Funding for a new scheme aimed at bolstering external support for young people with SEND must not be used to “fill existing gaps or replace current provision”, councils have been warned. Town halls will also be forbidden from spending the cash on support named in children and young people’s existing education health care plans (EHCPs) or wider family support. Leaders will also be expected to devise an approach that ensures support is not “disproportionately accessed” by the “most proactive schools and settings and includes out of area mainstream further education settings attended by local young people with SEND”. As part of its white paper reforms, the government announced the creation of a new “experts at hand” service, backed with £1.8 billion in funding over three years. The service aims to boost availability of external support. Schools and FE colleges can then draw from a pool of education and health professionals to fix the current “inconsistent and limited access” to their services. The Department for Education has now published guidance on how the funding and an additional £200 million “transformation” pot will be allocated and how it must be spent. Funding can’t cover support named in existing EHCPs Councils will split £429 million this financial year and could impact nearly 390,000 16 to 19-year-olds with low prior attainment across the country. This grant will “first and predominantly” provide cash for councils to work with integrated care boards (ICBs) to “develop and deliver a new EAH offer for mainstream education settings”. However, the grant will also fund the administrative costs for local authorities associated with “evaluating their existing SEND support services to mainstream settings” and “developing and submitting local SEND reform plans”. According to the document, at least 80 per cent of the cash “must be spent on EAH direct delivery for all settings, staff and their children and young people”. No more than 10 per cent can be spent on administration costs for councils’ EAH offers, and no more than 10 per cent can be spent on “local authority transformation costs, including staff or other associated costs”. But no funding can be used to support named in young people’s existing education health care plans (EHCPs), to make provision “schools can or should make themselves” or for the assessment for EHCPs. “This funding is not intended to fill existing gaps or replace current provision, including traded services. The EAH offer should build on and enhance existing local capacity and good practice.” ‘Tilt provision to mainstream’ The guidance further sets out the government’s vision for the service, telling councils to “ensure that the EAH investment benefits all children and young people aged 0 to 25”. Local areas should “also consider how they will develop this offer over time to ensure there is support and appropriate provision available across early years, primary, secondary, and FE settings”. And councils have also been told to “start tilting local provision to focus on early support for mainstream education settings, so that staff are able to meet the needs of children more quickly and effectively within the setting”. This approach “means mainstream education settings having access to expert professionals (both health and specialist education professionals) who can provide whole setting support, tailored guidance and strategic advice, as well as some group level interventions”. The offer “should be additional to existing statutory and 1:1 support”. No disproportionate support for out of area mainstream FE The DfE has also said today that councils’ SEND reform plans must include a “proposed approach to settings accessing support which ensures support is not disproportionately accessed by the most proactive schools and settings and includes out of area mainstream further education settings attended by local young people with SEND”. The grant also includes funding to establish new speech and language therapist advanced practitioners in every ICB geographical area, the DfE said. It will also support “local reform and work with universities, education settings and local speech and language services to get more speech and language therapists working directly with children and young people”. Councils will have to assure the DfE that funding is spent in line with the guidance. It comes after the government pledged to write off 90 per cent of town hall SEND deficits. It will also take on the cost pressures in the system from 2028. In its guidance today, the DfE said future support for deficits that arise between 2026 and 2028 “will take into account local authorities successful delivery of their approved local SEND reform plan, including appropriate use of investment to establish an EAH offer”.