Katie Law
Deputy Director for the Childcare Market
Department for Education
Sanctuary Buildings
Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BT
6th May 2013
Dear Ms Law,
Consultation on proposed changes to the role of the local authority in early education and
childcare
I am writing on behalf of the Communication Trust, a Consortium of nearly 50 voluntary
sector organisations involved in delivering services to children and young people with
speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), to offer our views on the Department for
Education’s consultation on proposed changes to the role of the local authority in early
education and childcare. Whilst we have do not significant comments on the consultation
questions, we would like to highlight areas where we believe how the proposals will affect the
quality of support for children’s speech, language and communication development, and for
children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).

1
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Role of language for children’s development:
Evidence shows that language has a crucial role in children’s development, yet evidence
shows many children are not being adequately supported in early education and childcare:
o Speech, language and communication skills are fundamental to many other areas of
children’s development – their social and emotional development, behaviour,
learning and early literacy and numeracy development. For example, language
development at age 2 has been shown to strongly predict children’s performance on
entry to primary school1and is also linked to outcomes into adulthood2.
Nevertheless, there are shockingly large numbers of children in the UK struggling to
develop language. Over one million children in the UK have long-term and persistent
speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and many more, particularly in
areas of social disadvantage, have delayed speech, language and communication
development. Many of these children are not being accurately identified or
supported.
o In his most recent Annual Report HM Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, found
that too many children are still entering school without the basic skills they need to
be ready to learn. We know that 34% of all children are still not achieving adequately
Roulstone et al (2011), Investigating the role of language in Children’s Early educational outcomes Research report DFE – RR134
Feinstein L (2003) Inequality in the Early Cognitive Development of British Children in the 1970 Economica vol 70
in CLL at the end of the foundation stage; and that in areas of social disadvantage
around 50% of children are likely to have significantly delayed language (although
many will not have been identified).3 The Ofsted annual report also highlighted that
children from the poorest 20% of homes are 19 months behind children from the
richest homes in terms of their use of vocabulary at the age of 5.

Children’s language development and quality assurance:
o We have concerns over the proposal to remove the quality assurance role for local
authorities. Whilst we appreciate the importance of efficient quality measures,
without duplication, there are many strong examples of how valuable a strong,
progressive, supportive relationship between quality ‘assessment’ and quality
improvement is in the field of children’s speech, language and communication
development. This is well-evidenced through the Every Child a Talker programme,
where settings and lead practitioners received ongoing, structured and monitored
support in order to develop practice in children’s speech, language and
communication development through a local authority-led programme, based on a
thorough understanding of local context and the needs of local children. In our
experience, ongoing development of quality around children’s speech, language and
communication stems from such an integrated approach.
o Ensuring quality is, in our opinion, reliant on knowing settings, rather than merely
inspecting them. The consultation proposals outline that it is anticipated that local
authorities will continue to play and important part in supporting existing providers
to improve quality of their provision – it is unclear how this would happen effectively
in practice where local authoritiess are reliant on Ofsted inspection information,
which may not be completely current.

Children’s language development and social disadvantage:
o We are concerned about the decisions relating to funded places for 2 year olds set
out in section 2.10. This is a crucial time for children to develop their speech,
language and communication skills, particularly given the aforementioned level of
speech, language and communication delay in areas of social disadvantage of
around 50%.
o The role of language and communication as one of the prime areas of the new EYFS
highlights the need for quality provision, yet in areas of disadvantage this is not the
case. We are concerned about the proposal that satisfactory settings will be funded
for two year olds where there are insufficient good and outstanding settings – we
believe that this sends the wrong message to families or providers because it is very
difficult to see how funding satisfactory settings in this way will actually drive up the
quality, particularly around children’s speech, language and communication.
3
Evidence in Lee, W., and Wagg. E,(2012) Talk of the Town evaluation report highlighted that over 50% of children across three nurseries
in Manchester were starting school with speech, language and communication needs,. More more than a quarter of these 3-4 year olds
had standardised scores below 70 – a level which would meet the criteria for a Statement of Special Educational Needs in many local
authorities

Workforce development for supporting children’s language development:
o Evidence shows that many early years staff feel inadequately equipped to help
children with language delay with over 60%4 of teachers reporting they lacked
confidence in their ability to meet children’s language needs. There is also a wealth
of evidence, highlighting the significant and long term impacts on children’s literacy5,
attainment, behaviour, social and emotional development6. Therefore, we strongly
disagree with the assertion in section 5.2 that early years professionals on the
frontline are the best judges of their training and development requirements.
o Considering the evidence consistently highlights that many early years practitioners
do not have the skills, knowledge and confidence in supporting children’s speech,
language and communication development, we feel that clear and robust structures
are in place, locally and nationally to ensure that all practitioners are able to
effectively support children’s speech, language and communication development,
identify children who are struggling and support children with communication
needs.
o We are also concerned about how providers will be able to gain a clear overview of
what is appropriate for them and available to them in terms of training and
development around children’s speech, language and communication – there is
great potential for unnecessary duplication of training and CPD.
I hope you find this information helpful and please do not hesitate to get in touch if you require
any further information or would like to meet to discuss it in greater detail.
Yours sincerely
Anne Fox
Director
4
Grasping the Nettle: Early intervention for children, families and communities C4EO
Boyer E (1991) Ready To Learn, Carnegie Foundation, New Jersey
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Hartshorne M, (2006) The Cost to the Nation I CAN
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