Experts at Hand: from funding to delivery
by Nikki Thompson
From September 2026, local areas are expected to begin increasing access to professionals including occupational therapists within mainstream early years, schools and post-16 settings.
Experts at Hand represents a significant opportunity to bring specialist expertise closer to mainstream education, supporting earlier identification and intervention, building the capability of settings and helping children and young people access the right support earlier.
For local areas, the challenge now is turning that ambition and funding into a service that works on the ground.
From national policy to local delivery
The national direction is clear, but Experts at Hand is deliberately locally led. Local partnerships will need to determine how their offer this support alongside existing services, how it is staffed and how additional specialist capacity is mobilised.
For occupational therapy, that may require a combination of service design expertise, OT leadership, workforce capacity and delivery infrastructure.
The OT Practice is supporting local authorities to move from planning to delivery and can provide different levels of support depending on what is already in place locally.
How The OT Practice can help
Experts at Hand OT Lead
Experienced OT leadership capacity to support the design, mobilisation and implementation of the local OT offer.
Experts at Hand OT Blueprint
A ready-developed suite of OT-specific frameworks, tools and resources created specifically for Experts at Hand, helping local areas avoid starting from a blank page.
Experts at Hand OT Team
Occupational Therapists and OT Assistants to provide additional delivery capacity while local areas establish or expand their own workforce.
Managed Experts at Hand OT Service
A fully managed occupational therapy service for local areas looking to commission some or all of their Experts at Hand OT provision.
These options can be commissioned independently or combined to reflect local requirements.
Moving from funding to delivery
As a nationwide occupational therapy provider with extensive experience of working with local authorities, schools, children and young people, The OT Practice can support both the development and delivery of Experts at Hand OT provision.
Whether you need experienced OT leadership, a head start on service development, additional OT capacity or a managed service, we can help you move from planning to implementation.
If you are currently developing your Experts at Hand OT offer, please give us call. We would be happy to talk through any plans you are developing and how we might be able to support you.
