Following on from its recent report, ‘Listening to unheard children’, which found 1.9 million children are now behind with talking and understanding words, Speech and Language UK has launched its new five-year strategy, ‘Confident young futures’.
It comes after engagement with over 700 families, supporters, teachers and professionals.
The strategy sets out the charity’s ambitions to make speech and language central to more schools and nurseries, support even more families and put the issue on the political agenda.
Speech and Language UK wants to make sure every child with speech and language challenges has the skills they need to ‘face the future with confidence’.
Five key aims
To deliver its new five year strategy, the charity has announced five key aims and areas to address, these include:
- AIM 1 – Make speech and language central to more schools and nurseries’ everyday practice across the UK.
- AIM 2 – Make its two schools, Meath and Dawn House, leading examples for speech and language best practice.
- AIM 3 – Make sure all families know about speech and language development.
- AIM 4 – Make sure speech and language is at the forefront at the political agenda.
- AIM 5 – Make sure Speech and Language UK’s culture, infrastructure and funding model is fit for the future.
'An unimaginable number of children are going through life unable to do things many of us take for granted.'
Jane Harris, chief executive of Speech and Language UK, said, ‘1.9 million children are currently struggling with talking and understanding words -the highest number we’ve ever recorded. That’s why our new strategy is so ambitious.
‘An unimaginable number of children are going through life unable to do things many of us take for granted.
‘Our new strategy reflects our commitment to changing that.’
Speech and Language UK says it is committed to making the case over the next five years that tackling social problems such as falling educational standards, rising mental health challenges and preventing youth offending, is impossible without better speech and language support.
The National Day Nurseries Association said that due to the early years staffing crisis, it is becoming ‘increasingly difficult’ to give children with speech and language difficulties the extra professional help they need.
It urged the Government to increase the Early Years Pupil Premium to the same level that schools receive per child to make an impact in the first few years of a child’s life.
