Government Unveils £429m ‘Experts at Hand’ Offer to Get SEND Support Into Mainstream Settings Without an EHCP

The Department for Education has today published funding guidance for the Experts at Hand and Local Authority SEND Transformation Fund, confirming £429 million in allocations to local authorities for the 2026 to 2027 financial year.

The grant forms the first year of a wider package worth over £2 billion across the three year spending review period, comprising £1.8 billion for the Experts at Hand (EAH) offer and a share of £200 million in transformation funding. Indicative allocations for future years suggest around £750 million in 2027 to 2028 and £850 million in 2028 to 2029.

What is the Experts at Hand offer?

The EAH offer is a core pillar of the government’s SEND reform programme. It is designed to strengthen the capability of mainstream education settings to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND more effectively and inclusively, providing a new route to access expert advice and support from education and health professionals.

Local authorities will work in partnership with Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to develop and deliver the offer across early years settings, mainstream schools and further education colleges. The Department of Health and Social Care is contributing £25 million to the fund.

Support will primarily come from additional education specialists including educational psychologists and specialist teachers, outreach from alternative provision, special schools and post 16 institutions, and clinical health professionals including speech and language therapists and occupational therapists.

FE colleges and post-16 provision explicitly included

The guidance makes clear that local authorities must ensure the EAH investment benefits all children and young people aged 0 to 25, with specific reference to developing appropriate provision across early years, primary, secondary and FE settings.

Notably, local SEND reform plans must also set out how support reaches “out of area mainstream further education settings attended by local young people with SEND,” a recognition that post 16 learners frequently attend provision outside their home local authority area and risk falling through gaps in support as a result.

New speech and language therapy advanced practitioners

Within the grant, funding has been allocated to establish new speech and language therapist (SaLT) advanced practitioners in every ICB geographical area. These roles will require registered SaLTs with significant experience of leading services to support children and young people in education settings.

The advanced practitioners will provide strategic leadership over the speech and language therapy and occupational therapy elements of the EAH offer, build relationships between universities, education settings and SaLT services, and promote the speech and language therapist degree apprenticeship to grow the workforce pipeline.

How the funding is calculated

The base funding rates for 2026 to 2027 are equivalent to £35 for all children and young people registered in education in the local authority, £16 per child eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years (FSM6), and £14 per child recorded as having low prior attainment. The total funding is split 80:10:10 across these three measures and adjusted for area costs using the same methodology as the schools national funding formula.

Final funding allocations will be confirmed and published in May 2026. Provisional allocations have been published alongside the guidance.

Strict spending requirements

At least 80% of funding must be spent on direct EAH delivery. No more than 10% can be spent on administration costs and no more than 10% on local authority transformation costs.

The funding cannot be used to support provision named in existing education health and care plans (EHCPs), to fund EHCP assessments, or to replace current provision including traded services. The guidance is explicit that this is intended as a new offer enabling children and young people to access support without needing to secure an EHCP.

Local SEND reform plans due in June

Local authorities are required to prepare and deliver local SEND reform plans, to be shared with the DfE in June 2026. Plans must set out the delivery approach for the EAH offer, governance arrangements, a detailed year one implementation plan including recruitment and success metrics, and a high level plan for years two and three.

Future support for high needs related Dedicated Schools Grant deficits arising in 2026 to 2027 and 2027 to 2028 will take into account local authorities’ successful delivery of their approved local SEND reform plans, a clear signal that the government views the EAH programme as integral to addressing the financial pressures within the SEND system.

The Experts at Hand & Local Authority SEND Transformation Fund: funding for local authorities 2026 to 2027 guidance is available here.