Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to ensure the (a) availability and (b) adequacy of the health services provided to deafblind people.

NHS services must ensure that people with a sensory impairment receive information that they can access and understand, for example braille, and professional communication support, if they need it, to meet the Accessible Information Standard. The Care Quality Commission, when inspecting the quality of care delivered by providers looks at how services implement the Accessible Information Standard.

Under the Children and Families Act 2014, children and young people who are deafblind may be eligible for special educational support, and health, education and social care services should work together to assess and plan to deliver this. The Care Quality Commission is inspecting all local areas over five years to assess the quality of these local arrangements for special educational need (in addition to the routine inspection of providers of health and social care).