Local Offer Live Mini connects council teams with key services

An event for Portsmouth City Council teams to find out about services that support children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities was hailed a success.

Hosted at The View and organised by Portsmouth City Council, Local Offer Live Mini brought together internal teams and key partners who play a vital role in supporting families across the city. The event aimed to strengthen professional understanding of the Local Offer and encourage collaboration across services.

The Portsmouth SEND Local Offer is a centralised resource offering comprehensive information about services, support, and guidance available to parents/carers, professionals, and young people with SEND.

While awareness among families continues to grow, professionals remain a crucial audience, often acting as the first point of contact and a vital link to services that can make a real difference.

To support this, Local Offer Live Mini introduced a more intimate, focused format tailored for internal council teams.

Services included:

• Portsmouth Parent Voice – a parent/carer-led group advocating for families with SEND
• Dynamite – a youth-led advocacy group amplifying the voices of young people
• HDRC – a co-production team working collaboratively with families and services

While Local Offer Live Mini was exclusively for internal staff, the wider community will have the opportunity to engage with the full-scale Local Offer Live event at the John Pounds Centre on 6 November from 10am – 2:30pm, where families and professionals can meet representatives from up to 24 exhibitors across Portsmouth.

For more information and to get your ticket, visit www.portsmouthlocaloffer.org/live