Building Block 2: Access to specialist support and local | London Borough of Bexley

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Building Block 2: Access to specialist support and local

Improving collaboration between settings and deploying expertise from a range of specialists and expert sources to support schools and settings to meet the needs of children and young people earlier and locally.

Key Outcomes	What we will do to achieve this outcome	Success Measures	Responsible Task Group / Strategic Lead	Start Date	End Date
Bexley’s Experts at Hand Offer
Bexley’s Experts at Hand offer is co-produced and ready for phased rollout by Sep 2026	Establish Experts at Hand Task & Finish Group. Continue joint co-design and co-production of Expert at Hand offer including workshops/ meetings with education settings, parents, health providers and young people.	Number of education settings supported by the Experts at Hand offer (0 – All by 2028/29) Q2 0 – Q3 45 – Q4 90 Number of mainstream settings supported by Speech & Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Educational Psychologists (and respective support workers) and Specialist Teachers Number of children & young people without an EHCP or specialist placement supported by professionals and support workers	Experts at Hand Task & Finish Group	Jul 2026	Mar 2027
	Consider prevalence of Speech Language & Communication Needs and Occupational Therapy needs in the universal and targeted areas to predict skill mix and recruitment for Year 2 and Year 3.	Plan is in place for Speech Language & Communication Needs and Occupational Therapy needs regarding capacity for Years 2 & 3.	Experts at Hand Task & Finish Group	Jul 2026	Mar 2027
	Confirm frequency and number of planning meetings per school and launch new Early Intervention Team paperwork and meeting format.	Refined meeting format and paperwork finalised and in place for 2027/2028	Experts at Hand Task & Finish Group	Jul 2026	Mar 2027
	Design a time-allocation system to reflect size and needs of education settings.	Early Intervention Team service level agreements and time allocation model agreed.	Experts at Hand Task & Finish Group	Jul 2026	Mar 2027
	Identify data that needs to be collated to assess outcome measures of Experts at Hand offer.	Experts at Hand dataset and dashboard are in place and being used strategically and operationally.	Experts at Hand Task & Finish Group	Jul 2026	Mar 2027
Workforce Development
A confident and skilled workforce is in place and ready to deliver Experts at Hand phased roll out	Commence HR and consultations processes with staff affected by Expert at Hand reorganisation, to reprofile job descriptions to align with Experts at Hand and 4 geographical clusters.	Staff are aware of their geographical cluster and other professionals supporting the same educational settings.	Experts at Hand Task & Finish Group	Jul 2026	Mar 2027
	Plan to recruit the initial level of therapists, psychologists and specialist teachers that will provide initial capacity to existing teams.	Number of FTE Occupational Therapists (including assistants) Q2 0 – Q3 2 – Q4 2 Number of FTE Speech & Language Therapists (including assistants) Q2 0 – Q3 2 – Q4 2 Number of FTE Educational Psychologists (including assistants) Q2 27 – Q3 28 – Q4 28 Number of FTE Specialist Teachers Q2 16 – Q3 17 – Q4 17	Experts at Hand Task & Finish Group	Jul 2023	Jan 2027
	Start joint recruitment to Speech & Language Therapist Advanced Practitioner post	Number of FTE Speech & Language Therapist Advanced Practitioners Q2 0 – Q3 0 – Q4 0.2	Experts at Hand Task & Finish Group	Jul 2026	Feb 2027
	Recruit administration support to assist with monitoring delivery of Experts at Hand offer and collation of data to assess outcome measures.	SEND Administrator is in place by November 2026	Experts at Hand Task & Finish Group	Jul 2026	Nov 2027
Outreach from special to mainstream schools
Expansion of Special School Outreach offer across the borough to meet a range of needs.	Facilitate workshops to co-produce Special School Outreach offer with Special Schools and Trusts.	Number of education settings supported by special school outreach service (43 – All schools by 2028/29) Q2 43 – Q3 43 – Q4 43	Head of SEND Experts at Hand Task & Finish Group	Jul 2026	Sep 2027
Alternative Provision
Alternative Provision aligns with the 3 Tier Model and best practice identified through Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforces (APST).	Review commissioning arrangements for Alternative Provision for Sep 2027.	Revised Memorandum of Understanding agreed and reviewed, aligns with the 3 Tier Model.	Alternative Provision Task & Finish Group	Jul 2026	Sep 2027
	Extend Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) of Alternative Provision for 1 year to facilitate full review of MOU to determine offer, including Alternative Provision Outreach.	Number of education settings supported by Alternative Provision outreach service. (Develop baseline)	Alternative Provision Task & Finish Group	Jul 2026	Sep 2027
Support Menu
Early Years settings, Schools and Post-16 providers understand the Experts at Hand offer and know how to contact professionals allocated to their cluster.	Co-produce a Support Menu for education settings describing the agreed Experts at Hand offer and naming current professionals allocated to each education setting cluster.	Schools report increased confidence in the Experts at Hand offer and awareness of professionals supporting them. Schools have been allocated named professionals providing support to their setting.	Head of Strategic Partnership and Improvement Head of Early Intervention and Specialist Advice Service Head of SEND	Jul 2026	Sep 2027

Need help understanding the common words related to SEND?

An A to Z Glossary and Jargon Buster for the most commonly used terms and abbreviations used relating to special educational needs and disabilities can be found on our Local Offer website.