53. A local authority must include the information in Schedule 2 when it publishes its local offer.
54.—(1) When preparing and reviewing its local offer, a local authority must consult the following persons in its area—
(a)children and young people with special educational needs and the parents of children with special educational needs;
(b)children and young people with a disability, and the parents of children with a disability;
(c)the governing bodies of maintained schools and maintained nursery schools;
(d)the proprietors of Academies(1);
(e)the governing bodies, proprietors or principals of post-16 institutions;
(f)the governing bodies of non-maintained special schools;
(g)the management committees of pupil referral units;
(h)the advisory boards of children’s centres;
(i)the providers of relevant early years education;
(j)the youth offending teams that the authority thinks have functions in relation to children or young people for whom it is responsible;
(k)any other person that makes special educational provision for a child or young person for whom it is responsible and those who provide advice in relation to making that provision;
(l)persons who make provision to assist children and young people in preparation for adulthood and independent living;
(m)its officers who—
(i)exercise the authority’s functions relating to education or training;
(ii)exercise the authority’s social services functions for children or young people with special educational needs or a disability;
(iii)so far as they are not officers within paragraph (i) or (ii), exercise the authority’s functions relating to provision to assist children and young people in preparation for adulthood and independent living; and
(n)such other persons as it thinks appropriate.
(2) When preparing and reviewing its local offer, a local authority must also consult—
(a)the National Health Service Commissioning Board;
(b)any clinical commissioning group—
(i)whose area coincides with, or falls wholly or partly within, the local authority’s area, or
(ii)which exercises functions in relation to children or young people for whom the authority is responsible;
(c)any NHS trust or NHS foundation trust which provides services in the authority’s area, or which exercises functions in relation to children or young people for whom the authority is responsible;
(d)any local Health Board which exercises functions in relation to children or young people for whom the authority is responsible;
(e)any health and wellbeing board established under section 194 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012(2) which exercises functions in relation to children or young people for whom the authority is responsible.
(3) When preparing and reviewing its local offer, a local authority must also consult any bodies specified in paragraphs (1)(b) to (k) and (m) that are not in the local authority’s area, but which the local authority thinks are or are likely to either—
(a)be attended by children or young people for whom it is responsible; or
(b)have functions in relation to children or young people for whom it is responsible.
55. A local authority must consult children and young people with special educational needs or a disability and the parents of children with special educational needs or a disability in their area about—
(a)the services children and young people with special educational needs or a disability require;
(b)how the information in the local offer is to be set out when published;
(c)how the information in the local offer will be available for those people without access to the Internet;
(d)how the information in the local offer will be accessible to those with special educational needs or a disability;
(e)how they can provide comments on the local offer.
56.—(1) A local authority must seek from children and young people with special educational needs or a disability, and the parents of children with special educational needs or a disability comments on—
(a)the content of its local offer, including the quality of the provision that is included and any provision that is not included;
(b)the accessibility of the information contained in its local offer; and
(c)how the local offer has been developed or reviewed, including how those children, parents and young people have been involved in the development and review of the local offer.
(2) Subject to paragraph (3), a local authority must publish comments received by or on behalf of those people in accordance with paragraph (1), and its response to those comments (including details of any action the authority intends to take) on its website, with the local offer.
(3) Comments received and the local authority’s response must be published at least annually, and must be in a form that does not enable any individual to be identified.
(4) The local authority is not required to publish or respond to any comments which—
(a)it considers to be vexatious; or
(b)relate to services provided to a particular individual.
57. A local authority must—
(a)publish its local offer by placing it on their website;
(b)publish its arrangements for enabling—
(i)people without access to the Internet; and
(ii)different groups, including people with special educational needs or a disability,
to obtain a copy of the offer; and
(c)publish how those people identified in paragraph (b) can provide comments on the local offer.
An academy has the same meaning as in section 1(10) of the Academies Act 2010