Consultation Feedback

In September 2024 West Yorkshire Voice asked children, young people and their parents and carers to highlight their experience of health and carer services. 

We heard from people via a survey as well as speaking to professionals supporting children and young people who are experiencing mental health difficulties, transgender or gender diverse, young carers, seeking asylum, disabled, neurodivergent and experiencing bereavement. 

A briefing paper was written based on what we heard from people as well as what we already knew from existing insights and work. This was presented at the September West Yorkshire ICB Board Meeting alongside a Healthwatch Leeds video about a young person's experience. You can see re watch the board meeting and see the other papers here. 

Talking to young people about what they do online is just as important as asking them where they go when they go out with friends.

It can be difficult to start the conversation with a young person about their online activities. Technology keeps changing and you might struggle to keep up with it all. But you don't need to. You just need to take an interest and ask questions about the games and apps they are using.

In August / September 2024, the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership sought feedback on a leaflet designed for parents as part of our online safety campaign, which encourages open conversations between parents and children about online activities.

The leaflet was updated using the feedback provided. The updated leaflet will now be distributed to parents through schools’ contact systems.

Public consultation on proposals to expand Broomfield South SILC by 100 places, as part of a school rebuild, and the establishment of a permanent satellite site for post-16 provision.

What our plans involve

Leeds City Council is consulting on two proposals relating to the Broomfield South Special Inclusion Learning Centre (SILC).

1. To expand the school's capacity by up to an additional 100 places for learners aged 2 –16 years as part of a proposed rebuild to the school.
2. To establish a permanent satellite site of Broomfield South SILC for post-16 learners at the Arlington Business Centre, White Rose Park, LS11.

The proposed opening date for the rebuild of the main site and the additional places (Proposal 1) is September 2027.

The permanent satellite site at the Arlington Business Centre (Proposal 2) would be from September 2025.

Our decision

Following consultation, the Executive Board of Leeds City Council has approved the publication of a statutory notice in relation to the proposals.

Click here for the full statutory notice. 

The Consultation

Leeds City Council has proposed changes to the policy we have which provides transport to students over 16, and to young people aged between 19-25 with special educational needs and disabilities. 

Revised Children and Young People’s Transport Policy now live

The council’s Executive Board approved a new model of assistance that will, wherever appropriate, prioritise an offer of independent travel training (ITT), enabling young people to develop the skills to be able to travel independently in preparation for adulthood.

The policy ensures that the council will continue to provide a discretionary transport offer, through the usual application process for post 16 and post 19 students, so we can appropriately and justly award transport assistance of any type.

Full details about eligibility and the new model of assistance, as well as questions and answers relating to the changes, can be found on the Post-16 transport policy review webpage.

If you have any queries regarding the consultation, please email post16transport.review@leeds.gov.uk

55 parents and carers attended the Leeds SEND Event 2024 on Tuesday 9 July 2024.  

The event was an opportunity for us, the Leeds Area SEND Partnership, to share back with you what we have heard from families, and what our future plans are. 

The aims of the event were:

• To feedback to families what we, Local Authority and Health, know based on data and previous consultations.
• To look at what our data is saying. 
• To outline our plans moving forward.
• To consult with families to ensure we have all the information you want us to know. 

All information and feedback gathered at the event via the tabletop discussions will be fed into the self-evaluation framework and used when developing SEND services in Leeds. We will share the executive summary of the self-evaluation framework once this has been signed off. 

Our aim is to implement changes and improvements, to help the Council achieve its vision, that children and young people in Leeds with SEND, have the best possible start to life and equal opportunities to learn.

The Children and Families Department will keep you updated throughout the process and this webpage will serve as an information hub about the changes.

If you have any further questions, or require signposting to services please contact the Leeds Local Offer at LLO@leeds.gov.uk or visit the website at www.leedslocaloffer.org.uk.

Thanks again for your attendance, and for sharing your time and stories with us at what we hope will be the first of many conversations.

Following an increase in demands on service and workforce challenges resulting in a drop in statutory performance, Leeds City Council commissioned a review of its current EHC assessment, plan and annual review processes to identify key opportunities for change. The review highlighted areas for improvement in relation to the Council’s communications, processes, support provided and consistency in approaches.

Click here to download the consultation analysis (September 2023). 

Our aim is to implement changes and improvements, to help the Council achieve its vision, that children and young people in Leeds with SEND, have the best possible start to life and equal opportunities to learn.

