Communication Champion

One of the main recommendations from the Bercow review was to appoint a Champion for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. Jean Gross will be the new Champion. 

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.

Until recently Jean was the 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.

To contact Jean please e-mail her on champion@thecommunicationcouncil.org.

Latest news: Please follow the links to read an interview with Jean in NASEN's magazine.
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Please click here to view the Trust's press release in response to the announcement of the Champion.

Please click here to view the DCSF's press release announcing the Champion.

Please click here to view The Times article about the new Champion.