Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how local Experts at Hand partnerships will be supported to draw on specialist expertise beyond their immediate local workforce where this would help meet the needs of an individual child.

The department is investing around £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and Integrated Care Boards, to develop a new Experts at Hand (EaH) offer.

Local area partnerships (LAPs) are responsible for planning and delivering their local EaH offer, taking account of local need, existing services and workforce capacity. The department is asking LAPs to develop a new offer of support for mainstream settings, drawing on specialist expertise across education, health and local services to meet local needs.

LAPs will have flexibility to design and deliver the offer in a way that reflects local needs and existing services, while working towards the expectations set out in the published EaH guidance. They will therefore be able to determine how best to deploy the specialist expertise required to meet the needs of children and young people in their area.