SEND Local Offer Annual Report 2025 to 2026

During 2025, significant work continued to improve clarity, accessibility, structure, and user experience following the major platform re launch using the GOSS digital platform.

Faster "find what I need" experience

To help users find what they need quickly we identified the need for navigation and page restructuring, a clear 'contact us' navigation and key information was needed. To address this a new contact us form was designed and implemented.

Reduced information overload

We reduced users being overloaded with information by changing the button that linked to a directory of local partners to two separate navigation buttons including 'Contact Us' and 'Directory of local services.'

Made high‑demand content easier to reach

We ensured high demand content including Education, SENDIASS and information for parents and carers where easier to reach. This resulted in those pages being the top viewed pages in 2025, showing improved findability and relevance.

Clearer next steps and reassurance

Plain‑English guidance and stronger calls‑to‑action such as the SENDIASS contact and parent guides gave families a clearer path from information to action, reflected in the growth of parent‑facing page views in 2025.

More inclusive, neuro-diverse friendly design direction

The proposed rebrand mock-up sets an empathetic, calming tone and accessibility, laying the groundwork for lower cognitive load and greater trust during 2026.

Faster, clearer access to strategies and policies

Families, young people and professionals now have quicker and clearer access to Stockton's SEND strategies, policies and statutory information, thanks to improvements in navigation, clearer labelling and simplified content pathways. The clearer access point also supports statutory compliance, highlighted in the Local Offer compliance audit, which identified a need for more prominent statutory information, better explanation of SEND processes, and clearer pathways for parents and professionals

Clearer mainstream SEND support narrative (in development)

Actions from the 2025 review set out a distinct "SEND Support in Schools" pathway and consistent explanations (graduated approach, reasonable adjustments, Inclusive Education Framework alignment) to reduce confusion and complaints.

Brand and structure aligned to accessibility

The new rebrand brief defines tone of voice (empathy, clarity, reassurance), colour and typography choices and layout principles that meet accessibility needs and reduce cognitive load which is a foundation for 2026.

User need insights

User needs continued to guide all Local Offer improvements throughout 2025, with design and content shaped around the three core user‑journey groups identified in the 2025 review: parents of children with new or emerging SEND needs, young people preparing for adulthood, and professionals, particularly SENCOs. These journeys highlighted the importance of simple pathways, reassuring language, mobile‑friendly layouts and clear explanations of what to expect at each stage of the SEND process.

Developments are in progress for the creation of a new homepage concept built around three clear pathways:

• children and young people
• parents and carers
• professionals

This will provide users with an immediate, intuitive route into the information most relevant to them. This shift will ensure the Local Offer feels more predictable, more personalised and easier to navigate, particularly for first‑time users who may be feeling overwhelmed.

SEND Local Offer email inbox

The SEND Local Offer inbox continued to play an important role in 2025 as a direct communication channel for families and professionals seeking clarity, reassurance and practical guidance. Enquiries frequently focused on Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) assessments, school placements, annual reviews, short breaks, early years support, and signposting to specialist services, reflecting the key areas where families most often need accessible, timely information.

Because many of these questions relate to complex processes, the inbox remains a vital tool for helping families understand next steps, directing case‑specific queries to the right service, and identifying recurring themes that inform wider improvements to the Local Offer. This also aligns with the SEND Navigator (support officer role) signposting in the team. In this way, the inbox does more than respond to individual questions. It provides valuable insight into user needs, guiding ongoing content updates, navigation improvements, and future design decisions.

Improving navigation and content

Throughout 2025, significant progress has been made in developing and improving the clarity, structure and usability of the Local Offer.

Work has begun to develop a new SEND Support in Schools section, providing consistent explanations of SEN Support, the graduated approach, and the distinction between SEN Support and EHCPs, and to develop the Inclusion Education Framework to address key gaps identified in the compliance audit.

This is supported by plans for transition timelines and visual guides, helping families understand next steps as children move through Early Years, school and Preparing for Adulthood pathways.