The Children and Families Department will keep you updated throughout the process here, and this webpage will serve as an information hub about the changes.

If you have any queries in relation to the project, please get in touch with us at ehcpreview@leeds.gov.uk.

Leeds City Council wants to make sure that there is enough childcare places available for all parents and carers of young children, including working parents, or parents who are studying or training for employment. In November 2023, parents and carers of children aged 0-11 were invited to take part in an online survey to tell us about their current or future childcare needs and share their experience of using childcare providers in Leeds, including details of any difficulties they may have encountered accessing provision that meets your requirements.

457 responses were received, all survey responses were used to help the local authority with its duty to ensure sufficient childcare across Leeds.  

Following the announcement of the Childcare Expansion reforms in the spring budget, the local authority ran a citywide publicity and marketing campaign to raise awareness for parents and carers. This was via supermarket campaigns, signposts at key points in the city, free paper distributions, such as doorstep, bus stops, local radio ads and targeted facebook posts and rolling banners in health centres and libraries, community centres and any Leeds City Council buildings with screens. This was all intended to promote to parents, in particular parents who would not have been eligible for funded provision previously, with babies and children aged 9 months upwards, to register and create an account with HMRC’s Childcare Choices. 

From September to December 2023 children, young people, parents and carers were asked to give their views and feedback on Short Breaks and Fun Activities in Leeds. 

Leeds City Council's Commissioning Team are carefully reviewing the data from the consultation with children, young people, parents and carers as well as working with providers and practitioners when commissioning services. 

the Commissioning Team used the established Voice, Influence and Change (VIC) networks, Leeds Local Offer site and social media accounts to share information and encourage families to share their views. The networks include a range of parent and carer groups with a SEND focus; young people’s groups; and schools and education settings. Commissioning Team have established relationships with VIC leads in many Leeds schools and settings, who will often support VIC activities with their learners.

As part of this Short Breaks review, the Commissioning Team engaged with children, young people, parents and carers by using a mixture of mechanisms:

• Focus group with the SEND Youth Forum on 19th October 2023 (via Teams)
• Consultation at the SEND Summit on 14th November 2023 (Leeds Civic Hall)
• C&YP and P/C online surveys (December 2023)

All feedback received from the consultations will inform the current review of Short Breaks and Fun Activities in Leeds.

Click here to read the full consultation report. 

The campaign was launched on 30th October across West Yorkshire. The campaign includes:

• 3 weeks of radio advertising on Pulse radio
• Adverts on digital audio
• 5 digital outdoor displays for 1 week from 30th Oct in Leeds and Bradford city centres
• Facebook and Instagram ads from 30 Oct to 31 December.

We are also currently developing some short videos of children explaining games and apps to adults.

The campaign’s overall objective is to encourage parents and carers to have conversations with their children about their online activity. Creating an open dialogue means that a child will be more likely to tell a trusted adult if they have concerns. Parents are then in a better position to protect their child and help prevent any inappropriate online activity escalating into cases of child sexual or criminal exploitation.
 

Leeds City Council, Parks and Countryside Service manage 170 playgrounds on sites ranging from large, city parks like Temple Newsam, Roundhay park and Middleton Park to smaller, local community parks and recreation grounds such as Springhead, Yeadon Tarn, Cross Flatts and Horsforth Hall parks.

We are keen that all our playgrounds can be enjoyed by all children and in January 2023 sought feedback on playgrounds in Leeds and ideas to make them more accessible in future from families with special educational needs and disabilities.

Click here to download the feedback report. 

The Parent Champions group raised the issue around families not knowing about the childcare options available to those of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The Leeds Local Offer website includes information about Early Years (0 to 5 years) services. The Parent Champions looked at the information available on the website and provided feedback about the information and came up with recommendations.

Click here to read the feedback report. 
 

Back in June / July 2023, young people and families shared their experiences of accessing dental care with Youthwtach Leeds.

Youthwatch are currently in the process of writing up a report to share our findings from our Oral Health project, we’d like to ensure this a co-produced piece of work with our young volunteers and aim to get this complete sometime within October. We're really keen on creating visuals/ videos to ensure our findings are communicated through different mediums and not just via text heavy reports. A total of 352 parents and carers, 248 children and young people have shared their thoughts/ experiences with us. We’d like to extend our gratitude to each and every person who was involved and welcome us into their space to speak too!

