What Voice 21 does

Voice 21 is the UK's national oracy education charity, established in 2015 as a registered charity in England and Wales (Charity No. 1152672, Company No. 08165798) and headquartered in London. The organisation works with UK primary and secondary schools, Multi-Academy Trusts, and Pupil Referral Units to embed speaking, listening, and communication skills ('oracy') into curriculum, teaching, and wider school life through a whole-school membership model. Its core product is the Voice 21 Oracy Schools Membership, a paid programme complemented by the Voice 21 Exchange online learning platform, proprietary frameworks (the Oracy Framework and Oracy Benchmarks), structured leadership and practitioner training programmes (Oracy Leaders Programme, Oracy Pioneers Programme), and an Oracy Centre of Excellence accreditation tier.

Voice 21's underlying technology is centred on the Voice 21 Exchange learning platform, a Salesforce-backed CRM, and standard content-delivery infrastructure rather than proprietary AI or data systems. The organisation generates revenue through a hybrid model combining recurring school membership fees, individual donations, corporate partnerships, and grants from charitable trusts and foundations (including Nesta, SHINE Trust, the Dulverton Trust, Leathersellers, John Horseman, Minton, and Big Change). Go-to-market is sales-led, executed via Regional Programme Managers and School Relationships Officers covering UK regions and supplemented by area-wide cluster partnerships (e.g., Voice Liverpool, Voice Black Country) and policy advocacy through its secretariat role with the Oracy All-Party Parliamentary Group.

Voice 21 operates exclusively in the UK across 12 regions, employs 11–50 staff, and is governed by a board of trustees chaired by Baroness Morris of Yardley, with Peter Hyman as co-founder and Kate Paradine as CEO. There is no parent company, no equity ownership, and no disclosed external capital beyond grant funding; the organisation's 1,100+ member schools, 1,225 trained Oracy Pioneers, 95 National Oracy Leaders, and ten years of EEF-validated impact data form the operational and reputational base.

Name

Voice 21

Legal name

Voice 21 Ltd

Website

https://voice21.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Voice 21 is a UK-registered national charity that supports primary and secondary schools, Multi-Academy Trusts, and Pupil Referral Units in embedding speaking and listening (oracy) into curriculum through a paid school membership, professional development programmes, and proprietary assessment frameworks, serving over 1,100 schools.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Education charity services and school membership programmes

NAICS

Child and Youth Services (62411), Social Advocacy Organizations (8133)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

After-School Public Speaking & Debate Clubs (EDAMAOAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Open Assessments & Question Banks (OER-aligned) (EDAGAJAD)

Keywords

• Oracy education
• School membership programmes
• Teacher professional development
• Spoken language curriculum
• Education charity services

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. School Membership Fees: Voice 21 Oracy Schools membership is a paid programme where schools pay membership fees to access training, professional development, support, and resources including the Voice 21 Exchange platform.
2. Donations: Individual donations from supporters who want to help transform children's learning and life chances through talk.
3. Corporate Partnerships: Partnerships with businesses including collaborating on projects, events or sector-wide initiatives, charity of the year partnerships, and other collaboration opportunities.
4. Trust and Foundation Grants: Funding from trusts and foundations including SHINE Trust (Voice Liverpool), Nesta's Future Ready Fund, The Dulverton Trust (Get talking in PRUs), Leathersellers Charitable Trust, John Horseman Trust, Minton Charitable Trust, and Big Change.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Voice 21 is a registered charity that supports UK schools to embed oracy (speaking, listening and communication) across the curriculum through a paid Voice 21 Oracy Schools membership. Membership delivers one-to-one support, expert-led professional development pathways (Classroom Practice and School Leadership), access to the Voice 21 Exchange online learning platform, formative assessment frameworks (Oracy Framework and Oracy Benchmarks), and progression to Oracy Centre of Excellence accreditation.

