Funding for local authorities, 2026 to 2027
Belong What the grant pays for, and where Belong fits
The Experts at Hand and Local Authority SEND Transformation Fund gives local authorities £429 million in 2026 to 2027, the first year of a grant worth £1.8 billion in Experts at Hand funding over the spending review period, plus a share of £200 million in transformation funding. At least 80% must go on direct delivery to settings. This page sets out the conditions and puts Belong next to the ones it helps you meet. Check the figures against the published grant conditions before quoting them.
Send us your documents, get a demo back → See Experts at Hand, point by point
What the funding is for
To work in partnership with Integrated Care Boards to develop and deliver a new Experts at Hand offer for mainstream education settings, and to strengthen the capability of those settings to meet the needs of learners with SEND more effectively and inclusively. The grant expects:
- additional education specialists, educational psychology services and specialist teachers
- additional outreach from alternative provision, special schools and post-16 institutions
- additional clinical health professionals, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists
Where Belong fits. Every one of those professionals needs somewhere to put what they know so that a mainstream teacher can use it without a referral. Belong is that somewhere. The specialists own their development areas, schools use them, and the authority sees what is being used.
Developing the offer with parent carers
Local areas will work together, engaging with parent carers and local stakeholders, to set out plans for the Experts at Hand offer, and should make sure the investment benefits all learners aged 0 to 25.
Belong is co-produced. It was built with Leeds and Calderdale inside the DfE Change Programme, with SENCOs and specialist teams in the room, and every new authority's version is built the same way, starting from its own provision document.
Early support and a holistic view
Local area partnerships should tilt provision towards early support for mainstream settings, so staff can meet needs more quickly within the setting, and take a holistic view of the expertise they already have across their settings.
Belong's audit shows you where you are starting from. Every school runs the whole-school SEND audit against your provision. Read across all of them, it is the holistic view the grant asks for, and the early support gaps show up as a list rather than a feeling.
What the grant will not pay for
No more than 10% on the administrative cost of delivering the offer, and no more than 10% on the authority's own transformation costs. At least 80% must reach direct delivery for settings, staff and their learners.
Belong is direct delivery. It is the tool teachers and SENCOs use, not a back-office system. Its cost sits under the direct award threshold for almost every council, so it can be bought through G-Cloud or your low value route without a tender, and the whole of it counts as delivery to settings.
How Belong supports the offer, in one table
| The grant asks for | Belong gives you |
|---|---|
| Whole-setting support | Curated advice and resources for the universal mainstream offer, built from your provision |
| Tailored guidance | Advice and resources for each development area, from universal to targeted |
| Strategic advice | A shared place for your experts, SENCOs and senior leaders to talk about provision |
| Group level interventions | A domain lead view across a group of schools, with every audit and action plan side by side |
Jonny Holden
Belong was built inside the DfE Change Programme with Leeds and Calderdale, before the White Paper named the thing it does.
Show, don't tell
Send us your ordinarily available provision or graduated approach document and we will build a sample of Belong for your authority that you can share across the council and with SENCOs. No obligation.
Send us your documents, get a demo back → See Experts at Hand, point by point