Taunton Autism Support Group

New Communication Champion for children with speech, language and communication needs announced

15 October 2009

The Children’s Secretary, Ed Balls today announced the appointment of Jean Gross as England’s first Communication Champion.

The appointment of a Communication Champion was a recommendation in the 2008 Bercow Report on services for children with speech, language and communication needs, and forms part of the government’s Better Communication Action Plan developed in response to the Bercow review.

The Communication Champion, funded jointly by the DCSF and Department of Health, will be responsible for working across Government, delivery partners and other stakeholders to co-ordinate and build on initiatives to improve services for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. The champion will also plan, organise and lead a National Year in 2011 focusing on the importance of developing children’s communication skills.

Speaking about the appointment Ed Balls said:

“Speech, language and communication are crucial to every child’s ability to access and get the most out of education and life. The Champion role is very important and I am delighted to announce Jean Gross’ appointment.

“Her background and wide experience makes her uniquely qualified for the role. In her current role as Director of the Every Child a Chance charity, she successfully championed effective literacy and numeracy intervention for our lowest achieving, disadvantaged children through the Every Child a Reader and Every Child Counts programmes; we look forward to seeing the same impact in her new role.

“Jean Gross’s appointment as Communication Champion reflects my determination to improve the lives of children with speech, communication and language needs. Jean will help us to ensure that we continue to give priority to the needs to children with these difficulties.”

Care Services Minister Phil Hope said:

“I am delighted with this appointment. Jean will have a key role to play in helping us to raise awareness of children with Speech, Language and Communication needs and to build on the good practice we have in many services already.”

Jean Gross said:

“Good communication skills are vital. Without them children have little chance of getting good GCSEs or getting a decent job. These skills are what employers want, and they are what we need to make good lifelong relationships and resolve conflicts. But one in ten children don’t have these skills, and in disadvantaged areas research has shown that this rises to as much as one in two.

“Speech and language difficulties are now the most common form of special educational need for younger children, sometimes arising from specific impairments, sometimes from social disadvantage and sometimes from both. Without help, a third of children with speech, language and communication difficulties could go on to have mental health problems. In one study, two thirds of young offenders had language problems.

“My role will be to make information like this available to parents and all those who work with children or commission services for them, so that we all give a greater priority to this area. I’m delighted to have the chance to build on the great work done by all those involved in the Bercow Review and I hope that together we can make a big difference to the future of every child who is currently denied the fundamental human right of skilled communication.”

Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director of The Communication Trust, said:

“As the third sector representative on the Communication Council, we welcome the appointment of Jean Gross as the Communication Champion. The role of Champion, and the associated National Year of Speech, Language and Communication, were key campaign asks for the voluntary sector.

“This is the final piece of the Better Communication Action Plan programme. The Communication Trust looks forward to working with Jean, and other members of The Communication Council, to truly capitalise on opportunities presented by the Action Plan. Members of the Trust have already mobilised their resources to support the 2011/12 National Year of Speech, Language and Communication. Together, we will make a real and sustainable change for children and their families.”
Editor’s Notes
This press notice relates to ‘England’

1. John Bercow MP highlighted the importance of speech, language and communication in the

July 2008 Bercow Report. It identified the areas where services need to improve to help

children and young people with speech, language and communication needs to get the best out of life.

Following the Bercow Report, the Government published Better Communication, the December 2008 speech, language and communication needs action plan. The action plan makes commitments to carry out a range of initiatives across Government, culminating in the National Year focusing on the importance of Communication in 2011. The action plan committed to meet the Bercow Report recommendation to appoint a Communication Champion. The Bercow Review Of Services For Children And Young People (0-19) With Speech, Language And Communication Needs, is available at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/slcnaction/bercow-review.shtml .

2. The Government made its formal response to the Bercow Report with the Publication of Better Communication, the SLCN action plan, on 17 December 2008. The action plan is available at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/slcnaction/actionplan.shtml , the Written Ministerial Statement made at the time is available at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm081217/wmstext/81217m0001.htm#08121773000002 and the press notice published alongside the action plan is available at http://nds.coi.gov.uk/clientmicrosite/Content/Detail.aspx?ClientId=46&NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=387816&SubjectId=36 .

3. The Communication Champion will be independent of Government and will play a key role in promoting the importance of communication skills to children and in helping us to make a success of the action plan commitments. The Champion will work to inspire commissioners and service providers to develop services that improve outcomes for children with communication needs and spread good practice to support the development of effective communication skills. They will provide a strong independent voice for children with communication needs, driving improvements in services by working across England with the full range of national, regional and local partners in the voluntary, public and commercial sectors.

4. The purpose of The Communication Trust is to raise awareness of the importance of speech, language and communication across the children’s workforce and to enable practitioners to access the best training and expertise to support the communication needs of all children, more details are available at http://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk . The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists is the professional body for speech and language therapists and support workers, more details are available at http://www.rcslt.org .

5. Jean Gross is currently Director of the Every Child A Chance Trust. One of the programmes the charity supports is Every Child Counts - a national initiative to tackle children’s mathematical difficulties. Another is Every Child a Reader, which provides Reading Recovery and other early interventions to children with literacy difficulties.

Jean was until 2005 Senior Director within the government’s Primary National Strategy, responsible for its work on overcoming barriers to achievement. A former teacher, lecturer, educational psychologist and Head of Children’s Services in a large urban local authority, Jean is a national expert on inclusion issues. Her work has focused on improving outcomes for children with significant difficulties in language, literacy and mathematics, promoting practitioners skills in inclusive teaching, and developing children’s social, emotional and behavioural skills through the SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) whole-curriculum approach. She is a Visiting Fellow at London University’s Institute of Education. She frequently acts in an advisory capacity to government, most recently in writing its guidance on the application of school behaviour policies to vulnerable young people, and writing new national special needs materials for trainee teachers. She is the author of numerous articles and best-selling books on special educational needs, including Special educational needs in the primary school: a practical guide (2002), Special educational needs and school improvement (2004), and the recent Beating Bureaucracy in SEN (2009).

Contact Details

Public Enquiries 0870 000 2288, info@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk

Press Notice 2009/0190