Navigation improvements are informed by user‑journey model research (Stockton Parent Carer Forum, SEND Strategy working groups and away days, communication and listening sessions, Send Navigator meetings and SENDIAS feedback meetings), ensuring information flows in the order parents, young people, and professionals naturally look for it. These changes will reflect the Local Offer's broader move towards clearer categorisation (by age, need and service type) and a more intuitive and reassuring user experience.

A strategic focus on improving Google search results by optimising the website to rank higher (SEO) and refining search techniques for better personal results.

Accessibility

We remain committed to ensuring our website meets the WCAG 2.2 accessibility standards, creating an inclusive and user‑friendly experience for everyone. By following these guidelines, we make our content easier to navigate, more usable on mobile devices, and fully accessible for people with a wide range of needs. Meeting WCAG 2.2 not only supports our legal and ethical responsibilities, it also improves overall user satisfaction, enhances our reputation, and helps ensure that no one is excluded from accessing our services. Our new brand colour proposals have been approved for accessibility standards.

Alongside this, we are seeking approval at the Council's Powering Our Future Board to procure and begin development on an AI‑powered chatbot designed to provide a 24/7 responsive experience, offering instant answers, navigation support and signposting at any time of day. These enhancements reflect the Local Offer's design principles of clarity, predictability and reduced cognitive load, supporting neurodivergent users and ensuring information is accessible, welcoming and easy to use across devices.

Marketing and promotion

Activity strengthened significantly in 2025 with the production of a dedicated Local Offer communications plan, providing a clearer and more strategic approach to raising awareness and improving engagement across Stockton-on-Tees. This work brought the Local Offer into closer alignment with Corporate Communications, ensuring consistent messaging and a coordinated promotion across council channels. Awareness‑raising activities will continue, including digital communications through schools, SENCO networks and Family Hubs; Send Navigator, SEND forums and engagement sessions. Together, these efforts have widened its reach and created more opportunities for dialogue with families, young people and professionals, evidenced by increased user participation.

Engagement and co-production

In 2025, engagement and co‑production strengthened significantly across the Local Offer. The launch of the Youth Forum will provide direct access to young people's voices, enabling them to shape improvements and work closely with Preparing for Adulthood leads to refresh and rebuild the Young People's section of the Local Offer in ways that reflect their real experiences and communication preferences. Relationships with the Stockton Parent Carer Forum (SPCF) also improved, with more regular touch points and clearer opportunities for parents to influence content and navigation changes.

The Stockton Information Directory continued to be a reliable source for ensuring accuracy and up‑to‑date service information. The next step identified through the 2025 review is to weave this directory data into the Local Offer's user journeys, ensuring families not only access accurate information but encounter it at the right point in their journey. Together, these developments create a more collaborative, transparent and user‑shaped approach to how the Local Offer evolves.

The formation of a new SEND co-production working group will also feed into the Local Offer Strategy.

Establishment of a Local Offer working group

A new Local Offer Working Group was established, with the agreement to meet four times per year to drive co‑production of improvements, share data insights and collaboratively shape a coherent, user‑friendly Local Offer. This group brings together key partners across Education, Health, Social Care, Digital Services, the Parent Carer Forum and SENDIASS, as well as Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council SEND professionals, to ensure development is aligned, evidence‑led and responsive to the needs of families and professionals.

Reach and awareness

We saw a significant growth in reach and awareness to the SEND Local Offer website. Visits increased from 1,475 (2024) to 6,475 (2025) and unique users from 761 (2024) to 2,612 (2025) evidencing stronger awareness, search visibility and referral pathways into the Local Offer.

There was a 339% increase in visits and 243% increase in users, with October 2025 being the busiest month. Campaigns to drive traffic to the local offer are starting to have a positive impact and this will be an improvement goal for 2026.

