About Elklan

Elklan provides effective and accessible training to ensure everyone in a child’s network can support the development of children's speech, language and communication. Elklan delivers courses to teachers, teaching assistants, early years practitioners and parents, empowering them with the knowledge and practical strategies to utilise speech and language therapy methods in the classroom to develop children’s communication skills. Elklan has trained over 90,000 educational practitioners through a network of over 4,500 tutors.

Elklan’s main offer is a range of core speech and language support courses and the Communication Friendly Settings programme. The core courses will equip practitioners with strategies to support language and communication development in the classroom and recognise and address SLCN. The CFS programme facilitates those practitioners to cascade the essential methods from the core courses to the rest of the staff within their setting. In completing the CFS award and improving provision amongst your team, the whole setting will become an environment which supports the communication and language development of all pupils.

Through building strong foundations in the UK, Elklan’s training methods are spreading on a global scale. Our renowned courses are evidence-based, accredited and vital to children. Effective communication with family, friends and teachers is essential to children’s education and development inside and outside the classroom. Communication is truly at the core of everything we do in life. Elklan empowers you to provide the best possible start for your young people.

Explore our full range of courses for practitioners

Our Team

Henrietta McLachlan

Director

henrietta@elklan.co.uk

Henrietta co-founded Elklan in 1998 with fellow speech and language therapist Liz Elks, after qualifying as a SaLT in 1982. She has worked within the NHS in a wide variety of settings and continues to support a broad range of children and young people.

As a Director of Elklan, Henrietta works tirelessly to support the tutors who are part of our ever-expanding team. Through her energy, passion, enthusiasm and drive, she's built Elklan to become the hugely successful company that it is today.

Henrietta is particularly skilled at making complex information accessible to everyone. She helps to keep the business focused on its core aim - to equip those supporting children with speech and language difficulties with the best possible tools, for the benefit of all.

Charlie McLachlan

Director of Marketing and
Business Development

Charlie@elklan.co.uk

Heather Price

SaLT Professional Advisor

heather@elklan.co.uk

Gill Clarke

SaLT Professional Advisor

gill@elklan.co.uk

Beth Devereux

Professional Advisor

beth@elklan.co.uk

Alison Nicholson

Professional Advisor

alison@elklan.co.uk

Michelle Evans

Office Manager

michelle@elklan.co.uk

Kate McCormick

CFS Programme Co-ordinator

katie@elklan.co.uk

Selina Daniels

Resources Manager

selina@elklan.co.uk

Sam Channing

Administrator

sam@elklan.co.uk

Sam Masters

Administrator

samantha@elklan.co.uk

Leo Wood

IT Manager

leo@elklan.co.uk

Daniel Laurence

Graphic Designer

dan@elklan.co.uk

Kirsten Jolley

Marketing Executive

kirsten@elklan.co.uk

Jenny McLean

IT Assistant

jenny@elklan.co.uk

Rita Wood

Licensing, HR & Royalties

rita@elklan.co.uk

Tracy Holdstock

Accreditation Manager

tracy@elklan.co.uk

Our Story

1998

Elklan was set up by Liz Elks and Henrietta McLachlan, both highly experienced speech and language therapists working for Cornwall Healthcare NHS Trust.

The county education authority wanted to train primary school teaching assistants to enable them to effectively support children's speech, language and communication in the classroom. Liz and Henrietta volunteered to help, drawing upon their own knowledge to develop, write and deliver the course. Liz and Henrietta wrote an accompanying book, Language Builders, containing all the course handouts they had devised - plus a wealth of additional ideas and strategies.

1999

Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists Local demand for the training grew.

After successfully training colleagues in Cornwall, Elklan's first two-day train-the-trainer course was held at the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) in London. Elklan subsequently gained accreditation as a training centre, and the number and range of courses grew in response to demand.

2005

Elklan work expanded into Ireland and the Falkland Islands.

2011

A large grant was provided to Elklan by the Department for Education to develop our Communication Friendly Settings (CFS) accreditation.

2013

The London Schools Excellence Fund awarded Elklan a grant to explore the impact of the Communication Friendly status in two primary and two secondary schools. The results showed progress in the children's performance and the staff confidence in supporting children's language.

2015

Following the success of CFS in primary schools, a further grant was received from the Department for Education to pilot Talking Matters, our CFS programme for Early Years settings.

PINECL Elklan was invited to be part of PINECL, an EU-funded project designed to equip parents to be educators of their peers. We provided the information parents need to know to help their children develop their speech, language and communication skills. A parents' curriculum was produced, accredited by Ascentis through Elklan, and many parents across Europe were helped to develop their skills and knowledge.

2017

An independent study of Talking Matters led by Sheffield University showed that children had made 8 months of progress in 6 months through training alone!

NELI - Nuffield Early Language Intervention Elklan was approached by Professors Charles Hulme and Maggie Snowling of Oxford University to assist them in delivering training to school staff involved with the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI). Henrietta helped to co-write the training materials and our Elklan tutors were part of a large study conducted by the Education Endowment Fund (EEF) into the efficacy of the intervention in improving children's communication. The evidence obtained has helped to ensure that NELI is now being provided as part of the Department for Education's strategy for schools emerging from the COVID crisis. We are proud of our continuing involvement in this project.

NOW

Over 3,500 Elklan Tutors and more than 80,000 professionals, parents and carers have received Elklan training to help children, young people and adults in mainstream and specialist education, within youth offending institutions, prisons and vulnerable situations, or using Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC).

While most work in the UK, our expanding network of Elklan Tutors covers 35 countries worldwide.

Our courses are not only accessed by individual schools and settings but are also commissioned by the Department for Education and local councils to support programmes to improve children's social mobility.

Elklan CIC which is affiliated to Elklan is a member of The Communication Trust.