Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve the information available on the quality of paediatric audiology services.

The Improving Quality in Physiological Services accreditation scheme has been established with the aim of improving service quality, care and safety for patients undergoing physiological diagnostics and treatment by promoting and recognising good quality practice in physiological services.

Information about those services which have achieved accreditation is publicly available on the United Kingdom Accreditation Service website and to date audiology services are making good progress towards accreditation.

Commissioning of accredited services is considered good practice and should be encouraged.

In March 2015, the Department and NHS England published the Action Plan on Hearing Loss.

A key action in the plan is the drafting of a Commissioning Framework. To ensure that issues concerning paediatric audiology are not neglected, the Commissioning Framework will include suggested care pathways and capture quality requirements which can be incorporated into the commissioning process. The framework will also include recommended Key Performance Indicators that can support commissioners to incorporate appropriate quality management in their contracts.