Early years: speech, language and communication action plan

Building on Strong Foundations

As well as the resources listed above, this Plan builds on a robust network of existing Scottish Government policies, programmes and resources that have the potential to support children’s early SLC development. These include:

• Funded early learning and childcare (ELC) offering 1,140 hours to all 3 and 4 year olds, and eligible 2 years old in households on qualifying low income benefits, those with care experience or with parents who have care experience. According to the most recent ELC Census the estimated uptake rate for ages 3 and 4 is 95%.
• Funding to local authorities for Equity and Excellence Leads, who are graduate level practitioners working in nurseries in the most disadvantaged communities.
• The Equity for All (EfA) report, which was commissioned and published by the Scottish Government in 2022, and supported Children’s Speech and Language Therapy services to complete a comprehensive needs assessment. This report helped to better understand service delivery models, provided evidence around predicted need and built upon the Ready to Act transformational plan in promoting the value of targeted support, joint partnership working and outcomes-based service planning to improve outcomes for children with communication needs.
• Speech and language therapy (SLT) services across Scotland, which enable prevention and promote the least intrusive interventions through a tiered model of service design and delivery (universal, targeted and specialist levels of provision).
• Children’s Services Planning, which is Scotland’s statutory framework for local strategic planning and delivery of services to improve outcomes for children, young people and families. National-level guidance can play a key role in supporting local areas to prioritise early SLC development within their Children’s Services Plans, ensuring a coordinated, needs-led approach across services.
• National initiatives promoting early literacy and language-rich home environments, such as PlayTalkRead, which visits every local authority in Scotland throughout the year, and Bookbug, which provides every child in Scotland with 14 books by the time they reach primary one.
• Scotland’s Baby Box Programme, which provides essential items for the first six months of a baby’s life, worth around £400, and key information on health and wellbeing for babies and parents. The Baby Box Programme is the only national universal offer of its kind in the UK and, since its launch in 2017, has provided over 350,000 baby boxes to parents.
• Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC), Scotland’s national approach to placing children’s rights and wellbeing at the centre of policy and practice. It supports joined-up, holistic delivery of universal and targeted services, and provides a common framework for planning and delivering preventative support. GIRFEC underpins the implementation of key national priorities, including UNCRC, Tackling Child Poverty, Whole Family Wellbeing, Early Child Development and Keeping the Promise.
• The Scottish Model of Infant Participation, based on Article 12 of UNCRC, which recognises infant voice and upholds the rights of babies to meaningful participation.
• The Universal Health Visiting Pathway, providing core contacts to all families from the health visiting service between pre-birth and school entry, with eight visits in the first year of life. This pathway provides a continuum of assessment identifying and responding to early child development concerns. Early evaluation shows that parents feel supported and develop a trusting relationship with their health visitor.
• The Perinatal and Infant Mental Health (PIMH) Fund, providing crucial support services for parents, carers, infants and families who are experiencing mental health difficulties during the perinatal period, supporting them during this important stage of life through delivering peer support, parenting and infant support, and counselling and psychological support. The Fund has supported over 21,400 parents, expectant parents and infants since 2020.
• Wellbeing for Wee Ones campaign accompanied by the launch of the Wellbeing for Wee Ones Hub on the Parent Club website, supporting parents to gain an understanding of their infant’s emotional and mental wellbeing from an early stage.
• Family Nurse Partnership (FNP), offering intensive support for young first time parents in the home, to develop sensitive, responsive care-giving to better meet their child’s developmental needs and improve a range of outcomes.
• Whole Family Wellbeing Fund, supporting families facing multiple challenges.
• The Population Health Framework sets out Scottish Government and COSLA’s cross-sector, whole-system, preventative approach to improving Scotland’s health and reducing health inequalities over the next decade. It recognises the importance of the wider determinants, or ‘building blocks’, of health – including good early years and education – and sets out 30 initial actions intended to improve these key building blocks.

This Action Plan also complements and builds on local examples of innovative and highly effective collaborative practice that are being developed and implemented across the country. By embedding SLC development into these wider efforts, we ensure strategic coherence and collective impact.