Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to increase the availability of auditory verbal therapy for deaf children.

Audiology services are locally commissioned, and responsibility for meeting the needs of non-hearing children lies with local National Health Service commissioners. Commissioning Services for People with Hearing Loss: A Framework for Clinical Commissioning Groups, was published in July 2016. This framework supports clinical commissioning groups, and now integrated care boards, to make informed decisions about what good value for the populations they serve would be, and to provide more consistent, high quality, integrated care. It also addresses inequalities in access and outcomes between hearing services. Additionally, in 2019, NHS England, with input from the National Deaf Children’s Society, produced a guide for commissioners and providers who support children and young people with hearing loss.

NHS England met with Auditory Verbal UK (AVUK) last year and discussed the need for more high-level research evidence for intervention, and to develop evaluations of impact. AVUK were also invited to join the Chief Scientific Officer’s Audiology stakeholder group. The Government is committed to improving outcomes and experiences for all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, including children with hearing loss, and we recognise the need to improve access to therapies generally. Since September 2020, all eligible nursing, midwifery, and allied health profession students have received a non-repayable training grant of a minimum of £5,000 per academic year.