Communication Friendly Settings

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Hello!

Your child's school or nursery has expressed an interest in taking part in a study where they will receive training to help boost their skills, knowledge, and confidence of supporting children's speech, language and communication. In order for them to take part, we need at least 12 parents of 3-4 year old children to consent to assessments taking place. We really hope that you’ll agree for your child to take part so we can see if the programme has an impact on children’s speech, language and communication.

Before agreeing to take part, please read this information carefully and let us know if anything is unclear or you would like further information. When you have read the information, if you are happy for your child to take part, please click the button (either at the top or bottom of this page) to complete the consent form.

Who are we?

We are the research team, and we work at the University of Leeds. We are led by Professor Louise Tracey, who is the lead investigator on this project. Dr Erin Dysart and Dr Aimee Code work on the project and are in touch with your child's school or nursery.

You can contact us if you have any questions or concerns by emailing us at cfs-evaluation@leeds.ac.uk

Pictured above (left to right): Professor Louise Tracey, Dr Erin Dysart, and Dr Aimee Code.

What is this study about?

Your child’s school or nursery is taking part in a study of the Communication-Friendly Settings programme with Elklan, the University of Leeds, the University of York, and the University of Sheffield. Communication-Friendly Settings is designed to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence of all staff in the Early Years setting and change practice so that the speech, language and communication development of all children is supported during every activity.

This type of study is called a randomised controlled trial. This means that half the settings will take part in the Communication-Friendly Settings programme (the intervention group) and the other half continue as normal without receiving the programme (the control group) in this academic year (2023/2024). This is a wait-list design, so if a setting is allocated to the control group, they will receive the Communication-Friendly Settings programme in the following academic year (2024/2025).

What does taking part in the study mean for my child?

If you agree for your child to participate in this study, this will mean your child may be selected to have two one-to-one assessments with trained researchers from the University of Leeds. These will happen at the beginning and end of the current academic year 2024/25.

The assessments look at children's receptive and expressive vocabulary. These assessments are short and designed especially for children of this age group so they should enjoy taking part.  Your child’s responses will be recorded (in written and audio format) on tablets used for administering the assessments.

This will be carried out in the setting and in the presence of setting staff.  All researchers who visit the setting and work with your child will be DBS checked and fully trained to administer the assessments.  If your child does not want to participate on the day, they can say no. We will also ask the setting to share some additional details about your child to help with our analysis, eg. your child’s attendance at the setting, their EYPP status, date of birth and postcode).

Participation is voluntary

Participation in the study is optional. If you would like your child to take part you will be asked to complete the consent form linked above/below. If you choose not to include your child in the study, this will have no impact on the usual care your child receives in the setting, or on whether the setting uses the Communication Friendly Setting programme or not.

If your setting is allocated to receive the programme, your child will still benefit from support from staff who have received the training. If you change your mind at any point during the study, you will be able to withdraw your child’s participation in the evaluation without having to provide a reason.  They will still receive the input from staff that results from the Communication Friendly Settings training.

You may withdraw your child from participating in the study at any point prior to August 2025 by contacting the research team (email cfs-evaluation@leeds.ac.uk).

Anonymity and confidentiality

We assure you that all information relating to you and your child will be treated in the strictest confidence and processed in accordance with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).  Any dissemination of the research findings (e.g. through reports, academic publications and presentations) will be in an anonymous format.  We will not use your Early Years setting or your child’s name in any report or publication arising from the research.

Storing and using your data

All information relating to the setting or your child will be stored securely by code number on a password protected computer.  Any identifiable information will be stored separately from the data and will be destroyed by June 2031.

Anonymous data will be retained indefinitely. At the end of the study your child’s data will be shared with the Department for Education, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), FFT Education (EEF’s data processor for the EEF data archive) and potentially with other research teams. This may mean the data is matched to the National Pupil Database data or other datasets during any subsequent research.

Further details relating to GDPR, third parties and confidentiality are provided in the associated privacy notice. Please read this information carefully. You will need to confirm that you have read and understood this information before proceeding.

Questions or concerns

If you have any questions about this participant information sheet or concerns about how your data is being processed, please feel free to contact Prof Louise Tracey (email: cfs-evaluation@leeds.ac.uk), or the Deputy Chair of Ethics Committee via email education-research-admin@york.ac.uk. If you still have questions about the way your data will be processed, please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@york.ac.uk

We hope that you will agree to your child taking part.  If you are happy for your child to participate, please click the link at the bottom of the page to complete the consent form.

Thank you for taking the time to read this information.

Yours sincerely

Professor Louise Tracey (on behalf of the Communication-Friendly Settings Research Team)

University of Leeds

Click here to complete the consent form