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Listen Up!

Each year we monitor children’s audiology services so we know what support is available and how it’s changing across England.  

Our latest report reveals that children’s hearing services in England are stretched, with long waiting times and staff shortages. We know many audiology departments are working hard to tackle these challenges, but they can’t fix all the problems alone. 

What's happening in children's audiology services? 

In spring 2022, we sent Freedom of Information requests to 124 NHS Trusts that provide children's audiology services in England. 

The main themes from their responses were:  

  • long waiting lists 
  • staffing issues 
  • increasing demands on services
  • barriers to gaining Improving Quality in Physiological Services (IQIPs) accreditation
  • other resource or funding issues.  

Despite this, many services provided evidence that they are working hard to tackle these challenges and maintain quality. Some are even managing to innovate and commit to service improvement in a difficult environment. 

Despite this, many services provided evidence that they are working hard to tackle these challenges and maintain quality. Some are even managing to innovate and commit to service improvement in a difficult environment.

What are we calling for? 

High quality audiology services are essential to identify deaf children and support them to live a rich and fulfilling life. We believe every deaf child in England should have access to high-quality audiology services, no matter where they live.   

Urgent action is needed to address the issues in children’s audiology services. We’re calling on NHS England to:

  1. Create a new Specialist Advisor for Audiology to provide clear national leadership. Currently it is unclear who has oversight for Paediatric Audiology within England. The new role would provide clinical leadership; develop systems for collecting data and a programme of quality assurance and accountability.
  2. Mandate a national system of quality standards for children’s audiology services. These would make it clear ‘what good looks like’ in children’s audiology. NHS England should mandate the paediatric audiology quality standards published by the British Academy of Audiology and ensure that all services are meeting these standards. 
  3. Publish meaningful data from children’s audiology services to allow for national oversight and comparison of the performance of different services.

Download the reports

You can download a full copy of our latest ‘Listen Up’ report on children’s hearing services in England, as well as a summary briefing and reports from previous years.

Listen Up 2022
Listen Up 2019
Listen Up 2018
Listen Up 2014

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic we did not request information from NHS Trusts in 2020.

If you have any questions about our ‘Listen Up’ report, you can contact us at [email protected].