Experts at Hand - an update

As part of Oxfordshire's SEND Reform programme, we are developing ‘Experts at Hand’*, an approach designed to give schools and settings earlier access to specialist advice and intervention.

The good news is that we have been able to use funding from the Government's SEND Reform grant to recruit new staff as part of the initiative, with recruitment progressing well.

We are keen to deploy our new therapists, specialist teachers, support workers, and educational psychologists as soon as possible, and we are working hard to complete recruitment.

We are also progressing the training offer and finalising our plans for managing requests for Experts at Hand support.

There will be further communications about the ‘Experts at Hand’ model later this term ahead of the launch in January, but in the meantime, existing services will continue to provide the offer communicated to schools as available since September.

To test some aspects of the design stage, some schools and settings will be asked to take part as we develop our new ways of working.

We are planning to launch ‘Experts at Hand’ in January 2027 and will keep you updated on what that will mean for you, and how you can access support, through the School News and SENDCO bulletins.

Experts at Hand is a proposed multidisciplinary team of education, health and care professionals designed to provide expert advice, workforce development and inclusive practice support across schools and settings. Aligned to clusters, educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and specialist teachers will be building skills and confidence for mainstream staff to implement early identification and support.