The dfe has issued guidance on Experts at Hand that sets £429 million for 2026-27 and tells local authorities and integrated care boards to plan staffing jointly. It also says specialist involvement should usually be time-limited, with the aim of building school capacity rather than creating open-ended dependence.
The guidance follows repeated warnings about delivery of the offer in schools. Experts at Hand is meant to let schools in every local area draw on a bank of specialists, including educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and SEND-trained teachers.
Joint plans and staff use
The DfE wants local areas to develop joint workforce plans that meet local needs and national expectations. It says workforce innovation should include repurposing existing resources, but without diverting NHS staff from commissioned services outside the Experts at Hand offer from September.
If local area plans do not show enough detail on how schools are being engaged, the department will consider a more prescribed approach. That puts pressure on local authorities and integrated care boards to show how the service will work in practice, not just how it will be funded.
Funding across England
The programme has been allocated £429 million in 2026-27. The department expects that to rise to around £750 million in 2027-2028 and £850 million in 2028-2029.
Kent will receive £12 million in the 2026-27 allocation, while Essex and Birmingham will each receive more than £10 million. The grant should only fund experts from speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, educational psychology and specialist teaching, in both maintained schools and alternative provision.
Workforce plans to 2027
Of the £40 million previously committed to developing the workforce, £26 million will go toward training at least 200 educational psychologists per year in 2026 and 2027. The DfE will also invest £5 million annually to establish new speech and language therapy advanced practitioners in every integrated care board in the country.
In 2023, 63 per cent of respondents to the Royal College of Occupational Therapists workforce survey said the profession could not provide the level or type of input children and young people need. That shortage explains why the department is pushing for time-limited specialist involvement, especially where local areas need to stretch limited staff across the full 0-25 age range.
For schools and local systems, the practical test is now whether they can show a shared staffing plan that uses the specialists the grant allows, keeps NHS teams inside their commissioned work and still gives pupils access to support.
