To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of children who have received a pre-school assessment of speech and language in the last 12 months were referred for speech and language issues. (223980)

The Department does not collect this data. The importance of early identification and assessment featured strongly in the recently published report of the Review of Services for Children and Young People (0-19) with Speech, Language and Communication Needs, undertaken by the hon. Member for Buckingham (John Bercow)—a copy of which can be accessed at

www.dcsf.gov.uk/bercowreview

The Government have welcomed the Bercow report and have announced an investment of £12 million to help enable action to be taken forward in the areas it highlighted. Later this year, we will produce a detailed action plan setting out how we will implement the Bercow recommendations, over what time scale, and how we will allocate the funds we are investing.

We have also introduced the Early Years Foundation Stage framework to help practitioners and teachers in early years settings meet the learning and development and needs (including speech and language) of all children. Through additional investment of £40 million, we have also introduced the “Every Child a Talker (ECAT)” programme—which will give practitioners easier access to training and materials so that they are better equipped to support children’s early language development, including identifying potential delays and disorders early on.