Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many schools registered to deliver language intervention programmes in (1) 2021, (2) 2022, and (3) 2023, and how many completed the full work programme in each of those years.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)

The department works with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to support building the evidence base for early language interventions. In July 2024, the department announced that funded support for the 11,100 schools registered for the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme (two thirds of English state primary schools) would continue for the 2024/25 academic year. NELI is the most robustly evidenced early language programme in the UK, helping children who need extra support with their speech and language development to make four months of additional progress and seven months for those on free school meals.

To support early language skills, the department has invested over £20 million in NELI. The department does not hold the exact number of children who have completed NELI since 2020, but an estimate is based on the data included in EEF’s 'NELI Scale-up: Evaluation Report - Year 2', as attached. The programme has screened more than 650,000 children in the last four years and supported more than 210,000 four and five-year-olds since the pandemic. Broken down by academic year, this is:

2020/21: 35,000

2021/22: 59,000

2022/23: 58,000

2023/24: 59,000

The Stronger Practice Hubs, which provide advice, share good practice and offer evidence-based professional development for early years practitioners, have also collaborated with the EEF to fund and make places available on several early language programmes. This is helping to strengthen and add to the evidence base of early years professional development programmes. The department does not hold data on the number of children who have benefitted from these programmes.

The number of new schools who registered to deliver NELI in each academic year since 2020 are as follows:

2020/21: 6,668

2021/22: 4,418

2022/23: 26

2023/24: no new school registration undertaken

For registered schools, the government has continued to fund the intervention so that schools can deliver the programme to new cohorts of reception children, where they are identified with below or well-below average language levels. We do not hold figures on how many of these schools completed the full work programme in each of those years.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many children have completed language intervention programmes each year since such programmes were first funded by the Government in 2021.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)

The department works with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to support building the evidence base for early language interventions. In July 2024, the department announced that funded support for the 11,100 schools registered for the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme (two thirds of English state primary schools) would continue for the 2024/25 academic year. NELI is the most robustly evidenced early language programme in the UK, helping children who need extra support with their speech and language development to make four months of additional progress and seven months for those on free school meals.

To support early language skills, the department has invested over £20 million in NELI. The department does not hold the exact number of children who have completed NELI since 2020, but an estimate is based on the data included in EEF’s 'NELI Scale-up: Evaluation Report - Year 2', as attached. The programme has screened more than 650,000 children in the last four years and supported more than 210,000 four and five-year-olds since the pandemic. Broken down by academic year, this is:

2020/21: 35,000

2021/22: 59,000

2022/23: 58,000

2023/24: 59,000

The Stronger Practice Hubs, which provide advice, share good practice and offer evidence-based professional development for early years practitioners, have also collaborated with the EEF to fund and make places available on several early language programmes. This is helping to strengthen and add to the evidence base of early years professional development programmes. The department does not hold data on the number of children who have benefitted from these programmes.

The number of new schools who registered to deliver NELI in each academic year since 2020 are as follows:

2020/21: 6,668

2021/22: 4,418

2022/23: 26

2023/24: no new school registration undertaken

For registered schools, the government has continued to fund the intervention so that schools can deliver the programme to new cohorts of reception children, where they are identified with below or well-below average language levels. We do not hold figures on how many of these schools completed the full work programme in each of those years.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government which providers of language intervention programmes for schools they support with funding.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)

The department works with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to support building the evidence base for early language interventions. In July 2024, the department announced that funded support for the 11,100 schools registered for the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme (two thirds of English state primary schools) would continue for the 2024/25 academic year. NELI is the most robustly evidenced early language programme in the UK, helping children who need extra support with their speech and language development to make four months of additional progress and seven months for those on free school meals.

To support early language skills, the department has invested over £20 million in NELI. The department does not hold the exact number of children who have completed NELI since 2020, but an estimate is based on the data included in EEF’s 'NELI Scale-up: Evaluation Report - Year 2', as attached. The programme has screened more than 650,000 children in the last four years and supported more than 210,000 four and five-year-olds since the pandemic. Broken down by academic year, this is:

2020/21: 35,000

2021/22: 59,000

2022/23: 58,000

2023/24: 59,000

The Stronger Practice Hubs, which provide advice, share good practice and offer evidence-based professional development for early years practitioners, have also collaborated with the EEF to fund and make places available on several early language programmes. This is helping to strengthen and add to the evidence base of early years professional development programmes. The department does not hold data on the number of children who have benefitted from these programmes.

The number of new schools who registered to deliver NELI in each academic year since 2020 are as follows:

2020/21: 6,668

2021/22: 4,418

2022/23: 26

2023/24: no new school registration undertaken

For registered schools, the government has continued to fund the intervention so that schools can deliver the programme to new cohorts of reception children, where they are identified with below or well-below average language levels. We do not hold figures on how many of these schools completed the full work programme in each of those years.

Found: April 2023 to 31 March 2024 split by the eligible categories of spend Authority % Spend on food (Non-Free

Found: DSG) 32910716 grantindsg 103 Pupil Premium Grant 1128354 grantinppg 107 Universal Infants Free

Found: Pupil Premium Grant 1204.0742712952058 1128.354 -75.72027129519711 -6.288671147648261 Universal Infants Free

Found: Proportion of total pre MFG funding (%) Primary notional SEN (%) Secondary notional SEN (%) 2) Deprivation Free

Found: Universal infant free school meals (UIFSM): 2024 to 2025

Found: Universal infant free school meals (UIFSM): 2024 to 2025

Found: Universal infant free school meals (UIFSM): 2024 to 2025

Found: premium allocations for 2024 to 2025 financial year – quarter 2 update Information Universal infant free

Found: research has shown that the event has not only built confidence but has enabled 50% of pupils, many on free

Found: are running a pilot in the North -East with local authority, college and university partners to use Free

Found: • £2 million Capital funding to be released on the implementation of SCP -aligned expansion of Free

Found: Proposed Budget 216.414 7.000 223.414 Summary of proposed changes Transfer to Local Government to fund Free

Found: There were concerns that the indicator might become outdated as universal free school meals are implemented

Found: Free School Meals provision and Best Start Foods.

Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many primary school pupils have received free school meals, compared with the total number of pupils in the Glasgow region, since 2021.

Answered by Gilruth, Jenny - Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills

The number of pupils registered for free school meals is published annually as part of our pupil census supplementary statistics, available in table 2.22 at the following link: Pupil census supplementary statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). The total number of pupils in each local authority area is also available through the pupil census supplementary statistics, and is shown in table 5.2.