Written evidence submitted by Speech and Language UK (SFC0077)

Introduction

Speech and Language UK are working to help the 1.9 million children struggling with talking and understanding words. We have been supporting disadvantaged children for over 130 years. Last year, we directly supported more than 80,000 children by designing tools and training for nurseries and schools and giving free advice and guidance to families and young people. We generate new practices from our two special schools, Meath and Dawn House, for children with the most complex speech and language challenges. We campaign for better understanding of the importance of speech, language and communication skills for all children and young people throughout their lives and education. And we host the Speech, Language and Communication Alliance of over 30 organisations who campaign together.

Speech, Language and Communication Needs in the SEND System

Even before the pandemic, our education system had problems identifying and helping children who were struggling with talking and understanding words. Since the Covid lockdowns and the cost of living crisis, the problem has only been exacerbated. Last year we published a report which found a growing number of children face challenges talking and understanding words – from an estimated 1.5 million in 2021 to 1.9 million in 2023 – a marked increase of 200,000[1].

From the DfE’s own figures in 2024, speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) form the largest group of children identified with SEN in primary schools (35%).  There is a negative cycle which begins in early years where, despite the best endeavours of the workforce, settings are frequently ill-equipped to identify and effectively support children struggling to talk and understand words. Children’s needs are identified late (or not at all), then escalate and become entrenched. In many cases, a child or young person may be mistakenly identified as having a difficulty with learning or mental health or behaviour when in fact they simply have not had appropriate support for speech and language development[2].

Addressing these issues has so far been fragmented and piecemeal, resulting in inefficiencies and missed opportunities to deliver the best value from public spending. The previous government, in their Education Recovery Programme, invested in catch-up support for children with difficulties talking and understanding words in Reception through the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI). However, children across all age groups are struggling – it is possible to intervene on language at a much earlier age. The number of schools taking up the NELI programme (despite it being free) has dwindled to zero in 2023/4. DfE has reported the number of schools signing up for the programme are: 

2020/21: 6,668

2021/22: 4,418

2022/23: 26

2023/24: no new school registration undertaken[3]

This means that up to two-thirds of schools have signed up to receive training on the programme at some point, however there is no clear strategy to extend early language interventions to the final third. Schools have told us that the programme is too time-consuming for their current resources and the small group sizes required do not fit disadvantaged areas where the majority of children in a class are likely to have speech and language challenges.  We also have concerns about the government’s monitoring of the ongoing impact of NELI. We have heard anecdotally that many schools who have received training to deliver NELI no longer do, as the time and staffing demands are too onerous. 

At the same time, Government has actively disincentivised family hubs from spending their allocated funding on interventions for children at an early stage. Current guidance does not allow hubs to intervene until children are aged 3, despite evidence that interventions can be effective much earlier. This unnecessary constraint on public spending is leaving children with language challenges for longer than necessary and reducing the return on investment of family hubs.

The previous government also funded the Early Years Professional Development Programme (EYPDP). This has helped thousands of early years practitioners to develop their skills in speech and language, maths and personal, social and emotional development. Practitioners have also reported that they want to stay in the early years sector as a result of developing new skills, which is critical in a sector with a recruitment and retention crisis. The target of signing up 10,000 early years practitioners by March 2025 has been met[4]. However, this represents less than 3% of the current early years workforce. It is inefficient to spend public money on practitioners without investing in the marginal costs required to give them all the skills needed to have an impact in their roles.  Government needs to continue funding and scale up the EYPDP, to improve outcomes for children and to retain staff. Ending the programme and then restarting a similar model would be a waste of public resources.

In 2023, the previous government published the SEND and AP Improvement plan that had a number of promising policies, but none were on the right scale  and some of them are yet to be delivered. Early Language Support for Every Child (ELSEC) is laudable, but only a pilot project running in nine Local Authorities (some of which we have been consulting with) and we are aware that many have struggled to recruit the requisite Speech and Language Therapists in crucial positions. It remains to be seen what lessons the new government will glean from the project.

Another policy from the SEND AP Improvement plan were the Practitioner Standards. We were helping the DfE with the one on speech and language development for early years practitioners, but are not sure if the new government is still planning on publishing them. It will be a waste of public expenditure if these are not published given the work that has gone into them – both within the civil service and in external organisations. This is particularly true given that teachers report not having enough training in speech and language development and challenges and therefore need these standards to guide their practice.

The Improvement Plan also promised a new SEND workforce strategy, of which there has been little evidence so far. The current SEND system is currently facing a workforce crisis, with extremely high vacancy rates for Speech and Language Therapists among others.

What can be done?

If children struggling with talking and understanding words are identified early, low cost  language interventions can be put in place from age 2, allowing up to 50%  to catch up with their peers, improving their outcomes and saving on costly public services. Evidence shows that on average, pupils who take part in spoken language interventions make approximately five additional months’ progress over a year, with some studies showing progress of up to six months for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds[5]. Monitoring the progress of children in language interventions can also give an indication of those who may require long-term support. Children who don’t make expected progress with an intervention can be referred to a specialist and get the right support in place for them as early as possible. To increase the number of early years settings and schools delivering timely interventions to children to reduce the need for ongoing support from public services, schools and early years settings should be given a choice of evidence-based programmes so they can choose those which fit their resources and their local population’s needs, similar to the approach to DfE approval of phonics programmes.

Currently schools wishing to identify which children need more speech and language support commission assessments or screening from private contractors. This  represents a cost inefficiency across the sector. The previous Government funded the development of a tool which could then be used by health visitors for children from age 2, called the Early Language Identification Measure (ELIM). However, no similar tool exists for schools, meaning that schools can pay hundreds of pounds per class for this service. It would be far more cost efficient for Government to replicate the model used for commissioning ELIM to create a free tool for primary schools to measure and track children’s talking and understanding of words at the start of KS1 and KS2, enabling them to spot when children are struggling and get the right support in place. The tool would be similar in format to those available for teachers to track literacy and numeracy progress but would be freely available and anonymised data would be collected nationally. This would help national and local Government, Ofsted and other bodies to understand the prevalence of speech and language challenges and to plan the right provision of support. 

Of course there will be children and young people who will need specialist support, in particular those with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and those with long-term speech and language challenges linked to other conditions. It is estimated that up 10% of all children and young people fall within this group. However there is a distinct lack of provision available to them and the lack of early support means that their challenges and their need for public services escalates unnecessarily, at both a human and fiscal cost. Speech and Language Therapists are Allied Health Professionals and are often employed by NHS services with many working privately and some employed directly by Local authorities, schools or independent providers. Integrated Care Systems and government need to come together to address the issue of the scarcity of speech and language therapists available to support children.

Recommendations:

• Training for teachers and early years staff should be commissioned nationally at a larger scale on how to support children’s speech, language and communication skills and spot a child who is struggling so that education professionals employed through the public purse have the necessary skills to support children
• The Governments current one size fits all approach to an early language intervention should be widened so that public money can be spent on what schools judge will work best for their local needs and resources
• Government should commit to publishing guidance about evidence-based tools and programmes that work best to support children struggling to talk and understand words
• Government should commission free tracking tool and make it available to all primary schools to measure and track children’s talking and understanding of words and spot children who are struggling to reduce the current inefficiency of schools commissioning this support separately or not tracking needs at all.
• Better workforce planning and funding so that specialist support from speech and language therapists is available for those with lifelong speech and language challenges.

November 2024