Speech and Language UK responds to the ‘Education Recovery in Schools’ report from the Public Accounts Committee

Today’s report shows that a generation of children are at risk of future educational failure.  

Without extra investment, the government’s 2030 target of 90% of primary-aged children achieving a good level in reading, writing and maths is in serious doubt. To help children to recover in all of these areas, Government must acknowledge the huge damage that the COVID pandemic did to children’s speech and language skills.   

Before the pandemic, support for children struggling with talking and understanding words was already inadequate. The pandemic has served to highlight these inadequacies and make them worse.  

To give this generation a hope of recovery, Government must put in place better free screening tools so teachers can spot which children are struggling to talk and understand words. They also need to give all schools guidance on how to help children who lived through the pandemic – not just nursery and reception staff.  

Our children and our society can’t wait ten years to recover. We need to give teachers the knowledge and tools they need now.  

We are at risk of the legacy of COVID being a generation of children that struggle to talk and understand words. 

Jane Harris