Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her department is taking to support the recruitment of more Educational Psychologists, Speech and Language Therapists and Occupational Therapists, pursuant to her reforms in SEND provision.

The department is investing around £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and integrated care boards, to develop a new ‘Experts at Hand’ offer. The funding will support local areas to recruit more educational psychologists, speech and language therapists (SaLTs), occupational therapists and specialist teachers, so they can bring this vital support directly into mainstream settings and improve access to early intervention.

To support delivery of Experts at Hand, we are investing over £40 million in the specialist workforce. This includes £26 million to train at least 200 educational psychologists per year from 2026 and 2027, followed by further investment to train more from 2028, subject to future spending reviews. Upon graduating, trainees will be required remain in local authority employment for a minimum of three years.

The remaining £15 million will be invested to establish new speech and language therapist advanced practitioners in every Integrated Care Board geographical area, to get more SaLTs working in educational settings.