Baroness Thornton

This government has a clear plan to break down barriers to opportunity, which starts with investing in high-quality early years education, so tens of thousands more children are school-ready at age five.

The Early Years Professional Development Programme (PDP3) was a key element in the Early Years Education Recovery Programme, which supported the early years sector to address the impact of the pandemic on the youngest and most disadvantaged children.

Now that the Early Years Education Recovery Programme has concluded as scheduled, the department is considering all options for how best to support the sector to help children achieve the best start in life, including support for speech and language development.

As announced in the Plan for Change, the department has set a milestone of a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn in the classroom. We will measure our progress through 75% of children at the end of reception reaching a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile assessment by 2028.

​​The department is continuing to improve access to speech and language therapy by funding the Early Language and Support for Every Child pathfinder project, in partnership with NHS England. This programme aims to improve capacity and knowledge in the workforce, supporting children in early years and school settings with mild to moderate speech, language and communication needs by utilising therapy support assistants.

The department is also providing a range of support and training for early years educators, building a stronger, more expert workforce, to enable settings and childminders to deliver high-quality early education. We have already announced the continuation of support, such as the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI), which provides children with extra support for their speech and language development. The NELI training, which 74,500 staff have completed, includes training for staff more broadly on early language. This is alongside up to £6.1 million in additional funding for the Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs.

We continue to learn from all government programmes, including PDP3, and will provide further updates in the coming months.

This government believes that music is an essential part of the well-rounded and enriching education that every child deserves. That is why music is included in the national curriculum for all maintained schools, for students aged 5 to 14. To support the delivery of music education, the government has committed £79 million per year for the Music Hubs programme, including the 2024/25 academic year.

The 43 Music Hubs partnerships across England offer a range of services, including musical instrument tuition, instrument loaning and whole-class ensemble teaching. To widen access to musical instruments, the government is investing £25 million in capital funding for musical instruments, equipment, and technology from the 2024/25 academic year. This funding enables Music Hubs partnerships to better cater to the needs of the children and young people they work with.

The government is also investing £2 million to support the Music Opportunities Pilot over a four year period from the 2024/25 academic year to the 2027/28 academic year, backed by a further £3.85 million funding from Arts Council England and Youth Music. The pilot is delivered by Young Sounds UK in 12 areas of the country and aims to help disadvantaged children and young people, as well as those with special educational needs and disabilities, to learn how to play an instrument of their choice or learn to sing to a high standard.

On 18 March 2025, the government announced its intention to launch a National Centre for Arts and Music Education to promote opportunities for children and young people to pursue their artistic and creative interests in school, including through the government’s network of Music Hubs. The intention is to launch in September 2026, with a delivery lead appointed through an open procurement. Further details will be released in due course.