From 1 January 2025 to 1 January 2026, website statistics shows there were 6,475 total visits to the website with 2,612 being unique users

The most visited pages were:

1. Education - 1,311 views
2. Local Offer homepage - 1,210 views
3. SENDIASS for parents and carers - 547 views
4. SEND information for parents and carers - 450 views

The percentage of users from different devices was:

• mobile - 66.5%
• desktop - 31.3%
• tablet - 2.2%

Mobile access remains the dominant route to the Local Offer, reinforcing the need for a mobile‑first design supported by a consistent approach to accessibility, including clear layout, structured text, predictable navigation and formatting that reduces cognitive loads for all users. This ensures that families, young people and professionals can access information quickly and confidently across any device, while aligning with the rebrand principles of clarity, empathy and reassurance.

Data‑informed continuous improvement

The 2025 review defined dashboards, A/B testing and feedback loops to make updates evidence‑led and measurable, moving the Local Offer from "publish then maintain" to "monitor, learn, improve."  Young people and parents are encouraged to provide feedback on the Local Offer, and professionals and organisations can provide updates via a new digital 'Update Local Offer' form.

Analytics and data improvements

We have made a conscious shift towards using data in a more meaningful and practical way, to understand how people actually move through the Local Offer and what they need most. The data helps us see which pages families rely on, where people get stuck, and which pathways are used most often. This insight will be shared through the Local Offer Working Group to explore trends together, spot gaps, and agree on what needs to change first. It also shapes our design decisions, from simplifying long pages to rethinking navigation and planning based on real user behaviour.

The Stockton Information Directory (SID) plays a role too, helping us keep service information accurate, but our analytics show that accuracy only matters when it appears at the right moment in a user's journey. That's why 2026 work focuses on weaving the directory content into clearer pathways, ensuring data isn't just collected but it is used to make the Local Offer feel easier, calmer and more intuitive for everyone.

The Local Offer saw steady growth, stronger foundations, and clear momentum in 2025. Website engagement increased significantly, navigation and structure became clearer, and partnerships strengthened across families, young people, Stockton Parent Carer Forum, Preparing for Adulthood and the wider Special Educational Needs and Disabilities team. With the new branding proposals, user‑journey model and improved governance now in place, Stockton-on-Tees is well‑positioned to move into the next phase of development.

Looking ahead, 2026 will focus on embedding the new Local Offer brand, ensuring that the values of empathy, clarity and reassurance shape the tone, navigation and visual identity across all pages and pathways, as set out in the Local Offer brand. This includes delivering redesigned user‑journey layouts, enabling parents, young people and professionals to access the right information at the right time, following the natural steps they take when seeking help.

2026 will also bring a new homepage design, creating clearer entry points and stronger visual anchors that reduce cognitive load and align with accessibility standards highlighted in the compliance audit. The homepage proposal sets out new blocks, such as:

understanding Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

• parents and carers
• children and young people
• professionals
• strategies, policies and plans
• "you said, we did" and latest updates

Stockton-on-Tees will continue exploring AI integration, the development of a twenty four seven AI‑powered chatbot (SENDi robot).

A major focus for the year ahead will be a full brand relaunch delivered in partnership with the Communications Department, using coordinated campaigns to raise awareness, drive traffic, and open up more dialogue with families, young people and professionals, which emphasise awareness building, stronger storytelling and targeted engagement with key audiences across Stockton-on-Tees.

The Local Offer will also become an integral pathway within the Children's Services Front Door project which will be the main access point where families first seek SEND advice, raise concerns or request support. Embedding the Local Offer into this early‑help gateway ensures that families receive clear, accessible information from the very start of their SEND journey, reducing delays, improving signposting and helping them understand what support is available before a referral is made.

Finally, these developments sit within Stockton-on-Tees growing culture of continuous improvement, supported by better use of analytics, user‑journey insights, accessibility audits and the new Local Offer Working Group, which brings partners together to co‑produce improvements, share evidence and shape a coherent, user‑friendly Local Offer.