Covid recovery programme found to benefit children's language skills

A series of newly published independent evaluations of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) find that the roll-out of the programme was ‘well managed and easy for schools to access’, while the benefits of taking part remained years later when children were six or seven.

NELI was offered to state-funded primary schools in 2020-21 and 2021-22. The Early Education Foundation (EEF) and Nuffield Foundation oversaw the roll-out of the first and second years of delivery. The University of Oxford managed the delivery of the programme.

Almost 11,000 schools – or two-thirds of state funded schools in England with Reception pupils – took part in the programme, which was developed by researchers at the Universities of Oxford, Sheffield and York. Under the programme, teaching assistants or early years educators were trained to deliver scripted individual and small-group language sessions to four-and five-year-olds identified as needing additional support over the course of 20 weeks.

NELI was funded by the Department for Education as part of its wider COVID-recovery efforts. A team from RAND Europe was commissioned to conduct an independent evaluation of the programme.  

The evaluations, which have been published by the EEF, reveal that schools taking part in the programme believe it had been beneficial for their pupils’ oral language skills and confidence using language.

However, the research also highlights how some schools were impacted by Covid-related disruptions in delivering the programme as intended. For example, some schools adapted the number of one-to-one sessions, while others continued delivery into Year 1.

An impact evaluation of the national roll-out will be published later this year.

Professor Becky Francis, chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation, said, ‘We know that parents and schools have been worried about the impact of the pandemic on children’s language skills. So, it is terrific that so many schools in England were able to take up the offer of the NELI programme, as part of the Department for Education’s recovery efforts.

‘There’s robust evidence showing NELI to be effective in supporting children’s communication and language skills and today’s new findings suggest that the positive benefits for children are still seen later in primary school.

‘These reports give us a great example of how evidence can be successfully scaled and mobilised to address a real and pressing need. The success of the roll-out is also testament to the power of collaboration, with many different organisations contributing.’

• The evaluations are available here