Newborn hearing screening programme on See Hear

See Hear did a piece about the newborn hearing screening programme this week, which you can watch online using BBC i-player here.

Some compelling case studies from families in London showing why newborn hearing screening is so important. NDCS is continuing to campaign on this to make sure deaf babies around the UK don’t fall through the net.

More money for phonics… but what about deaf children?

On Monday, the Department for Children, Schools and Families announced £9m funding for teaching phonics in the classroom.

Phonics is something I’ve blogged on before. I have no beef with the whole concept of phonics but I still fail to see how a teaching method based on listening of sounds will work for severely and profoundly deaf children. It feels like such an obvious point but it is never reflected in government announcements like this. And there is still no guidance on alternatives to phonics for such children or how to modify the teaching of it for deaf children with a mild or moderate loss. What is a mainstream teacher with a deaf child in the classroom meant to do exactly?

For these reasons, we rushed out a press statement on this on Monday afternoon. NDCS is also, at its own cost, drafting guidance for teachers to fill this gap. I feel it should be the Government’s responsibility to do this but in the absence of any action, we have stepped up.

I have a feeling I’ll be banging on about phonics for a bit longer…

NICE guidance on cochlear implants finally published!

If you’ve been holding your breath waiting for the final NICE guidance on cochlear implants to be published… well, you can now exhale.

Despite a last minute attempt to derail the whole thing and months / years of deliberation, NICE’s final guidance was published this morning. This confirms what was said in the most recent draft – in very basic terms, that cochlear implants in one or both ears should be offered as an option to all profoundly deaf children who get no benefit from hearing aids.

Primary care trusts now have three months to get with it and we’ll be keeping an eye out for any stalling. It is the most expensive operation they provide so I imagine some people may be choking in their Bran Flakes this morning.

As someone who used to be resolutely opposed to cochlear implants when I was growing up, I feel quite strange for feeling pleased and relieved that this is finally out there. Cochlear implants are not for everyone – but for those who have carefully weighed up the pros and cons and been given impartial information, at least they can now pursue this option. NDCS research suggests that deaf young people who were implanted as a child are positive about the decision made on their behalf by their parents.

Of course, I wouldn’t be living up to my nickname of angry deaf man if I didn’t muse on how much money was spent by the South Central and the Yorkshire and the Humber specialised commissioning groups to hire a lawyer to delay and try and derail the whole thing – money that could be spent on providing a better service to deaf children and young people in their areas. If I was living in these areas, I’d be tempted to fire off a letter to these guys…

But otherwise… a good news day!

Telling the Government about acoustics and deaf children

Things are moving quickly in our campaign work around acoustics. Last week, NDCS did two things to hammer home to the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) that this is a big issue for us.

Firstly, we managed to get acoustics mentioned in a meeting by an influential bunch of MPs. The Children, Schools and Families Select Committee is a bunch of backbencher MPs whose job it is to scrutinise the work of DCSF and generally make a fuss when DCSF mess things up. Last Wednesday, the Committee was taking a look at how the Government is getting on with its pledge to build lots of new secondary schools (known as Building Schools for the Future) and had brought various experts and a DCSF Minister along to fire some questions at them.

We’ve spent the last few months meeting with various MPs on the Select Committee to talk about our campaign work. When we found out about this particular Select Committee meeting, we sent them a briefing note on our concerns – like the fact there’s no requirement to test a new school building for its acoustics after it’s been built or that Government standards on acoustics are less stringent about the requirements for open plan teaching spaces in classrooms. So we were really pleased when two MPs – John Heppell and Graham Stuart – flagged up our concerns and helped up put acoustics on the agenda.

Secondly, I mentioned before how DCSF are doing a limited review of the Government standard on acoustics. On Friday, we sent in our response to it, setting out our concerns in detail for the first time to the Government.

These are positive moves – but still just first steps only. Our next steps: 1) think about more ways in which to get people’s attention about acoustics and get it on the agenda and 2) meet with officials at DCSF to find out what their response to our asks on acoustics are. So keep watching this space.

You can read NDCS’s briefing to the Select Committee and our response to the review by going to NDCS’s news story on this. Great to have your thoughts and suggestions so let us know what you think.

Acoustics in schools: Building Bulletin 93

Sometimes campaigning is as simple as just asking…

For the past few months we’ve been thinking about a possible campaign on acoustics in schools, highlighting that deaf children need to be able to listen if they are able to learn in the classroom effectively. Just before Christmas we had a meeting with two professors in acoustics, which was very illuminating and incredibly helpful. In particular, they informed us about a limited and internal review underway on the standard for acoustics in newly built schools, known as Building Bulletin 93.

Given some of our emerging concerns about acoustics, we obviously didn’t want the review to pass by without having a chance to comment and an opportunity to raise some key questions. So we asked the Department for Children, Schools and Families if we could be involved on the panel.

Cynic, that I am, I expected that there would only be room on the panel for experts in acoustics and buildings. Instead, we got a very quick reply saying yes.

Wow. If only that happened all the time.

I’ve spent much of today drafting a reply to the review and I’ll be blogging soon about some of our specific concerns and our developing work on acoustics. Watch this space.

PS If you know of any examples of poor acoustics in schools, let us know and we’ll use it in our campaign work.

Deaf children and campaigns: review of 2008

Apologies for the delay in blogging again. I returned to work last week but was far too grumpy and cold to blog/think about anything apart from my warm duvet.

I also did a bit of reminiscing about 2008 and a year of campaigns at NDCS. My top three highlights were:

1) Getting our first campaign report Must do better on the educational underachievement of deaf children launched. 45 MPs came to the launch of the campaign report and 156 MPs (nearly one in four) signed early day motions supporting the campaign. It was the first time we had set out our campaign objectives on this subject and provides us with a strong basis to continue campaigning on this issue this year.

2) It was a horrible and technical issue but we got out teeth stuck into some work on accessible examinations and managed to get the Government to redraft some legislation in our favour. We’re now also members of a group working to make further improvements.

3) We also launched a campaign on the newborn hearing screening programme to address localised problems in the delivery of the programme, particularly in London. As a result, we’ve got a meeting with the Chief Executive of NHS London soon and we got ourselves on the telly, raising awareness of the issue.

The lowlight? An independent review on child and adolescent mental health services containing no reference to the needs of deaf children, and barely any reference to the needs of disabled children. This was despite concerted efforts by us to demonstrate that deaf children were at particular risk of developing mental health problems. We’ll be redoubling our efforts on this issue, this year.

Overall, I feel optimistic about the direction in which things are going. Although there are still times the Government will publish a report with zero or limited reference to the needs of disabled children, the needs of children with special educational needs are being referenced more and more. We now have a larger campaigns team at NDCS, freeing up some capacity. And there is a feeling that more and more people know who we are and what we want/need, with deaf children higher on the agenda.

Main priority in early 2009 though will be our planned campaign on acoustics. I’ll be blogging on our planning for this.

In the meantime, what were your highlights/lowlights for deaf children in 2008? And where should be go in 2009? Be great to hear your thoughts.