Press release – embargoed until 00.01 Thursday 27 December 2012

Leading charity coalition welcomes landmark research and calls for all those who work with children to make communication their business

The Communication Trust, a coalition of nearly 50 voluntary organisations with expertise in speech, language and communication, today warmly welcomed the publication of the Better Communication Research Programme, the most significant investment to date in research into the needs of and services for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs and their families.

Anne Fox, Director of The Communication Trust, said; “This landmark research is to be welcomed by all those committed to supporting children and young people who struggle with communication. This significant investment in research now needs to be brought to life in the places where children spend their days.

The Trust and our Communication Consortium is fully committed to ensuring all those who work with children and young people with SLCN know how to support them and have practical tools to do this. This should happen during their initial training as well as during their continuing professional development, especially as children’s needs change over time and in different situations.

We’re working with the Department and the research team to disseminate the resources and outcomes of the research, including an online database of evidenced interventions to support children’s communication.”

The Communication Trust and members of the Communication Consortium were among the stakeholders involved in the research programme which ran from 2008-2012. The publication of the research is the final activity of the Department for Education’s Better Communication Action Plan, introduced in response to the Bercow review of children’s speech, language and communication needs in 2008. The other activities included the appointment of a Communication Champion, the establishment of a Communication Council and a national year of communication- the Hello campaign run by the Trust in 2011, the full evaluation of which is now available at .

-Ends-

For more information, please contact Anne Fox, Director, The Communication Trust or 07910177966

Please note the Trust has a number of spokespeople available from its core staff team and from organisations in the Communications Consortium, available for interview, geographically spread across the country.

{add if appropriate –BCRP team contact}

Notes to editors

About The Communication Trust

  • The Communication Trust is a coalition of nearly 50 leading voluntary sector and community-based organisations with expertise in speech, language and communication
  • The Trust has an extensive advisory and partner network, which includes the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT), Achievement for All, Council for Disabled Children, Early Support Programme and specialists across early years, schools and youth justice.
  • We support the children’s workforce and commissioners to meet the speech, language and communication needs of all children and young people
  • We do this by raising awareness, influencing policy, promoting best practice among the children’s workforce and commissioning work from our members.
  • Last year, the Trust ran the Hello campaign (national year of communication) in partnership with Jean Gross in her role as the Government’s Communication Champion for children. The evaluation of the Hello campaign is available here
  • For more information, visit

About the Better Communication Research Programme

  • The Better Communication Research Programme is part of the government’s response to the Bercow Review of provision for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs, published in July 2008. The government published its response Better Communication, the speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) action plan in December 2008, which committed to a series of initiatives to improve services for children and young people with SLCN culminating in the National Year of Speech, Language and Communication in 2011.
  • The research programme is based in CEDAR with Professor Geoff Lindsay as overall Project Manager. The core team also comprises Professor Julie Dockrell (Institute of Education, University of London (ULIE), Professor James Law (Newcastle University) and Professor Sue Roulstone (University of West of England, Bristol) as project co-directors. In addition the team comprises Professor Anna Vignoles (ULIE), Professor Jenni Beecham (LSE), Dr Steve Strand (CEDAR), and Professor Tony Charman (ULIE) who will provide specialist inputs to the programme. A number of researchers based at CEDAR and the partner universities are involved with specific projects over the three years of the Programme.
  • More information is available at