Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of training for people performing (a) newborn hearing tests and (b) audiology testing in children.

Newborn Hearing Screening in England for babies before the age of 12 weeks is part of the nationally approved commissioned screening services. The services are monitored by the Screening Quality Assurance Service (SQAS) to ensure they meet national standards. The SQAS undertakes a continuous improvement cycle of pathway reviews and onsite quality assurance visits to identify areas for improvement across antenatal and newborn screening programmes where a concern is identified, involving appropriate professional clinical advisors from each screening discipline to support the process. Continuous performance data monitoring of services and representation at screening governance boards by the SQAS and commissioners supports this process and there is ongoing targeted work with services identified as needing improvements.

There are no nationally approved screening hearing services for children over 12 weeks of age.

For clinical referrals, integrated care board commissioners are responsible for ensuring NHS Audiology services meet the needs of patients and that they are delivered to the appropriate quality.

My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, commissioned the recently published, independent Kingdon review of children’s hearing services in England. Twelve recommendations were made, including focus on commissioning, governance, data and training amongst others. No assessment has yet been made of the potential implications on policies for the recommendations. We are progressing an early analysis of implementation requirements for the recommendations, including resource.

Staff working in newborn hearing screening services are required to achieve the training standards set out in national guidance, and regional commissioners work with services to assure compliance with both minimum staffing levels and training requirements.

Audiologist training is supported via pathways including the Scientist Training Programme and Higher Specialist Scientific Training programmes. NHS England has undertaken a skills survey across services to assess current capacity and training needs. Support has been put in place for training to ensure practitioners meet nationally agreed standards. This work will provide targeted support to strengthen delivery, and ensure safe, consistent care for children and families.