Thanks to the support and involvement from the Public Health Team, some funding has been secured in recognition of the difficulties many people have reported back with difficulty seeing a dentist. This will be used towards providing oral health promotion within the east Leeds locality (recognition of high demand in need of support). Currently we are in the process of assisting the recruitment of community oral health ambassadors for training. Insight and findings will also be shared with decision makers within dentistry to help ensure public voice and experience is placed at the forefront of commissioning changes now that dental services will be overseen by the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board. We'll be working closely with said commissioners by continually highlighting experiences shared with us when attending/ representing the people of Leeds at the West Yorkshire Children and Young People's Oral Health Board and the Children and Young People's Oral Health Network Meeting.

Some of the recurring feedback themes that have emerged from the input shared and what we are actively feeding back thus far include; lack of available dental practices taking on patients, financial difficulties in accessing dental care and maintaining oral health, mental health implications of oral health upkeep and dental visits (i.e. anxiety, distress), the need for dental practice environments to be less stimulating and better equipped to provide a calm and welcoming atmosphere, the importance of dental professionals adapting to delivering person-cantered care, the need for better flexibility around adjustments to meet individual needs - particularly including the use of communication aids such as translators and story boards and clearer communication on the dental pathway/ access to dental advice.

A trainee Educational Phycologist undertook a research project with the aims to:

• explore parent and carer experiences of involvement with a Local Authority (LA) Educational Psychology Service (EPS)
• identify influential factors to help create an understanding of mechanisms that enable or hinder parental engagement
  findings to support conversations around the improvement of practice for Educational
• Psychologists (EPs) and EPSs to increase parent/ carer engagement to best support YP, families, communities and wider service users.

Click here to read the feedback report. 

In November 2022; parents and carers across Leeds were asked to share their views on the 024/2025 admission policy for Leeds community and voluntary controlled schools.

On the 8th February 2023; the Director of Children and Families submitted a report to Leeds City Council's Executive Board which sought approval of the proposed Leeds City Council admission arrangements (admission policy) for September 2024, with it being noted that the admission policy applied to all Leeds community and voluntary controlled maintained schools (100 schools) in the city.

The admissions policy has now been signed off. Click here to read the new admission arrangements (admission policy).

This report explains the findings of the research about unpaid parent/carers in Leeds who are caring for children, young people and adults with disabilities or long-term health conditions. It notes that many key themes are evident throughout and this emphasis on the need to support unpaid parent carers is paramount if they are to feel valued in society.

Click here to read the feedback report. 

School Aged Immunisation Services across the North East and Yorkshire work hard to protect the health of children by providing immunisation against vaccine preventable diseases.

In July 2022 the team asked people who work with the service to or have immunisations provided by the service, to help them understand if the service meets the needs of all of our population or if any improvements could be made.

Click here to read the feedback report. 
 

The Leeds Local Offer website is a place for us to provide information in one place about services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families.

We have lots of information on the Leeds Local Offer website about education, careers, transport, fun activities, health services and lots more.

The health section on the website is quite confusing and contains a lot of out-of-date information. So, in November 2021 to January 2022 we asked young people, parents, and carers in Leeds what information about health services they would like to see on the website to assist in the redesign of the health section

Click here to read the feedback report. 
 

Sunshine & Smiles is a specific support network for families who have a child or young person with Down syndrome in Leeds, or the surrounding areas.

Early 2022; they asked families for their ideas and suggestions for how they should work in the future and what service families would like.

Click here to read the feedback report. 
 

In 2022; the views of children, young people, parents and carers were sought on the green paper about the changes the government want to make to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) system in England.

The consultation ran from the 29th March 2022 to the 22nd July 2022.

The government’s response to the consultation is available in the SEND and alternative provision improvement plan.

This plan sets out our responses to the feedback we received and the improvements we’ll make to the SEND and alternative provision system in England.
 

MindMate Leeds is the name for all the different ways children and young people in the city can get support with their mental health and wellbeing. As part of our ongoing work on the MindMate website, we have developed a Neurodevelopmental hub, to provide advice, support and resources for both parents/carers and professionals working with children and young people around their mental health.

In 2022, parents and carers of children with SEND were asked to share their feedback on the developments of the Neurodevelopment Hub and if there was anything missing or improvements to be made.

Feedback from the survey:

There were very few responses to the survey. Of the 7 parents and carers who completed the survey, 6 found the website helpful and would recommend it to other parents and carers.

