January 2024
The Nuffield Early Language Intervention is a programme developed for reception-age children needing additional support with their speech, language and early literacy skills. This intervention is not available to early years group based or childminder settings. A different but related oral language programme, called NELI Preschool, is available to support practitioners working with 3-4 year olds in group-based settings. A trial of NELI Preschool is currently being recruited to in some regions across England with places co-funded by DfE’s stronger practice hubs and Education Endowment Foundation. The data for NELI Preschool is not captured here.
NELI was rolled out in academic year 2020/21, ahead of the wider early years education recovery programme with funding from the National Tutoring Programme.
NELI data is provided by our delivery partner, OxEd & Assessment. We include the number of participating schools, which since academic year 2021/22 is collected by Nuffield Foundation and their delivery partners on behalf of DfE. DfE was responsible for collecting school participation data in 2020/21. Participating schools are defined as those that have registered and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU); this allows them to train staff, access support and mentoring, use LanguageScreen, and receive a NELI pack that contains the scripted intervention and other resources. We include the number of LanguageScreen assessments which have been conducted. This includes the initial assessment which helps to identify which children within a reception class would most benefit from the intervention, as well as follow-up assessments used to track children’s progress. There is no limit to how many times a child can complete the assessments. Use of this tool is encouraged but failure to carry out the assessments with children does not preclude access to NELI training or materials.
We also include our delivery partner’s estimate of the number of children who have received the intervention. The annual estimate is based on independently collected data and analysis by RAND that is included in the Nuffield Early Language Evaluation Report (opens in a new tab). The number of children estimated to have benefited from the intervention in this report has been extrapolated across delivery years using the number of registered schools. This assumes the intervention rate at registered schools has remained consistent. The independent EEF report estimated that a total of 94,000 children were supported by NELI in the first two years of delivery, with 35,304 children from 6,668 schools receiving the intervention in 2020/21 and an estimated 58,696 children across 11,086 schools receiving the intervention in 2021/22. On the basis that 11,112 schools were supported in academic year 2022/23, our delivery partner has extrapolated from the EEF data that an additional 58,833 children will have received the intervention in that year (total children 2021/22 x number of schools 2022/23 ÷ number of schools 2021/22).
Changes since January 2024 (July 2024 publication)
This release includes data on the number of practitioners who have registered and completed the NELI courses, as well as local authority data.
Only practitioners from schools who are registered for the NELI programme can access the training. There are 3 core courses, which should be completed in numerical order. Course 1 provides training on oral language fundamentals and is therefore open to all practitioners at NELI schools. Courses 2 and 3 are designed for those implementing the NELI programme. Following completion of course 2 and/or 3, practitioners can register with the Support Hub, which provides teachers and TAs with continuous guidance from mentors. A final fourth course has been available since January 2024. It is a refresher course, which is not mandatory but recommended for practitioners who completed their initial training in previous academic years.
The different but related oral language programme, NELI Preschool, is currently being made available to support practitioners working with 3–4-year-olds in group-based settings. The data for NELI Preschool is not captured here.
Nuffield Early Language Intervention Scale-up (2020/21 and 2021/22 trials) | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk) (opens in a new tab)
Changes since July 2024 (July 2025 publication)
This release includes updated data on the number of practitioners who have registered and completed the NELI courses, local authority data, registered schools, LanguageScreen assessments and estimated number of children who have received the intervention. We also include new data on schools that continue to be registered, as well as unique pupils who have done the initial LanguageScreen assessment.
It is the final data linked to the EYER programme, but as the intervention runs over academic years, it is ongoing, and this is not overall final data for academic year 2024/25.
Regarding the NELI training for practitioners, while the 3 core courses should be completed in numerical order, in some instances practitioners started directly with the second course. In exceptional circumstances, a small number of practitioners started delivery of the intervention having only completed the refresher course. This flexibility has been allowed on a case-by-case basis, although it is not recommended. Practitioners can now also register with the NELI Support Hub Course upon completion of course 1; registration to the Support Hub is required to engage with additional support, but it cannot be completed like the other courses.
There has been slight fluctuation in the number of schools that have been registered on the NELI programme. As such, we now include data on the number of schools that continue to be registered. This includes any school with a signed MoU, but excludes any schools that have closed or merged, as well as any schools that have formally withdrawn from the programme since registering.
The delivery partner’s methodology estimating the number of children who have received the intervention has been updated since the release in January 2024. The number of schools that continue to be registered are now used to provide estimates. The estimation continues to be underpinned by the assumption that the intervention rate at schools which continue to be registered has remained consistent. The independent EEF report estimated that a total of 94,000 children were supported by NELI in the first two years of delivery. Using the number of schools which continue to be registered, this is now made up of an estimated 35,813 children from 6,668 schools receiving the intervention in 2020/21 and an estimated 58,187 children across 10,834 schools receiving the intervention in 2021/22. On the basis that 10,825 schools were supported in academic year 2022/23, our delivery partner extrapolated from the EEF data that an additional 58,139 children received the intervention in that year (total children 2021/22 x number of schools that continue to be registered 2022/23 ÷ number of schools that continue to be registered 2021/22). Using the same formula, it is estimated that 58,080 children from 10,814 schools received the intervention in academic year 2023/24 and that 57,167 children from 10,644 schools will have received the intervention by the end of academic year 2024/25.
The data on unique pupils who have done the initial LanguageScreen assessment is a live count from the database and excludes pupils and/or assessments who have been deleted from accounts by schools since the beginning of the academic year. This has only been collected for academic year 2024/25.
While local authority data has mostly increased since June 2024, there are some exceptions. In local authorities where course registration and completion has reduced, this was either due to data cleansing or to deletion of accounts.