Education and training services

Tender description

On 1.10.2017 we announced plans to establish a national network of English Hubs across the country, beginning with the north, with a specific initial focus on improving early language and literacy teaching in schools. On 14.12.2017 in the Social Mobility Action Plan and in a separate announcement on 6.1.2018 we further announced a national network of 35 English Hubs (“Hubs”) and a Centre of Excellence for Literacy Teaching (the Centre). These announcements confirmed funding of up to 26 300 000 GBP in the financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20 to establish and run the Centre of Excellence for Literacy Teaching and the national network of 35 English Hubs which are being appointed through a separate process. As part of the funding comes from the Northern Powerhouse, 14 of the hubs will be in that region, which covers the former government office regions of North East, North West, and Yorkshire and Humber. Our vision is that by 2020, we will have: A Centre of Excellence for Literacy Teaching with an excellent understanding of the strengths and weaknesses across the country, and which is able to intervene in cold spots and leverage its expertise to support schools outside the immediate catchment area of the hubs’ network; 35 hubs operating throughout the country, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the schools in their area, and confident in their ability to analyse these and provide, or otherwise source, appropriate support for those schools; Awareness from schools in areas where there is a local hub that they can go there to access free literacy support for reception year, key stage 1 and school-based nurseries; and schools confident they are receiving the support they need to improve pupil outcomes and are reporting improved teacher confidence. As part of this package of work, we are seeking to strengthen language and literacy outcomes in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). One strand of this reform, as set out in the government’s response to the primary assessment consultation (September 2017) is the reform of the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP), which will include revising the Early Learning Goals to give a greater focus on supporting children in developing their vocabulary and core early literacy and language skills. The Social Mobility Action Plan also sets out the importance of improving teaching in reception year to narrow the word gap between disadvantaged children and their peers so that all children have the building blocks to succeed at key stage 1 and beyond. We believe it is important to co-ordinate our reforms relating to schools and early years settings, at both the national (DfE/Centre) and local (hub) levels. Therefore, English Hubs will have a key role in developing practice in reception year and key stage 1 in relation to language and literacy before and during this rollout.