Product overview

Voice 21 is the UK's national oracy education charity offering a membership-based program to schools for building speaking and listening skills across the curriculum. The core product is the Voice 21 Oracy Schools Membership, which provides comprehensive training, professional development, and support through pathways and programs including the Voice 21 Exchange online platform, Oracy Leaders Programme, and Oracy Pioneers Programme. Supporting offerings include the Oracy Benchmarks and Oracy Framework for assessment, the Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence accreditation for recognized schools, and publications including the annual Talking Point Journal. The organization also hosts major events including The Speaking Summit and The Great Oracy Exhibition. Voice 21 works in partnership with schools to develop a whole-school approach to oracy education through one-to-one support, expert professional development, and strategic implementation support.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Voice 21 Oracy Schools Membership Annual paid membership programme for UK schools that delivers training, support and resources to implement a whole-school approach to oracy education, including access to the Voice 21 Exchange platform, professional development pathways, and progression to Oracy Centre of Excellence status.
• Voice 21 Exchange Online learning platform providing whole-school access for Voice 21 Oracy Schools members to expert-led short courses, downloadable resources, online modules and videos of oracy in practice.
• Oracy Benchmarks Published framework outlining what constitutes a high-quality oracy education, including Teacher Benchmarks and School Benchmarks that provide a robust and realistic guide for teachers and school leaders developing oracy in their contexts.
• Oracy Framework Proprietary framework used as the basis for formative assessment of oracy, outlining the four strands of oracy used to gauge student progress and inform teaching decisions.
• Oracy Leaders Programme Training programme to build leadership capacity for oracy in schools, developed by Voice 21 and used to train 95 National Oracy Leaders since 2017.
• Oracy Pioneers Programme Voice 21 training programme to embed high-quality oracy teaching in classrooms, through which 1,225 Oracy Pioneers have been trained since its inception.
• Get Talking in PRUs Voice 21 programme supporting students excluded from mainstream education to improve their oracy skills, focusing on developing emotional intelligence and self-perception; reached 767 young people in its first year.
• Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence Accreditation milestone that recognises schools' achievement in delivering sustained high-quality oracy education, granting national recognition and access to exclusive networking, research and professional development opportunities.
• The Speaking Summit Voice 21's annual flagship conference bringing together oracy experts and practitioners to discuss the oracy movement, with Speaking Summit 2026 scheduled for 20 March 2026.
• The Great Oracy Exhibition Voice 21's annual flagship oracy event held in Birmingham, featuring exhibitions, workshops and networking opportunities; the 2026 event is scheduled for Wednesday 14 October 2026.

Quantifiable outcome

• Students receiving free school meals are twice as likely to be below expected language standard at age 11
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Oracy NetworkminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Network of organisations that support children and young people to find their voice. Voice 21 convenes this network bringing together like-minded organisations.
• Cambridge UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Research partnership with Cambridge University that informed the launch of Voice 21 in 2015. Contributed to the evidence base and innovative practice approach.
• Education Endowment Foundation (EEF)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Research partnership with EEF for pilot programmes investigating the feasibility of Voice 21's approach beyond School 21. EEF's independent evaluator saw promise in the approach with participating teachers feeling students' oracy skills improved.
• Oracy All-Party Parliamentary GroupcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerVoice 21 convenes the Oracy Network and supports the Oracy All Party Parliamentary Group established in 2018. They act as secretariat for the group and supported the Speak for Change Inquiry.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Elklan: UK provider of training and accreditation for education staff working with children with speech, language and communication needs. Directly comparable as a training-led charity selling CPD programmes to schools on a fee-paying basis.
• Speech and Language UK: UK children's communication charity focused on speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN). Comparable mission around developing children's speaking and listening skills, with overlap on training programmes for schools and early-years settings.
• School 21: State school in East London that pioneered the oracy approach which seeded Voice 21. Co-founded by Peter Hyman (co-founder of Voice 21), it shares Voice 21's pedagogical DNA and serves as the original model for oracy curriculum design.
• Big Education: Multi-academy trust and education charity co-led by Peter Hyman. Houses School 21 and related oracy-focused initiatives; comparable as an education charity operating in the same oracy and school-improvement space with shared leadership.

Broad incumbents

• National Literacy Trust: Major UK literacy charity operating nationally with school partnerships, resources, and campaigns. Comparable in mission (raising status of communication skills in schools) and operational model (school memberships, programmes, research), though literacy-focused rather than oracy-specific.
• The Prince's Trust: Major UK youth-focused charity with programmes targeting young people's life chances and confidence. Comparable in supporting disadvantaged young people and advocating for their voice/agency, though delivered outside the formal school curriculum.
• Teach First: Large UK education charity working to address educational disadvantage through teacher training and leadership development. Comparable as a UK education charity serving schools with CPD and leadership programmes, with a broader teacher-development remit.

Emerging players

• Nuffield Early Language Intervention: Evidence-based early years language programme developed by the Nuffield Foundation. Comparable as a UK oral-language intervention for school-age children, focused on the early-years segment rather than whole-school oracy across primary and secondary.
• University of Cambridge Oracy Research Group: Academic research group at Cambridge focused on oracy in education. Voice 21's research partner since founding; comparable in producing evidence-based frameworks (Cambridge Oracy Assessment Framework) and influencing UK oracy practice.
• Achievement for All: UK education charity working with schools to improve outcomes for vulnerable learners, including those with SEND. Comparable as a school-facing charity selling improvement programmes on a paid basis, with overlap on disadvantaged pupil segments.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/voice21oracy
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/voice-21-uk

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles13 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Voice 21