The Family Information Service team at the council has soft launched a revamped resource for local residents.
The new Local Offer website is a guide to services available for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities: https://www.sloughfamilyservices.org.uk/localoffer
A competition, which ran in the summer, gave local pupils an opportunity to design the new Local Offer logo. From many entries Zehra Hamid, a student at Ryvers School, won first place and two of her designs were made into a logo by the council’s graphic designer, Caroline Steele.
Zehra won a £30 Amazon voucher kindly donated by Special Voices group and received a certificate signed by Sue Butcher, Director of Children’s Services and Chief Executive of Slough Children First. This was presented by Neil Hoskinson, Interim Associate Director of Education, Slough Borough Council and Pete Rowe, Executive Headteacher, Ryvers School.
Zehra said: “I love to draw and have lots of ideas in my head that are aching to burst onto paper and sometimes I can't stop myself. I loved to participate because I love drawing storyboards, book covers, posters and now logos! I was so surprised and shocked to hear I had won and then ecstatic!”
Zehra’s father, Hammad Hamid, said: “Our daughter Zehra is great at drawing; she has books of drawings stuffed in her cupboard. Immediately, we knew she would be keen on the logo competition and there was some satisfaction in knowing that the service itself would benefit someone like her. The finished logo was an amazing composition of two of her logo designs, we were awed, humbled and proud.”
The revamped website is to be soft launched and also presented at a Special Voices Information/Local Offer Live Day on Friday 24 November, 9.30am - 1pm, at Singh Sabha Sports Centre, Stoke Poges Lane, SL1 3LW. For more information call 07990693439 or email info@specialvoices.co.uk
The new website has been co-produced with children and young people, parents, carers, and professionals. Young people have created new videos featured on the site, and through talking to parents, carers, and professionals the team gathered feedback about the look and feel needed, and what content was important to them.
The Local Offer website has been redesigned to make it easier for children and young people and their families to independently access information. The new look website has been designed following consultation with a range of partners and engagement with children and young people. We are continuing to co-produce the Local Offer and will be constantly updating and reviewing the website based on feedback.
The team want to use the soft launch to gather feedback on using the new website, on what isn’t working and what users would like to see. You will be able to feedback through a series of smiley faces down the side of a webpage – just click and let the team know. If you include your email
address as part of the feedback, you will be entered into a prize draw with a first prize of a £50 Amazon voucher. The draw runs from now until 4 January 2024.
Councillor Paul Kelly, cabinet member for education and children's services, said: “This is a fantastic, relaunched website for our local residents which aims to provide easy to access information all in one place. There is still time to feedback during the soft launch period to gather information on what residents think. Please do take the time to let us know and we will aim to improve on any areas needed.”