Support for Children's Hearing Services Working Groups (CHSWGs)

If you’re responsible for running a CHSWG, we have information and resources to help you run the group and get local families and professionals involved.

How to involve parents, carers and deaf young people in CHSWGs

Having parents, carers and deaf young people involved in your CHSWG can bring huge benefits. They can share experiences, provide feedback on services and gather the views of other families.

Top tips for involving parents, carers, professionals and deaf young people

• Have clear terms of reference so reps know what they’re signing up for.
• Develop a shared purpose across services by agreeing joint aims.
• Check which dates and times work best for participants and send out meeting invites well in advance.
• Make sure that members are clear on who they are representing – whether they are representing themselves, local families or their service.
• Find out everyone’s communication needs before meetings.
• Make your meetings as accessible as possible by holding them online or allowing people to join face-to-face meetings remotely.
• When meeting in person, choose an accessible location with parking and public transport links.
• Involve professionals, parents, carers and young people in setting meeting agendas and make sure discussions are relevant to them.
• Avoid using jargon or share a glossary with reps before you meet.
• Be realistic when expecting parents, carers and deaf young people to take on tasks.
• Have clear action plans.
• Let reps know how their contributions have made an impact. 

Other ways of involving families

As well as attending meetings as reps, family members can also take part in other ways, such as completing surveys, contributing to action plans and taking part in sub-groups.

Moving On survey 

We developed the Moving On survey in 2022 to find out the views of deaf young people as they transitioned to adult services. 

The results of the survey captured key themes such as the impact of being the only deaf child in a setting, the importance of deaf awareness, the support needed at key transition points and lack of confidence in providing feedback.

Promoting your CHSWG

We have downloadable poster templates that you can use to promote your CHSWG: 

Template action plans and audit tool

Action plans encourage the development of shared aims and objectives, and are useful in monitoring progress and outcomes. They can also be used to report to commissioners on issues and blockers, and highlight gaps in CHSWG engagement. 

Service-specific action plan

CHSWGs can use a service-specific action plan to separate their actions across different services – for example, education and audiology.

Cross-cutting priorities action plan

CHSWGs can use this to plan actions across services relating to specific themes, such as early identification and parent engagement.

Strategic CHSWG action plan 

This can be used when services are working over a larger area. For example, if there are 4 local authorities and 2 health trusts, with local CHSWGs feeding into the strategic group. 

Audit tool

This can be used to assess how developed a CHSWG is and to agree action points for improvement.