NDCS launch new campaign report, Right from the Start

The report celebrates 10 years of newborn hearing screening in England and calls on the Government, local authorities and health bodies to work together and make a commitment to ensure high quality support is in place as soon as a child is diagnosed as deaf.

It makes five broad recommendations:

• Action is taken to protect and invest in paediatric audiology services and support them to become accredited under the Improving Quality in Physiological diagnostic Services (IQIPS) programme.
• The Government and local authorities continue to protect funding for specialist education services for deaf children.
• Local authorities review the provision of support with communication available to families in their area to ensure that the varying needs of families can be met at any one time.
• Local authorities ensure that radio aids are more readily available to parents of deaf children so that they can support their child’s spoken language and communication development.
• The Government should take action to ensure there is sufficient and effective provision across all local authorities for specialist childcare provision for deaf children, and that mainstream staff receive the training and advice they need to effectively include deaf children. This should include action to support parents with transport costs and to improve the listening environments of childcare settings.

Download the Report (pdf)

Full details about the Campaign Report can be found on the NDCS website here.