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  • Connect with others through events, workshops, campaigns and our NEW online forum, Your Community
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Protect and exercise your rights

Photo: Find out how you can help us protect the rights of deaf children and young people

Knowing what your rights are is crucial. Acting on this knowledge and making sure you exercise and protect these rights is also important.

Campaigns

Our policy and campaigns team monitor developments in the English and Scottish Parliaments and the Northern Ireland and Welsh Assemblies. The team raises issues affecting deaf children and their families with key decision-makers, and challenges those decision-makers to think about the impact new policies will have on deaf children.

We also run national and local campaigns to save or improve services for deaf children and their families.

If you’d like to help protect the rights of deaf children you can join our campaigns network. There are more than 10,000 members who receive regular updates on how to support our campaigns.

You don’t need lots of time or experience to get involved – there are lots of quick and easy ways to take part and we’ll provide easy-to-use resources to help you.

Children’s hearing services working groups (CHSWGs)

CHSWGs are a great way of using your experience as a parent of a deaf child to have a direct impact on hearing services in your local area.

CHSWGs are usually based in health authority areas, and bring together representatives from services supporting deaf children and their families to make sure that the different services are working well together and giving the best possible support. Each group should also have a parent representative.

Parent carer forums

A parent carer forum is a group of parents of disabled children who work with local authorities, nurseries, schools and colleges, health services and anyone else who provides support to children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to make sure the services they plan and deliver meet the needs of disabled children and their families. There are forums in most local authorities in England. 

Ofsted inspections

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) carry out ongoing inspections into how well local areas are meeting the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. 

To do this, they will speak to parents and young people in each area, before publishing a report on how good or bad they think the local support is.

This is an important opportunity to help improve support for your deaf child. Find out more about how to get involved in the inspections.

Local Offer

In England, all councils must produce a Local Offer giving details of local services that could be of benefit to children with special educational needs and disabilities, including deaf children.

Councils must allow people to submit comments or complaints about their Local Offer, and respond to these comments explaining what action they’re going to take.