About the Local Offer

Welcome to West Northamptonshire’s Local Offer where information about services available for children and young people (aged 0 to 25) with special educational needs and disabilities in West Northamptonshire is published.

All local authorities are required to have a Local Offer according to the following legislation:

• Children and Families Act 2014
• Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice 2014 (0 to 25 years)
• Department for Education regulations

What the Local Offer provides

The Local Offer will:

• provide information for families with children who have a special educational need or disability
• improve choice and transparency for these families
• help professionals to understand the range of services and provision available locally
• improve joint commissioning arrangements for services by setting out (in a single place) what is available locally

You can find information on the search directory and the webpages about:

• special educational provision
• health provision
• social care provision
• other educational provision
• training provision
• arrangements for children and young people to travel to schools, colleges and early years education
• leisure and sports opportunities
• preparing for adulthood information
• policies, YouTube links, easy read documents, guides, fact sheets and leaflets

Use our Search directory to find detailed information about individual providers and educational settings and use the document library for links to leaflets and articles about SEND.

Register a service or provider

To add your information to West Northamptonshire Council’s Local Offer website, please complete the form below, giving as much information as possible. The information must be kept up to date, so please let us know if you have any changes at any time.

Neighbouring Local Offers

We have provided links to neighbouring Local Offers for people who live on the borders with other authorities:

• Bedford Borough Council
• Buckinghamshire County Council
• Cambridgeshire County Council
• Central Bedfordshire Council
• Leicestershire County Council
• Oxfordshire County Council
• North Northamptonshire Council
• Warwickshire County Council

How to contact us

You can get in touch with us via:

• online form
• email: [email protected]
• telephone: 0300 126 7000 
  • ask to speak to the Local Offer team or text or WhatsApp us on 07391 381240
• let us know of any changes to your service details

You Said, We Did

We will publish feedback from all contributors for the Local Offer on our You Said, We Did page. It will be populated monthly, with agreement from the Governance Group.

Complaints and compliments

Support with resolving problems

Cerebra have put together a 'Problem Solving Toolkit' for disabled people, their parents and carers who are facing difficulties with the statutory agencies in relation to the provision of health and education or social care supporting services. The aim of the toolkit is to develop effective strategies for resolving problems.

• Cerebra problem solving toolkit

Complain about a local authority service or department including Social Care

Formal complaints about council services must be made within 12 months of the incident. Complaints will be acknowledged within three working days and investigated in accordance with the council’s policy.

See:

• comments, compliments and complaints about West Northamptonshire Council
• comments, compliments and complaints about Northamptonshire Children's Trust (children's social care)

Complain about an education setting (schools, colleges, nurseries, early years providers)

If you wish to make a complaint about a school, or any other education setting, you must follow their complaints policy. Policies may be found via the links on the Local Offer website or directly from the education setting.

Complain about a health service

NHS England is responsible for purchasing primary care services such as GPs, dentists, pharmacists, optical services and some specialised services, and should be contacted to make a formal official complaint:

• Complain about the NHS in England

For secondary care including hospital treatments, emergency care and some community services, like district nursing, contact your local Clinical Commissioning Group:

• Find your local Integrated Care Systems (previously known as the Clinical Commissioning Group or CCG)
• Mencap guide to complaining about the NHS

Complain about an external, independent agency or provider you have found on the Local Offer

Complaints will need to be made to the agency or service directly (for example a charity running a group). They should have a complaints policy.

If you have already made a complaint and feel dissatisfied with the result, please let us know using our online form to contact the Local Offer and we will register your complaint and, if appropriate, will take action accordingly.

This may include:

• the Local Offer manager will contact the provider and ask for information about the complaint which will be discussed with the Assistant Director
• the Assistant Director will review the complaint and advise further action
• the complaint will be reviewed by the Quality Board for either Children's Services or Adult Services as appropriate
• action could be: monitor the provision with visits by 'secret shoppers', refer the provision to relative services such as Fire, Trading Standards, QCS

If the complaint is found to be fair, and the service is not fit for purpose, then the provision may be removed from the Local Offer and the provider notified of the action and why.

This form is only for information you have found on the Local Offer about services for children and young people with special educational needs and is not for general complaints about council services. Please refer to the complaints section of the relevant authority.

Search the Local Offer directory.

Last updated 16 February 2024