The Department for Education has issued new guidance for local authorities following the publication of the 2026
Every Child Achieving and Thriving white paper. Their goal is to make advice and support from professionals such as EPs more accessible to schools as “experts
at hand”. The Experts @ Hand Model and approach means we are now developing an integrated offer with SCIL and partners across health with S< and OT input. This will mean we have a fully integrated offer to support schools and children and young people.
For over a decade Bradford Educational Psychology Team has provided our service to schools on a traded basis developing valuable working partnerships with settings throughout the district. As we have the ability to fund and develop the offer from September
to April as part of the Experts @ Hand Model, we will no longer be trading EP support from September 2026. I am hopeful that this will reduce some of the challenges on school budgets and pressures we all face and aligns the early intervention and integrated
model we all need and are striving for.
Further information will be provided early in the new term outlining our model of service delivery and how settings can access educational psychology support. We look forward to working with schools again next academic year as we move towards a more accessible
and integrated service for children and young people in the Bradford district.