The general feedback about the website was incredibly positive. MindMate will continue to speak to parents and cares and gather their views about the website and make the relevant developments to reflect the feedback received.

Information about the Neurodiversity Information Hub can be found here: click here.

The William Merritt Centre offers impartial and professional advice for Children and Adults. Carrying out assessments for clients, healthcare professionals and members of the public about daily living aids. We offer a try before you buy ethos allowing clients to identify individual needs to enhance their independence.

They are also an accredited member of Driving Mobility offering medical fitness to drive assessments, passenger access assessments and vehicle adaptation assessments.

William Merritt were exploring the possibility of offering services to support individuals with sensory processing difficulties. In order to identify what support families feel they would benefit from in March 2021 they asked parents and carers to help support them in identifying the best ways in which they can support individuals and families.

The responses received from parents and carers helped the William Merritt Centre to put forward a proposal to launch a new service to provide sensory support services to families.
 

The SILC Cluster is a service in Leeds that brings together a variety of services to ensure that young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families have access to a wide range of support services outside of the school setting such as Behaviour Support, Family Intervention, Counselling, workshops and information and advice.

The SILC Cluster is for all children and young people who attend a SILC school or partnership.

The SILC Cluster wanted to find out from parents / carers if they had heard of the SILC Cluster, used any of the services and also how we support can be tailored to the needs of families.

In July to September 2021 parents / carers who have a child in a SILC setting were encouraged to take part in an online survey or phone consultation to give their views on the SILC Cluster.

Click here to read the feedback report. 
 

In Leeds we currently commission Scope (Activities for All) to help settings become more inclusive, which means that settings get support for ensuring that Children and Young People with and without additional needs can attend the same fun activity.

To help us further develop this offer we asked parents / carers in March 2020, to tell us about the short breaks and fun activities their children take part in and how they could be more inclusive.

The responses received are being shared with a group of professionals working together to review short breaks and fun activities in Leeds. The feedback will be incorporated into the decisions that are made.
 

SENDIASS is a dedicated service providing free, confidential and impartial information advice and support for children and young people aged 0-25 who have or may have special educational needs and/or a disability and for their parents and carers.

As part of the Leeds Local Offer Information and Consultation Month (March 2021) children, young people, parents and carers were asked to review the SENDIASS website pages.

Click here to read the feedback report. 
 

Following consultation around the look and content of the Leeds Local Offer website in September / October 2020, the Leeds Local Offer team have been working with the website hosts to implement changes based on the feedback.

In March 2021, 5 young people and 6 parents user tested the new website and provided additional feedback around the ease of use, look of the website and the information the website provides.

Click here to read the feedback report. 
 

As part of the Leeds Local Offer Information and Consultation Month People Matters invited parents and carers to take part in a short survey to find out how they can safely support people to access their services in person as we ease out of the pandemic.

People Matters creates opportunities for people with learning disabilities and other hidden disabilities who experience disadvantage to be more independent and enjoy life in the same ways as anybody else.

Click here to read the feedback report. 
 

The Children’s Speech and Language Therapy Service is available to people living in Leeds for children aged 0-18 years. They also provide access for adults at the Stammering Support Service and Communication Aid Service.

They provide assessment, goal setting, practical advice, individual and group therapy, and parent/carer workshops.

In March 2021; the Children's Speech and Language Therapy Service asked parents and carers for their views and feedback about their service.

Click here to read the feedback report. 
 

From 23rd February to 8th March, Health Watch Leeds asked people to tell them about their experience of shielding during the pandemic. Health Watch wanted to hear both from people who have been asked to shield over the past 12 months and those who have only recently received shielding letters.

65 responses were received, 57 of which were from those shielding pre-February 2021; 8 were
from people who had started shielding from February.

Click here to read the feedback report. 

SENDIASS have been jointly commissioned with Health to gather information around parents and carers experiences of autism diagnosis and support.

SENDIASS have been speaking to parents and carers about their experiences of autism diagnosis and support through an online questionnaire, coffee mornings, advice calls and sessions.

All feedback received from parents and carers has been collated into a termly report which details what the perceived gaps in support are from both health and autism services, what is currently offered, and what parents feel is also needed in order to improve services.

The report has been shared with the Clinical Pathway Development Manager from the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, the head of service at SENSAP, the head of Learning Inclusion at Leeds City Council, the regional SENDIASS lead, the Autism Project Manager of West Yorkshire ICS – MHLDA programme Hosted by Bradford CCG, the SEND Partnership Board, Commissioning and the SENDIASS steering group. The Clinical pathway Development Manager shares the report in turn with their manager in the CCG and it has been further forwarded to CAMHS and Mindmate.

