Expert panel to shape future of SEND support

The government has promised that more children and young people with SEND will get specialist support without needing a diagnosis as it begins rolling out a new Experts at Hand service across England, backed by £1.8 billion investment.

At the centre of these reforms is a newly appointed national panel of experts. The government says it established the panel together to help shape the future SEND system. The goal is to ensure better support for children and young people with SEND in every classroom.

The panel brings together leading figures from mainstream and specialist education, health, academia and parental engagement. Its aim is to oversee the development of National Inclusion Standards and Specialist Provision Packages.

Tom Rees and Dr Anne Gordon will co-chair the panel. They promise that the panel will use the best available evidence and expertise from across education, health and care to shape the reforms.

The government says the panel will engage with stakeholders throughout the process. It believes this will bring a wide range of views and lived experience into the recommendations. The government has also pledged to establish a parental engagement group to support the panel’s work immediately.

Expanded access to SEND specialists

Alongside this, the government has said every local area will begin expanding access to speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, specialist teachers and educational psychologists. The plan is for these experts to work directly alongside mainstream schools, early years settings and colleges. The government says these professionals will help staff identify needs earlier and put support in place more quickly.

Ultimately, the government believes these new Experts at Hand teams will bring specialist expertise out of waiting lists and into the communities where children learn. It says it will ensure families can access support closer to home rather than having to navigate a complex system before help becomes available.

The move marks the start of the government’s plans to transform support for children and young people with SEND. To support this rollout, the government promises to publish guidance for local areas. It says the expert panel will play a central role in guiding and developing these changes.

NAHT welcomes plans but warns more specialists are needed

Commenting as the government’s Experts at Hand programme, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“Too often schools and families face long delays in securing support for pupils from experts like educational psychologists, speech and language therapists and children’s mental health services – and in some cases they may be unable to access support at all.

“Fixing this will be absolutely crucial if the government’s proposals for more children with special educational needs (SEND) to be supported in mainstream schools are to prove effective, and we welcome the investment in and principles behind the proposed Experts at Hand scheme.

“However, for Experts at Hand to succeed it will need to be supported by the funding and planning needed to solve the root cause of the existing issues – there simply aren’t enough specialists.

“The government must ensure it commits enough funding to training and recruiting more specialists across education, health and care, and that the resources provided do not simply rebadge or restructure the existing overstretched specialist workforce.

“Without access to this support, children’s needs escalate, and families and schools are left navigating a system that feels painfully slow and struggles to offer the timely help children require.

“If the government gets its Experts at Hand proposal right, it could be transformative. If not, a central plank of its far-reaching plans to reform SEND will be undermined and will continue to leave children and parents without the support they desperately need.”

Ministers say reforms will deliver earlier SEND support

Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said:

“I’ve heard from families who spent years fighting for support their child should simply have received. We are taking decisive action to tackle this issue.

“From September, every local area will start to increase access to speech therapists, educational psychologists, occupational therapists and specialist teachers working directly in mainstream schools.

“Our new expert panel will help set a new national standard for SEND support, shaped by the people who work with children every day. This is about rolling out the right help, in the right place, without having to fight for it.”

Health Minister, Preet Kaur Gill, said:

“Every child deserves the right support to learn and thrive – and they deserve that from day one.

“The Experts at Hand service will bring expert health and education professionals into our schools, colleges and early years settings so they can work directly with children and the staff who know them best.

“This is a fundamental shift in how we support children and young people with SEND, and I’m proud that our joint work across government is already beginning to improve things for families across England.”

Jessie Roux, who appeared on the Traitors this year, said:

“Early childhood is a key stage where confidence, communication and self-belief are formed, so early support really matters. I want children to feel seen, included and supported, because every child has different needs and it’s so important that we make reasonable adjustments to support them properly.

“When I was growing up, there wasn’t much understanding or representation around stammering, and I do wish there had been more support like this in schools. I really believe it’s important that both children and parents feel supported, rather than isolated.

“I recently visited a school with the Education Secretary – it was amazing to meet the children, they were so brave and inspiring. It was really lovely to see how much the teachers care.”

National standards and future SEND plans

Through its work, the government believes the panel will help shape the National Inclusion Standards. These will set out what good support looks like across the country. The government says it will give schools and colleges clearer expectations to ensure children receive consistent support regardless of where they live.

For children and young people with the most complex needs, Specialist Provision Packages are set to underpin EHCPs. The government says these packages will clearly set out the support they should expect to receive. This ranges from specialist teaching and therapies to communication aids and assistive technology.

The government claims the Education for All Bill will take the wider reforms forward, subject to the outcome of consultation on the proposed reforms. The reforms include proposals for a new legal duty to put an Individual Support Plan in place for every child and young person with SEND. The government believes this will ensure they have a clear route to support. The goal is for them to have access to high-quality education, health and care wherever they live.