We will work with parents and early years professionals from local authority, health and voluntary services in three local authority areas. Together we will:

• Identify the children and families that current early language and communication support is not yet reaching.
• Identify the skills and knowledge of health service and local authority professionals and volunteers who support families and children.
• Adapt proven interventions so that they can be used successfully in specific local contexts and reach those children who are underserved.
• Support local professionals and families to use these adapted approaches to make the most of the available skills and resources.

We will use information that is routinely collected by Local Authorities and the NHS, parent reports of children’s progress, and interviews with professionals and families to find out:

• If the approaches improve children’s language and communication and reach families who have not received services before.
• Whether the new approaches change the number of children referred to speech and language therapy.
• How much the approaches cost.
• What adaptations are important to help approaches work in a local area.
• How to apply our learning so that children’s services in other areas can adapt interventions to provide successful, fair and sustainable support to families and children.