Welcome to Manchester Local Offer

The Manchester Local Offer brings together information in one place. It helps children and young people with SEND up to the age of 25 and their parents/carers in the Manchester City Council area understand what services and support they can expect locally. This includes their statutory entitlements which are required by law.  

We're a statutory service. Every local authority has a Local Offer, although they might look different in each area. In Manchester, we're a small team of three sitting within Children and Families in Manchester City Council. We are here for families living in the city of Manchester.

As well as this website, we have regular drop ins, a newsletter with the latest updates, and work with families to help improve services and what’s on offer. Every local authority has to talk with children and young people with SEND and their families to find out what sort of support and services they need. See more in the 'Get Involved and Have Your Say' section. 

See our range of activity in our leaflet - 'More than a website'. 

Watch our short film on Manchester Local Offer!

Our monthly drop ins are an opportunity for parents, carers and young people in the Manchester City Council area to talk to a range of services for advice and information. There is also support from Manchester Parent Carers Forum and Manchester Parent Champions. These are parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities who understand the challenges people face.

We have a rolling programme of drop ins around the north, central and south areas of the city. Find the dates of forthcoming drop ins.

Our next drop in is on Wednesday 13th December at Moss Side Powerhouse, 10am-12pm. 

Our regular newsletter has all the latest news and updates relating to SEND families. This includes schools and education, finance and household, emotional wellbeing, and stuff to do. It’s the best way to find out what’s on offer for Manchester families. We also share ways you can have your say and help improve services.

To get the newsletter delivered straight to your email inbox, you need to sign up through the Council's e-bulletin subscription page. Here is some guidance on how to do this. 

You can see a list of past newsletters here, with an idea of what is in each one.

Our Local Offer SEND Information Hub has a wide range of resources, including the following categories: Benefits and Grants, Emotional and Mental Wellbeing, Education including EHC Plans, Household including Energy and Digital Support, Short Breaks, Stuff To Do, Support From Organisations, Travel and Young People. 

Please let us know if there is any topic not on the list that you would like information about.

The Manchester Local Offer online directory has a huge range of information for SEND families in the city of Manchester. This includes education, health and social care, travel and transport, and stuff to do.  Services and events have their own page, or entry, which are categorised and put onto the database. You can search this database in different ways.

Start at our main Local Offer page.

How to search:

• At the top of the page there is a search facility. Type in words and hit the search button to find out about local services and organisations.
• You can also browse by age and subject further down the page. You will see pictures with headings (eg. Health and Social Care, Education). If you click on these, you will see further headings with sub-categories (eg. Short Breaks and Other SEN support) You also have the option of selecting age-ranges to search under by clicking the tabs.

If you offer support or services to children and young people with SEND in Manchester, would you like your service to be listed in the Local Offer? Find out more and how to have ownership here.

When you have a child with special educational needs and/or disability (SEND), you may not know where to find the information you need. See our Guidance for new parent carers.

You and your young person can have a say in the support and services you need. By sharing your experiences and working together with us and other organisations, we can make positive changes that benefit all SEND families in the city.

Find out how to Get involved and have your say.

Here are some of the ways parent carers and young people are having their say to help make things better for SEND families in the city:

• Over the next 3-5 years, Manchester will be working with UNICEF UK to ensure that the whole of Manchester puts children’s rights into practice. It's vital that children and young people with SEND up to the age of 25 have a say as part of this. Find out more in our Children's Rights Special Newsletter (September 23) and Our Child Friendly Manchester.

• Following the Ofsted / CQC Joint Inspection on SEND in Manchester, in early 2022, the findings were published. This acknowledges the culture of co-production and collaborative working in Manchester. Thank you to all the parents/carers and children and young people who took part.

• Co-production newsletters: In these special editions of the newsletter, we share the co-production work in the city. Here is the most recent issue - July 2023 (Archive: July 2020, July 2021, July 2022).

• Contributing to the conversation around Home to School Transport in 2022. The 'Travel to Access Education and Training Policy' review has now been completed and will be implemented from February 2023. Find out more on the Travel Assistance webpage. 

• Here is a video showcasing the summer activities in the city’s SEND Community Offer 2022. Thank you to SENDCode CIC for helping co-produce the video and to everyone in it - and to all the people who helped make it such a fantastic summer. Special thanks to The SPACE Group, Manchester Parent Carer Forum and the Manchester Parent Champions for their involvement in the co-production and delivery of the Summer offer.

• Watch this fun video about Manchester Local Offer and stuff to do, made by students from Loreto College.

• Projekts collaborated with Billy and Andy's Music School to run skateboarding and music sessions for young people with SEND in April to July 2022. This film shows what it was like for the young people who took part.

• A video sharing experiences of the Summer SEND Community Offer 2021. The summer offer, involving many different activities for the school holidays, was created in partnership with Manchester Local Offer, Manchester Parent Champions, Manchester Parent Carer Forum and Greater Manchester Youth Network. Thank you to everyone who helped make the film, especially the GMYN Changemakers.

• Here are some videos from parents and a young person about the summer offer 2020 and life during the pandemic.

• In this survey, the Changemakers asked other young people with SEND about ‘Life During COVID-19 Lockdown’. 

• Improving the Local Offer: Our Response To Your Feedback

• You Said, We Did

Manchester City Council keeps a register of Disabled Children and Young People aged 0-19 years with disabilities or special educational needs. There is no requirement to sign your child up to the register, it is up to you - find out more.