You said, we did (special educational needs and disabilities)

It is confusing trying to understand how to get equipment for our children/young people, from everyday items to specialist equipment

North of England Commissioning Support (NECS) Provider Management Team/Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs): "We have provided information on the Local Offer about how to request equipment, in line with specialist advice from Occupational Therapists."

Medequip: "We have also made small changes to our contract with Medequip to make sure that everyday items (the most commonly ordered products) are easily available through local "buffer stores" for children and young people. Customised specialist items may take considerably longer to receive."

Commissioning and Delivery team CCGs: "We have also ensured families know who to contact if they have problems with their equipment. Medequip will provide all families using the service with a leaflet that contains all the relevant information, including contact details."

Opportunities to access physiotherapy services are inconsistent - you can't always self-refer

Paediatric Physiotherapy Service - County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust: "CCGs and the Paediatric Physiotherapy Service have worked together to make sure there is equal access across County Durham and Darlington for children and young people. The contract arrangements have been updated for the Paediatric Physiotherapy, which means we now have open access for children, young people and their families. This information will also be included and updated on the Local Offer."

Waiting times for speech and language therapy and/or autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) assessments are unacceptable

NECS Business Intelligence Team: "We have improved monitoring of waiting times by creating a Business Intelligence template which will tell us what's going on every month and ensure we have an escalation policy to Designated Clinical Office (DCO)."

Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV): "We have identified resources to address the backlog of cases on waiting lists for diagnostic assessment of ASD and reduced the waiting times. We have also allocated extra resources for the long term to reflect the increase in referrals."