Early Talk for York is an approach to improve speech, language and communication of children aged 0 to 5 years.
View our Early Talk for York roadmap to see all aspects of Early Talk for York. This is a great starting point for thinking about the opportunities available and how you can get involved with each aspect.
The hugely popular roll out of the use of the WellComm Toolkit across the city is already enabling many organisations to be working at Step 1 of the Early Talk for York approach. The Early Talk for York update report September 2022 shows that Early Talk for York is having a demonstrable impact on improving speech, communication and language outcomes.
Expression of interest application
We're inviting applications for educational settings in York to submit an expression of interest to be part of groups working towards the full approach, or ‘Step 3’, of Early Talk for York.
Complete and return our short expression of interest form if you're interested in:
- access to high quality, accredited training for your whole team
- ongoing personalised support for your team from speech and language therapists and other experts
- being part of a formal network of providers working on the same programme as you
You can apply if you're:
- working in a state school or Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) setting with early years aged children within York,
- working in a private or independent school with early years aged children within York,
- or;
- working as a childminder with early years aged children within York
To be eligible you must also be using the WellComm Toolkit, and agree to share this data with City of York Council when the process is released. The WellComm Toolkit is available in all our libraries for childminders to borrow.
We will prioritise applications from:
- organisations applying as a partnership, particularly where they serve the same communities - such as schools with their main feeder settings
- organisations that can demonstrate higher levels of need - such as through WellComm screening outcomes, eligibility for EYPP, children with SEND
Before applying you should read the appropriate Early Talk for York Memorandum of Understanding:
- Early Talk for York Memorandum of Understanding for state schools and other settings
- Early Talk for York Memorandum of Understanding for private and independent schools
- Early Talk for York Memorandum of Understanding for childminders
Early Talk for York expression of interest application
To complete your application, as well as general contact information for your organisation, you'll need to provide the following supporting statements:
- a statement setting out the level of need in your setting, including;
- headline figures from WellComm screening
- numbers of children eligible for EYPP
- numbers of funded 2-year-olds
- numbers of children with identified SEND
- any other indicators that you believe are relevant
- a statement explaining how you have identified that you have the capacity to be involved, and confirming that you have support from relevant leaders, managers and/or owners where applicable.
These statements should only be brief, and should be no more than 200 words in length.
To assist with preparing these statements, Schools and PVIs should refer to the document Elklan Training - Becoming a Communication Friendly Setting - What’s involved?, and childminders should refer to the document Speech, language and communication training Exclusively for Childminders.
We strongly suggest you gather the required information and prepare your statements ahead of completing the form, so you can "copy and paste" this information into your response. It's not possible to save a partially completed form, nor to retrieve information if the time out period is reached.