Information, advice and support

Below are some sources of information, advice and support in Nottinghamshire:

Nottinghamshire Local Offer

The Local Offer provides information for children and young people with special educational needs (SEND) and their parents or carers in a single place. It shows families what they can expect from a range of local agencies including education, health and social care.

Nottinghamshire Local Offer is maintained and operated by Nottinghamshire County Council.

This website is designed to help people find information about a whole range of organisations and services including:

  • activities, groups and events in your local community
  • childcare providers
  • information and support for children and young people aged 0 – 25 with a special educational need and / or a disability
  • health and social care information and support for adults and children
  • applying for a Short Break

Ask Us Nottinghamshire 

Ask Us Nottinghamshire (the information, advice and support service) offers free, impartial and confidential information, support and advice to parents and carers and young people to enable them to make informed decisions about matters around education, health and care relating to their special educational needs and/or disability. You don’t need to have a medical diagnosis of your child’s needs to use the service. They can offer support to: 

  • Find a suitable school for your child
  • Be fully involved in decisions made about your child’s education
  • Resolve problematic situations 
  • Resolve issues around school exclusion
  • Understand and set in motion statutory processes, for example applying for an EHC Plan, if your child has very high-level needs
  • Access independent appeals where other means of resolving disagreement have been exhausted

Website: Ask Us Nottinghamshire

Telephone: 0800 121 7772

Email Ask Us Nottinghamshire

Children Development Centre – Information Service

Parents, carer and professionals can contact the Information Service at the Children’s Development Centre (CDC) at Nottingham City Hospital for information and a library service. It can provide information on the many aspects of caring for a child with disability and details of local services and support.

Books and DVDs are available for loan and the online library catalogue is available at cdclibrary.nhslibraries.com.

You can view a map of the hospital campus and the Children’s Development Centre is located in the top left of the map.

The service is now staffed by volunteers and is open Wednesday-Thursday 10am-1pm and Friday 11am-4pm.

Telephone: 0115 969 1300 ext.13743 /13744

Finding Your Way Guide

This is a useful guide that is produced for parent carers in Nottinghamshire.

Please click on the following link to download the latest version: Finding-Your-Way

Ask Iris

The IRIS Project is a one-stop shop offering information, advice and support to parents and carers of children and young people with disabilities based in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

The IRIS Project has three elements:

  • The Ask IRIS website,
  • A quarterly magazine
  • A monthly e-newsletter

and they support the co-ordination of a voluntary database of disabled children across Nottinghamshire and Nottingham. If you would like to register to receive your copy of the Iris magazine Click here

Website: Ask Iris

Online contact form: Click here

Email Ask Iris