Specialist Teacher Advisory Service - Hearing

* We provide information and support and liaise with parents and carers so they can make on-going informed choices. *We advise on communication modes and provide training when parents and carers, children and young people use sign. *We provide training for staff in educational settings on hearing and multi-sensory impairment, its impact on access to the curriculum and associated social and emotional needs. *We sign post parents and carers and staff in educational settings to other useful agencies and contacts. *We contribute to the assessment, monitoring and reporting of needs, both formally and informally with particular reference to language development, social development, independence and self-esteem. *We provide advice to educational settings on target setting and record keeping. *We attend annual reviews and other multi-agency planning meetings. *We liaise with a range of other professionals in health and education and with voluntary agencies. *We represent the needs of children and young people to other officers in the Local Authority and help children or young people express their views. *We supply personal assistive listening devices to support the child or young person within the educational setting and provide training on the use and maintenance. *We advise on listening environments and physical adaptations to schools to meet the needs of children and young people. *We observe children and young people within their settings and provide feedback for staff.

We work with children and young people who are deaf/hearing impaired and support them from diagnosis, which can be very soon after birth, through to college. The child or young person must have a hearing loss averaging 21 dBHL in the better ear or a unilateral loss averaging at least 40 dBHL in the affected ear. We accept referrals for sensori-neural hearing losses and also permanent or persistent conductive losses. We do not accept referrals for children and young people with auditory processing difficulties

OurWe take referrals from hospital audiology and ENT departments, from the Local Authority SEN Team and from other local authority services for hearing impairment, where there has been a clear diagnosis of hearing loss which meets our criteria for referral. There are no charges for pre-schools, maintained schools, academies, free schools or colleges. There is no need to use a personal budget for this service; it will not add anything to what is already provided, unless it is used to pay for training in situations where costs are presented to schools. For babies diagnosed through the Newborn Screening Programme response times are in accordance with NHSP quality standards guidance. For older children and young people, once it has been agreed that the child or young person meets criteria for support an initial visit is arranged within six weeks, excluding school holidays.

We are based in Winchester, Basingstoke and Havant. We cover the whole of the Local Authority. Services on offer are the same across the area.

These decisions are made using our criteria for referral. There may also be discussions with professionals in health and education who work with the child or young person. We will either write to or speak with parents to explain the outcome of initial referrals and when children or young people who have previously received input no longer meet criteria for support.

We communicate directly with service users during visits to homes and educational settings. We also conduct a bi-annual survey seeking the views of schools on the impact of our service. Representatives from parent support groups attend the Sensory County Advisory Group. We also communicate with service users through the Children's Hearing Services Working Groups. Meetings of these multi-agency groups are convened by each hospital audiology department and have representatives from health education social care and voluntary agencies and parents and carers. We have many specialist leaflets on hearing loss, the educational implications and access to the curriculum. Service users are encouraged to ask the teacher adviser working with their child or young person or in their educational setting for any appropriate leaflets You will know how well your child is doing though the provision of written reports from and conversations with our service and also the usual reporting arrangements used by the educational setting. We do not currently offer any specific parent training or learning events. However home visits for young children give parents significant opportunity to access any information they require. Parents can attend training provided to educational settings, where appropriate and in agreement with the setting. The service supports families, children and young people who wish to use British Sign Language or Sign Supported English.

It is unusual for service users to have to attend our local offices, as our service is delivered within the home or educational setting. However all three offices are fully accessible.

Our Team is made up of Teachers of the Deaf with the mandatory qualification in audiology and education of the deaf and at least level 1 in British Sign Language. We also have a Teacher of the Deaf who has an additional qualification in multi-sensory impairment and a Teacher of the Deaf with an additional qualification in educational audiology. There are also Early Years Deaf Instructors who are British Sign Language first language users. We are committed to supporting on-going professional development for all the Team.

We work in accordance with the Local Authority’s safeguarding policy and procedures.

We would advise parents and carers of children and young people who are in educational settings to contact the setting initially for more information. Parents and carers of young children who are not yet in an educational setting should contact us directly. You can speak to any Specialist Teacher Advisor, Hearing Impairment in your nearest local office for initial information or advice. You may then be directed to a particular Teacher Advisor working within your geographical area who will have specific local knowledge.