Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many local authorities have established full Experts at Hand services.

The government has set out national expectations for the development and delivery of Experts at Hand offers in published guidance. Local authorities and integrated care boards are responsible for planning and delivering their local offers within this framework. Local areas have set out milestones and delivery trajectories in their Local Area SEND Reform Plans, reflecting their different starting points, local needs and workforce capacity. The government will continue to monitor data on the relevant health and education specialist workforces.

Our expectation for Year 1 has been that areas would develop a clear commissioning and implementation approach for an Experts at Hand offer accessible to all mainstream settings in the 2026/27 financial year. Areas should also have begun to deliver elements of their offer from September 2026. Further guidance setting out the expectations for Year 2 will be published at the end of this financial year.