Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the availability of speech and language interventions in early years settings.

Early language skills are vital to enable children to thrive in the early years and later in life, including for all aspects of later attainment in school.

To support these vital skills, the department has funded settings to undertake evidence-based continuous professional development programmes as part of the Early Years Education Recovery Programme, including those focused on speech, language and communication, via a national network of Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs. The Early Years Professional Development Programme phase 3 (PDP3) provides early years educators with training on communication and language, early mathematics and personal, social and emotional development. The programme was designed to ensure early years educators have the skills they need to support young children’s development in the areas that can make a significant difference to long term development and attainment, helping to strengthen children’s foundations for learning and enable them to be school-ready by the time they reach reception.

We have also invested over £20 million on the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI), improving the language skills of reception age children who need it most following the pandemic. NELI is an evidence-based programme targeting reception aged children needing extra support with their speech and language development.

The evaluation of NELI delivery and impact since 2020, which was published by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) in September 2023, shows outstanding results. The evaluation evidences the programme improved the development of oral language skills by four months’ progress for pupils receiving the intervention. Children eligible for free school meals (FSM) made seven months’ additional progress compared to children eligible for FSM that did not receive the intervention. The EEF evaluation can be found here:
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/nuffield-early-language-intervention-neli#:~:text=In%20September%202023%2C%20the%20impact,took%20part%20in%20the%20evaluation.

In addition to this work, and in partnership with NHS England, the department is funding the Early Language and Support for Every Child pathfinders within the Change Programme. The project funds Integrated Care Boards to trial new ways of working to better identify and support children with speech, language and communication needs in early years settings.