Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to extend the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme.

The department is investing over £17 million on the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI), improving the language skills of reception age children who need it most following the pandemic. In July 2023, the department announced that funded support for the 11,100 schools registered for the NELI programme would continue for the academic year 2023/24.

The programme targets children needing extra support with their speech and language development and is proven to help them make four months of additional progress; this is seven months for those on free school meals.

The department estimates that the programme has screened over 500,000 children in the last three years and supported 160,000 children affected by the pandemic.