Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the (a) outcomes achieved by deaf children who have been supported to learn to listen and speak with Auditory Verbal therapy delivered by a certified Auditory Verbal therapist working in public services and (b) potential merits of increasing the number of such therapists.

These specific assessments have not been made. Audiology services are locally commissioned and the responsibility for meeting the needs of non-hearing children lies with local National Health Service commissioners.

In July 2016, NHS England published Commissioning Services for People with Hearing Loss: A Framework for Clinical Commissioning Groups, which supports integrated care boards to make informed decisions about what is good value for the populations they serve 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 higher-level research evidence for the intervention and to develop evaluations of impact. AVUK was also invited to join the Chief Scientific Officer’s audiology stakeholder group.