The Department for Education has granted Devon County Council £4.8 million to start rolling out the government’s ambitious Experts at Hand model.
Devon County Council (DCC) will be launching the Experts at Hand model in three “test and learn” communities this autumn. This will be so the council can understand what works in practice and continue to co-produce the offer with education settings and families before rolling it out further across the county.
Experts at Hand is being developed as part of the national SEND reforms, which will be rolled out over the next three years. The national Experts at Hand model aims to provide earlier, more accessible, and equitable support for children and young people by bringing together multi-disciplinary expertise to work more closely with settings and communities. In Devon, these teams will include experts from Devon County Council, Children and Family Health Devon, and education providers.
Testing the Experts in Hand model in Devon
In the first school year, 2026 to 2027, the Devon SEND Local Area Partnership will be introducing the Experts at Hand model in three learning communities across the county. These will represent the different environments in the county: urban, coastal, rural. The identified communities also demonstrate significant levels of need, such as neurodiversity, social emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs and speech, language and communications needs (SLCN). By testing across three different localities, Devon will be able to learn what works well in different environments, and for diverse needs.
In each locality the partnership will work with a cluster of education providers, not just one school, so there can be a focus on the crucial transition moments in a child’s journey. The Experts at Hand will support the settings’ staff by offering easy and timely access to support. If a setting is included in the pilot, it does not mean their current SEND support is better or worse than at other education providers in the county.
The Experts at Hand service will not replace the support currently provided to children and young people in mainstream settings who have an EHCP or who are waiting for a EHCP needs assessment.
Devon County Council has already been in touch with the leaders of the selected education communities to start discussions on how to work together.
As one of our strategic partners, Parent Carer Forum Devon will be part of the codesign of this new model in Devon. The local area partnership is committed to working together with children, young people and families to shape the model and feed back on how it is working.
Councillor Denise Bickley, Cabinet Member for Childrens’ Service, SEND, says:
Families consistently say they want support sooner, and closer to home. This is the start of a fantastic opportunity to really get in to schools to wrap around children who are having smaller problems early on. In Devon, because we’re obviously such an enormous county, we’ve made sure that we’ve got three different pilot sites which are covering urban, rural and coastal communities.”
Julian Wooster, Director of Children and Young People’s Futures, says:
“A key part of the Experts at Hand concept is supporting settings to identify and meet needs effectively at the earliest point. This fits with our vision of a positive future for children and young people in Devon. We want them to have the opportunity to thrive, with access to the right support in the right place and at the right time.”
Su Smart, Director of Women and Children’s Health at NHS Devon, says:
“The Experts at Hand model will bring together health, care and education expertise into one service supporting a learning community consistently and fairly. By focusing on areas with a diverse range of health needs and education settings, we expect to be able to create an Experts at Hand model that can flex to support all children and young people with SEND in Devon.”
Watch Councillor Denise Bickley, Cabinet Member for Childrens’ Services – SEND, talk about the Experts at Hand programme and how it will help children and young people with SEND in Devon.