Offer is easy to understand?
Option | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|
Strongly Agree | 3 | 4% |
Agree | 34 | 46% |
Neither Agree or Disagree | 22 | 30% |
Disagree | 9 | 12% |
Strongly Disagree | 5 | 7% |
Don't Know/No Opinion | 1 | 1% |
Do you find the information on the Local Offer is helpful?
Option | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|
Strongly Agree | 4 | 5% |
Agree | 35 | 47% |
Neither Agree or Disagree | 16 | 22% |
Disagree | 11 | 15% |
Strongly Disagree | 7 | 9% |
Don't Know/No Opinion | 1 | 2% |
Do you find the information on the Local Offer is up-to-date?
Option | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|
Strongly Agree | 4 | 6% |
Agree | 20 | 29% |
Neither Agree or Disagree | 18 | 26% |
Disagree | 12 | 17% |
Strongly Disagree | 15 | 22% |
I have or would recommend the Local Offer to others?
Option | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|
Strongly Agree | 9 | 12% |
Agree | 36 | 49% |
Neither Agree or Disagree | 9 | 12% |
Disagree | 7 | 9% |
Strongly Disagree | 11 | 15% |
Don't Know/No Opinion | 2 | 3% |
How would you rate your overall experience of using the Local Offer website?
Option | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|
Excellent | 3 | 4% |
Good | 20 | 27% |
Satisfactory | 24 | 32% |
Poor | 19 | 26% |
Very poor | 8 | 11% |
We want users to consistently have an excellent experience of using the Local Offer, so have used the feedback to build a specification of how we want to improve the site. We will consider whether these improvements can be delivered on our current website or if we need to move to a different one. We are awaiting developments in other projects taking place in the council, which we believe will help us ensure we offer the best possible experience for users.
We also plan to carry out a similar consultation each year based on the questions above to evaluate what progress we have made.
What we plan to do with your feedback?
As a result of both the consultation and other feedback, we are carrying out the following:
Improving how accessible the information pages on the Local Offer pages are:
We want to lower the reading age of our information pages, so they are accessible to as many as possible. This will include where possible simplifying wording and sentences, reducing jargon and breaking up large chunks of text so there are shorter paragraphs.
We also want to introduce more videos and visuals to the web pages, where appropriate in the place of large amounts of text.
Ensuring that our Local Offer is up-to-date:
A large amount of this year's feedback has concerned users finding broken links on the site or requesting that out of date details need to be updated. We are introducing the measures below to ensure that this is minimised:
i. Regular upkeep of services on the Directory:
The Local Offer team have established a rolling programme of directory updates. These updates will entail checking a service still exists and if it does checking if contact information and description is correct. They will also ensure that the key words for the entry accurately represent the specific search terms users might use to find a service.
On a daily basis the team will also use web tools to monitor broken links and where these exist for service entries investigate whether they need amendment or deletion.
We will also be encouraging services to be assigned to their records on the Directory and where they can (following approval by the Local Offer team) update their own details.
ii. Rolling programme of review:
We are establishing web pages owners for all pages on the Local Offer websites. It will be their responsibility to: proactively update the Local Offer team when changes to their pages are needed and review their content when requested.
Ensuring we seek, gather and use as much feedback as we can:
Feedback is vital to ensuring that the Local Offer is as helpful as it can be. Along with our existing methods of gathering feedback we intend to carry out surveys, user testing and learn from best practice elsewhere.