Education: Communication Skills

(asked on 18th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to ensure that education recovery includes a focus on speaking and understanding language.


Answered by
Robin Walker Portrait
Robin Walker
This question was answered on 25th February 2022

Overall direct investment announced for education recovery is almost £5 billion. The £1.8 billion provides for over £800 million for extra time for 16–19-year-olds and £1 billion direct funding to schools to extend the recovery premium.

The department understands that the early years are the most crucial point of child development. Attending early education lays the foundation for lifelong learning and supports children’s social and emotional development. Therefore, as part of education recovery funding, the department is investing £180 million of recovery support in the early years sector. This includes £153 million for evidence-based professional development for early years practitioners, including through new programmes focusing on key areas such as speech and language development for the youngest children; up to £10 million for a second phase of the Early Years Professional Development Programme in the 2021/22 academic year targeted to support early years staff in settings to work with disadvantaged children; and up to £17 million for the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI).

NELI is a proven programme aimed at the reception aged children needing extra support with their speech and language development and is proven to help children make around three months of additional progress. Two thirds of primary schools have signed up, the majority of these being schools with the highest levels of disadvantage, reaching an estimated 90,000 children.

Building on the pupil premium, the recovery premium is helping schools to deliver evidence-based approaches to support education recovery for disadvantaged pupils aged 5-16. In October 2021 as part of the department’s broader spending review settlement the department announced an extension to the recovery premium worth £1 billion for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years.

Schools are expected to spend this premium on evidence-based approaches to supporting pupils, addressing education recovery related needs of disadvantaged pupils. This can include immediate steps such as assessing and addressing needs once pupils return to class, or longer-term strategic improvement such as improving teaching quality. Also, if schools judge that additional support is needed for speaking and understanding of language is required, they can dedicate resource to this, in the same way that they can for interventions for other parts of the curriculum.

In line with the Education Endowment Foundation’s pupil premium guide, activities should include those that support the quality of teaching, such as staff professional development or Speech and Language Therapists; provide targeted academic support, such as tutoring; and tackle non-academic barriers to success in school, such as attendance, behavior, and social and emotional support. Further information on this guide can be found here: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/guidance-for-teachers/using-pupil-premium.

Reticulating Splines