LITERATURE

Investing early: improving language development in the early years 

We make the case for prioritising action to improve early language skills among the poorest children. Children’s early language skills have a major impact on the development of their literacy skills. Yet one in five young children in England are not reaching the expected level of communication and language skills for their age, rising to one in four children from disadvantaged backgrounds. All three- and four-year-olds in England, as well as two-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds, are entitled to free part-time early education. Universal free early education provides a strong foundation for a world-class early education system that enables all young children to build good early language skills. There is a major opportunity to capitalise on this foundation by significantly strengthening the quality of the early education workforce. Our priorities for early years education over the next parliament are: 

1. Early education in every nursery in England to be led by an early years graduate by 2020, with government support initially focused on nurseries serving children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

2. Every nursery in England to have at least one non-graduate member of staff with an intermediate level qualification in young children’s speech, language and communication. 

3. The creation of a cross-departmental early years minister to coordinate Whitehall strategy and delivery on early years services across health, education and local government