In 2008, John Bercow MP reported on the state of provision for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).
The report found a postcode lottery in provision and little recognition of the importance of good language and communication skills for life chances. The government put money behind the issue and a range of activity followed, from a national year of communication to a massive research programme and my own former post as communication champion for children.
Did anything change? Well, in 2011 I was able to report on some improvements, with more parents reporting their child did get help with their speech and language, and measurable increases in the percentage of children achieving at age-appropriate levels in the language scales of the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile.
There was also a slight narrowing of the gap between the percentage of children with SLCN achieving expected levels in English and maths at the end of primary school than their peers, while there were many examples of local authorities and schools taking concerted and imaginative action to improve the situation.
Much has changed since then. The Department for Education has introduced reforms to special educational needs and disabilities to tackle some of the historical problems that have bedevilled SLCN - like lack of joint commissioning of speech and language services across health and education.
But at the same time, the DfE has constructed a school curriculum that focuses on knowledge rather than underpinning skills and has no year-by-year requirements for spoken language. They have upped the literacy and maths expectations to an extent that squeezes out almost everything else, and removed communication from the Ofsted school inspection framework.
Many schools are telling me they no longer have time to invest in creating the kinds of communication-friendly classrooms that both improve all children's language development and simultaneously support children who struggle in this area.
Funding issues
They also report that they are finding it ever harder to get help from NHS speech and language therapists, unless they commission and pay for their own service. The threats to school budgets may make this impossible in future.
The squeeze on local authorities, including the changes to the Education Services Grant, is also placing at risk speech and language services they fund.
Just last week, I learned that the new early years funding formula means that Blackpool Council, which has an impressive history of early years provision for communication and language, has lost the retained budget that paid for this work. I then heard about another local authority losing 40 health visitor posts, putting at risk the chance that children needing help with speech and language will be picked up early.
We are storing up trouble if this goes on. Early language difficulties have lifelong consequences if not tackled. A recent study found that language at age three is a key measure in a composite of "brain health" that accurately predicted which individuals would be of very high cost to society 35 years later, in terms of welfare, criminal convictions, hospitalisations and prescriptions.
In schools, researchers have found that early language emerges as the most important factor in influencing literacy levels at age 11. Meanwhile, vocabulary skills at 13 strongly predict GCSE results at 15 - in some subjects more strongly even than socio-economic background.
Around two-thirds of children and young people with mental health problems and two-thirds of young offenders prove to have underlying SLCN that mostly have not been picked up previously. This is particularly relevant given recent analysis by the children's communication charity I CAN showing that half of children with language difficulties are not being identified by primary schools, putting them at risk of later mental health or behaviour problems.
Back on the agenda
Schools simply cannot turn the dial on any of their key priorities - attainment, mental health and narrowing the disadvantage gap - without paying attention to speech, language and communication. Neither can local authorities, their health partners, nor indeed national government. We need to get this issue back on the agenda.
That is why I CAN and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists have partnered, with John Bercow's blessing, to launch Bercow: Ten Years On, an independent review chaired by myself, that will pick up on the themes identified in the original report and find out what has changed in the past decade.
At this stage, what is needed is not anecdote but evidence - solid information from parents, young people and everyone who works with, or commissions services for them, about the state of play now.
There is an initial call for written evidence and short online survey, which will be followed by in-depth exploration that will help us understand what is proving problematic but also - crucially - what is working and what good looks like.
For more information about the Bercow: Ten Years On review, visit www.ican.org.uk/What-we-do/Bercow.aspx, email Bercow10@ican.org.uk or follow on social media #Bercow10Years
- Jean Gross is former children's communication champion and chair of the Bercow: Ten Years On review
