National Institute for Social & Economic Research (NIESR): Talking Time: 2024-25

We conducted baseline and follow-up surveys with children aged 3-5 to trial the efficacy of the University of Oxford and University College London’s Talking Time programme. The trial, which was funded by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), was designed to explore how Talking Time supported young children’s oral language skills and contributed to education recovery efforts following the COVID-19 pandemic. The trial spanned five regions and included both intervention and control groups.

Our role was to manage the collection of data on children’s oral language skills at the start and end of the intervention period. We recruited a team of around 60 Assessors, all of whom underwent enhanced DBS checks and received safeguarding training and in-person training for the three assessment tools being used. Feedback was also provided to Assessors after their first shifts and there was ongoing stringent monitoring to ensure every Assessor was consistent in their delivery. We arranged for Assessors to visit 123 settings across five regions, including both maintained and private early years settings. Over 1,500 children were assessed at baseline in Autumn 2024, and over 1,500 were again assessed at follow-up in summer 2025.

We provided raw data to the National Institute for Social & Economic Research enabling them to examine the quantitative impact of the programme on children’s language skills.