According to a joint Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care release published on 5 June 2026, every local area in England is now expected to begin building an Experts at Hand offer from September 2026. The model is backed by £1.8 billion over three years and is intended to expand access to speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, educational psychologists and specialist teachers in mainstream schools, colleges and early years settings, with support available before a child has secured a formal diagnosis. (gov.uk)
In operational terms, the reform moves specialist capacity closer to the classroom. Department for Education and NHS England guidance says local authorities and integrated care boards must design locally tailored offers, with the first year focused mainly on staff-facing advice, group work and whole-class approaches in areas such as speech and language, attention, emotional regulation and sensory needs, rather than a large new one-to-one service. (gov.uk)
The accompanying grant framework is clear that Experts at Hand is meant to add capacity, not rebadge current duties. The Department for Education’s funding guidance says the money must not be used to replace provision already written into existing EHCPs, to fund EHCP assessments, or to cover support schools are expected to provide themselves; the year 1 guidance likewise says the offer must remain additional to statutory and one-to-one provision. (gov.uk)
Nationally, ministers have paired the local roll-out with a new expert panel charged with shaping the next layer of SEND reform. The government release says Tom Rees and Dr Anne Gordon will co-chair work on the National Inclusion Standards and Specialist Provision Packages, with membership drawn from mainstream and specialist education, health, academia and parental engagement, and with a separate parental engagement group due to support that work. (gov.uk)
For schools and colleges, the National Inclusion Standards are intended to set a more consistent baseline for what good SEND support should look like across England. For children and young people with the most complex needs, the proposed Specialist Provision Packages would underpin EHCPs by setting out more clearly the support that should be available, including specialist teaching, therapies, communication aids and assistive technology. (gov.uk)
The release places the programme inside the wider Education for All Bill, which was flagged in the King’s Speech background notes as the route for broader SEND reform. The formal SEND consultation ran from 23 February to 18 May 2026, and the consultation papers propose new statutory duties around Individual Support Plans; the press release describes that as a proposed legal duty to put an Individual Support Plan in place for every child and young person with SEND, subject to consultation outcomes. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
For local authorities, integrated care boards and mainstream settings, the immediate task is implementation ahead of legislation. The year 1 guidance says each local partnership must have named local authority and ICB senior leadership, while the broader reform documents describe this as a 10-year programme with any new legislation expected from September 2029; until then, the current SEND system remains in place while local areas build access routes, workforce capacity and published local offers. (gov.uk)