Evaluation of Words for All

In 2019, What Works for Children’s Social Care conducted a re-analysis of data from 63 Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) randomised controlled trials (RCTs). In this re-analysis, the Vocabulary Enrichment Full Programme (VEFP), an intervention delivered by Bolton Local Authority in 2014, showed evidence of promise, specifically for pupils with experience of an intervention by local authority children’s social care within the previous six years. Since 2014, Whole Education, a network that brings together over 500 schools, trusts and education organisations, had further developed the VEFP into Words for All (WfA) in partnership with Bolton Local Authority. Therefore, in 2020, What Works for Children’s Social Care commissioned an evaluation of Whole Education’s updated intervention, WfA. WfA offers training, materials and ongoing support to a “triad” of three teachers in participating secondary schools. Schools are then free to decide which elements of the intervention are best suited to their pupils and context. King’s College London evaluated WfA in the 2020/21 academic year. The evaluation included an impact evaluation, an implementation and process evaluation (IPE) and a cost analysis.