The Imagination Library promotes book-sharing, an activity that is key to early language development.

Over £28 million has been invested to support early language development and the home learning environment, with priority given to low-income families and children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). This is delivered through the 75 local authorities developing family hubs through the £300 million Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. Family hubs aim to improve all families’ access to a range of services, including connecting families to local SEND support.

The department is also investing in specialist voluntary sector activity to help family hub networks better identify and support children in their early years with SEND and create local provision that is inclusive for all. This work also aims to improve the take-up and quality of provision of speech and language pathways for children with SEND.

The Imagination Library promotes book-sharing, an activity that is key to early language development.

Over £28 million has been invested to support early language development and the home learning environment, with priority given to low-income families and children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). This is delivered through the 75 local authorities developing family hubs through the £300 million Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. Family hubs aim to improve all families’ access to a range of services, including connecting families to local SEND support.

The department is also investing in specialist voluntary sector activity to help family hub networks better identify and support children in their early years with SEND and create local provision that is inclusive for all. This work also aims to improve the take-up and quality of provision of speech and language pathways for children with SEND.

The government is investing over £28 million to provide targeted, intensive, evidence-based support to help parents read with their young children. This investment is being delivered through the new three-year Family Hubs programme which is being rolled out in 75 local authorities, with priority given to families that will benefit most. This is supported by online resources which provide evidence-based yet highly accessible advice and ideas for parents about literacy and early language activities for children at every stage between birth and 5 years old. These resources are available at: https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/baby/learning-to-talk/learning-to-talk-0-to-6-months/.

All school pupils deserve to be taught a knowledge-rich curriculum that promotes extensive reading, both in and out of school. The National Curriculum promotes the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. It also emphasises the importance of listening to, discussing, and reading for themselves a wide range of stories, poems, plays, and non-fiction books.

Public and school libraries play an important role in supporting parents to read with their children. In a National Literacy Trust and Chase survey conducted between December 2022 and January 2023, 80% of parents with school-aged children reported that their school had a library and nearly 30% of parents stated they were borrowing more children’s books from libraries.

The Family Hubs programme is providing over £28 million to 75 local authorities to deliver targeted, evidence-based interventions to help parents chat, play and read with their children and improve their early outcomes. A proportion of this funding can be used to set up effective systems to identify families that would benefit from help and connect them to the right support to meet their needs. To assist this work, the government published guidance in 2020 to help local areas improve speech, language and communication in the early years, including an Early Language Identification Measure and Intervention tool for use with children aged two to two and a half. This tool is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/best-start-in-speech-language-and-communication.

As part of the Family Hubs programme, the department is also investing £50 million to provide new and expectant parents with children aged under two with online and in-person support that will help them create the strong, loving bonds and healthy day-to-day relationships that babies and young children need. Specifically, the department is making universally accessible support available to all new parents who want and need it, with access to additional targeted support for families most in need.

The Imagination Library is a book gifting programme devoted to inspiring a love of reading in children. The department knows that book sharing supports the kinds of conversations between caregiver and child that promote children’s early language development.

The department is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care to deliver a joint £300 million package to transform services for families through a new network of Family Hubs in half of the local authorities in England. This includes over £28 million to invest in evidence-based programmes which support parents to chat, play and read with their children to improve their early development, with priority given to the families that will benefit most.

This work is complemented by the Better Health Start for Life campaign, which provides online resources giving parents easy, practical tips to chat, play and read with their child. These resources are accessible at: https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/baby/learning-to-talk/learning-to-talk-0-to-6-months/.

The department has also launched a procurement round to grant fund voluntary sector organisations to support the home learning environment with a particular focus on supporting disadvantaged groups. Information on this fund is available at: https://www.find-government-grants.service.gov.uk/grants/early-years-disadvantage-vcs-grants-2023-25-1.

The Imagination Library is a book gifting programme devoted to inspiring a love of reading in children. The department knows that book sharing supports the kinds of conversations between caregiver and child that promote children’s early language development.

The department is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care to deliver a joint £300 million package to transform services for families through a new network of Family Hubs in half of the local authorities in England. This includes over £28 million to invest in evidence-based programmes which support parents to chat, play and read with their children to improve their early development, with priority given to the families that will benefit most.

This work is complemented by the Better Health Start for Life campaign, which provides online resources giving parents easy, practical tips to chat, play and read with their child. These resources are accessible at: https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/baby/learning-to-talk/learning-to-talk-0-to-6-months/.

The department has also launched a procurement round to grant fund voluntary sector organisations to support the home learning environment with a particular focus on supporting disadvantaged groups. Information on this fund is available at: https://www.find-government-grants.service.gov.uk/grants/early-years-disadvantage-vcs-grants-2023-25-1.

The Imagination Library is a book gifting programme devoted to inspiring a love of reading in children. The department knows that book sharing supports the kinds of conversations between caregiver and child that promote children’s early language development.

The department is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care to deliver a joint £300 million package to transform services for families through a new network of Family Hubs in half of the local authorities in England. This includes over £28 million to invest in evidence-based programmes which support parents to chat, play and read with their children to improve their early development, with priority given to the families that will benefit most.

This work is complemented by the Better Health Start for Life campaign, which provides online resources giving parents easy, practical tips to chat, play and read with their child. These resources are accessible at: https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/baby/learning-to-talk/learning-to-talk-0-to-6-months/.

The department has also launched a procurement round to grant fund voluntary sector organisations to support the home learning environment with a particular focus on supporting disadvantaged groups. Information on this fund is available at: https://www.find-government-grants.service.gov.uk/grants/early-years-disadvantage-vcs-grants-2023-25-1.

The department publishes data on the attainment of pupils recorded as having a hearing impairment in the phonics screening check within the ‘Key Stage 1 and phonics screening check attainment’ statistics publication, which is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/key-stage-1-and-phonics-screening-check-attainment/2021-22.

The attached table includes the number of pupils recorded as having a hearing impairment who met the expected standard in Year 1 in the phonics screening check between 2016 and 2022. In addition, the number of such pupils eligible to take the check and the number and proportion working towards the standard, were absent or disapplied from the check are included to provide context. Data for 2020 and 2021 is not available due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

These statistics include pupils with special educational needs in state-funded schools where hearing impairment was recorded as their primary type of need on the school census. Therefore, these statistics will not capture all pupils in Year 1 with a hearing impairment.