Family officers

Our team of family officers are based across the UK. Their role is to empower and support families to make informed choices. They can provide information, support and advice to families covering a wide range of topics and issues to do with deafness.

You may come across a family officer in a variety of settings including at meetings, events, schools, your local deaf children’s society activities and also at audiology departments.

Family officers will:

• contact you within three working days of your initial enquiry to NDCS;
• help you to find as much information as possible about your concern;
• do what they can to make sure that your voice is heard and that you are given the opportunity to share your views;
• help to explain your views to other people who may be working with your family when you are finding this difficult yourself;
• help you to understand things that you’ve been told or given about your child’s deafness;
• talk to you about local services;
• highlight useful information in our publications to use when discussing your child’s needs with other professionals;
• keep in regular contact with you while you are both working together;
• contact you using an interpreter in your preferred language, if English is not your first language.

Depending on your needs, your family officer may: 

• attend meetings with you;
• write letters, fill in forms or make telephone calls if you are unable to do this yourself;
• visit you at home.
  

Family officers will not: 

• make choices for you or try to influence your decisions in any way;
• write letters, fill in forms or make telephone calls if you are able to do this yourself;
• write their own report or make their own assessment of your child’s needs.
  

To be able to provide you with the best possible support, you will need to tell your family officer about:

• any deadlines as soon as you know the dates;
• any urgent letters and paperwork as soon as you receive them;
• the kind of support you want for your family;
• any other professionals who are helping you with the same issue.

To find out more about our family officers, including information about our child protection obligations and quality monitoring, please download this leaflet: 

• The role of an NDCS family officer (332 kb)

For further enquiries please contact our Freephone Helpline on 0808 800 8880 (voice/text) or email helpline@ndcs.org.uk