Click here to read the feedback report. 

If you have any questions about the report please contact SENDIASS at sendiass@leeds.gov.uk 

Due to the coronavirus pandemic we were unable to host an in person SENate information and consultation event for schools and also the information and consultation event for parents and carers.

Leeds City Council worked in partnership with EPIC Leeds to host a virtual Leeds Local Offer Information and Consultation Month on the Leeds Local Offer website. The month was split into three elements on the website:

• Service Information Market Place
• Parent / Carer Consultations
• Young People Consultations

Click here to read the feedback report. 
 

Parents Questionnaire and focus groups Leeds Educational Psychology Team Summer 2021.

A piece of work was carried out to explore with parents of children with SEND their hopes and wishes about how planning for the education of their children worked.

The work involved core questions thought an online questioner with parents through Voice and Influence Team, followed by a focus group to explore some of the themes that emerged.

• Questionnaire had 27 respondents
• Focus groups had 5 parents to explore areas identified as key themes from questionnaire

The report has been shared with SENCO's and SEND Teams to consider when reviewing practices within schools.

Click here to read the feedback report. 
 

In April 2021; HealthWatch asked young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their parents / carers to share their experiences of finding a dentist.

Feedback from the consultation

HealthWatch received nearly 3 times as much feedback on dentistry than they have had in the previously. Access to NHS Dentistry has been an issue in Leeds and across the country for some time now.

Following the latest campaign HealthWatch produced a summary report of the key themes across the West Yorkshire and Harrogate region with regards to dentistry and this was shared directly with the NHS Dental Commissioner and more importantly, the West Yorkshire and Harrogate System Oversight and Assurance Group.

Following the report being shared the they have agreed to own the issue as a West Yorkshire and Harrogate Integrated Care System. Quotes from members of the public on how a lack of dentistry affects them was a driver for them to take action, realising the wider health issues that this is now causing, including mental health and the potential for wide scale health inequalities.

Change can take a long time within the health system, especially when that change will be national but we’re pleased that we’ve been able to use peoples experiences to get this issue on the agenda at last and hopefully on the road to making improvements to the way people can access NHS dentistry.

Click here to read the feedback report. 
 

Leeds City Council and Leeds health agencies are jointly leading a new strategy to make Leeds an inclusive, child-friendly city for children and young people in Leeds aged 0-25 with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

We are working to co-produce the new strategy with the Leeds partnership of education, health and care services, voluntary services, and groups of families and young people.

These partners are all members of the Leeds SEND Partnership Board. The Board has oversight of the SEND and Inclusion strategy. The strategy is about the work do together, to make Leeds a child-friendly inclusive city where children and young people with SEND can thrive. It is not about everything we do to deliver services every day, but the big things we do to make change happen.

In summer 2021, we brought partners together to talk about the new strategy. This report shares our learning from this, and how will we use it.

Click here to read the feedback report. 
 

In October 2018 the newly launched SEND partnership board agreed priorities areas for the board to focus on in the new Terms of Reference.

Parent representatives (EPIC Leeds) are members of the SEND partnership board and after reviewing the terms of reference it was identified that parents and carers of children and young people with SEND should also have the opportunity to identify a priority for the board to focus on over the next 12-18 months. The Voice Influence and Change Team worked in partnership with EPIC Leeds to develop an approach to identifying a key issue from parents and carers.

In 2019 parents and carers of children and young people with SEND completed the parent ballot to identify a priority.

Click here to read the feedback report. 
 

Young people, families and professionals were asked to feed into the redesign of the SEND Leeds Local Offer website.

The consultation took place September to October 2020 and the new look website will be relaunched early 2021.

Click here to read the feedback report. 

For more information about the consultation email llo@leeds.gov.uk 

Each year students takeover the SEND Partnership Board as part of National Takeover Challenge. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic they unable to takeover the SEND Partnership Board in person in 2020.

Children, young people and families were asked to give their feedback about their personal experiences of the coronavirus lockdown. These responses were collated into a report that students presented to the SEND Partnership Board on the 24th November 2020.
Members of the SEND Partnership Board are going to share the presentation and report with their services and use the feedback to look at how things can be done differently to support families.

Click here to read the feedback report.