UK Council on Deafness

March 2007 Bulletin

In this Bulletin

• Deaf Awareness Week 7th - 13th May 2007
• Improving Access to Audiology Services in England
• NDCS Annual Conference 2007
• Disability equality: how will we know we are making progress?
• Staying Safe Commitment Scheme
• Working with deaf parents
• EURO-CIU SYMPOSIUM 2007

Deaf Awareness Week 7th - 13th May 2007

Deaf Awareness Week is a unique awareness campaign bringing together about 250 deaf charities and organisations. Lots of events are being organised by UK Council on Deafness member and affiliate organisations around the country during the week.

The publicity materials are now available to be downloaded from the website: www.Look-At-Me.org.uk

The posters ask people to "Look At Me" - emphasising the need to look at someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, so that that they can see your lips and facial expression. All the models are deaf or hard of hearing and the photography was organised by REMARK! a deaf production company.

To download them, go to the "Publicity Materials" section and you can click on the images for a PDF version. The leaflet focuses on interesting facts about deafness and gives examples of ways to be more accessible to deaf people and can be downloaded by clicking on the links provided.

If you are participating in Deaf Awareness Week you are welcome to use the Deaf Awareness Week logo on your own publicity material. If you would like a high resolution version sent to you please contact us.

Deaf Awareness Week offers excellent opportunities for people to publicise and create media interest in deaf issues. You can do this by organising events during the week involving the public and giving the events the maximum possible coverage by informing the media. Local newspapers, radio and television are particularly receptive to events taking place in their area.

Please let us know the details of your event so we can add them to the 2007 Events Diary on the website. For hints about gaining maximum publicity for your event, check out the "Publicity Tips" section on the website. Any local media enquires that we receive will be forwarded on to the appropriate organisation.

To find out more about Deaf Awareness Week or to have your event listed on the campaign website contact Clare Long at c.long@deafcouncil.org.uk

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Improving Access to Audiology Services in England

Published on 6th March 2007 sets out the Department of Health's plans to support the NHS in delivering audiology services. This Framework sets out how health reform levers can be brought to bear to improve quality, efficiency and access to audiology services. It also outlines the national work intended to support this.

Dr John Low, Chief Executive of RNID, says: "On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of people who are waiting for an NHS hearing aid, RNID welcomes the Department of Health action plan to bring all NHS hearing aid provision within the 18 week waiting time framework. Government has committed to do this by December 2008. We would prefer much earlier, but if implemented, this will be very good news for deaf and hard of hearing people whose lives can literally be transformed by timely high quality fitting of modern digital hearing aids.

"The commitment to purchase substantial additional capacity from the private sector is particularly welcome since the NHS will not be able to fit hearing aids to 300,000 extra people through productivity gains alone."

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NDCS Annual conference 2007

The theme of the NDCS annual conference on 27 June 2007 is "Creating resilient deaf children and resilient families - the role of family support". The conference is aimed at both specialist and mainstream professionals working with deaf children and their families across all disciplines - health, education and social care.

This one day conference aims to bring together mainstream resilience2 specialists with professionals who works with deaf children and their families. The day will explore what can be learnt on both sides to enable more effective support for parents of deaf children.

Confirmed speakers include: The leading authority on resilience in the UK: Professor Robbie Gilligan, Professor of Social Work and Social Policy and Associate Director (and co-founder) of the Children's Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin. Professor Alys Young, Professor of Social Work Education and Research, University of Manchester. Dr Tony Newman, Principal Research Officer, Barnados.

For further information contact the NDCS Events Team:

Tel: 0121 234 9820, Fax: 0121 233 9575, events@ndcs.org.uk

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Disability equality: how will we know we are making progress?

“The Office for Disability Issues is seeking the views of you and your stakeholders to help us in our work to deliver the government’s vision of equality for disabled people by 2025. We know that equality can mean very different things to different people and we know that disabled people are the experts on what is important to them in their lives. That is why we are launching a consultation to hear what disabled people think equality for disabled people should look like in 2025 and what they think are the most important areas of their lives that we should focus on when measuring progress.

This is an important opportunity for you to tell us about your views and experiences. The consultation runs from 14 February until 9 May 2007. We want to hear from as many disabled people as possible, as well as from people whose lives are affected by disability or long-standing illness.

The consultation paper is available in a range of formats from our website. We are also holding events in Cardiff on 19 March, Edinburgh on 27 March, London on 30 March and Manchester on 4 April.”

A report summarising responses will be published in Summer 2007.

Telephone: 020 7712 2548
Textphone: 020 7712 2332
disability.progress@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
www.officefordisability.gov.uk/consultations

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Staying Safe Commitment Scheme

A new initiative launched by the NSPCC. This scheme offers recognition and support to organisations taking steps to introduce safeguarding measures to protect children and young people from harm or abuse. The scheme is open to organisations within the voluntary, community and commercial sectors.

Safeguarding policies and practices are particularly crucial in organisations that are providing services or activities for disabled children and their families given that the available UK evidence on the extent of abuse amongst disabled children suggests that they are at increased risk of abuse, and that the presence of multiple disabilities appears to increase the risk of both abuse and neglect.

The Staying Safe Commitment Scheme aims to raise awareness and understanding of the need for safeguarding policies, procedures and practices which not only protect children and young people, but also reassure parents, gives confidence to staff and volunteers and strengthen an organisation’s reputation. More information about the scheme can be found at
www.nspcc.org.uk/commitmentscheme.

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Working with deaf parents

DPPI has launched two new publications for health professionals and education professionals working with deaf parents:

Working with deaf parents: a guide for midwives and other health professionals is a guide to help health care professionals from a range of settings work effectively with new deaf mothers and their partners. This guide gives health care professionals an idea of how to ensure services are accessible to deaf parents and parents-to-be. Additional information of specific relevance to midwives is also provided throughout this guide.

Working with deaf parents: a guide for education professionals provides a wealth of information to help teachers and support staff in education to work effectively with deaf parents and their children. From deaf awareness and the Disability Discrimination Act through to home-school communication and parents’ evenings, this publication offers guidance on how to ensure education services are accessible to deaf parents.

Many organisations have assisted in the production of the publications including CoDPUK, DPUK, Healthy Deaf Minds, RAD, RNID and Liverpool Women's Hospital. The cost price for professionals is £6 per booklet. They are free to deaf parents who wish to order them to use as individuals in their dealings with health and education professionals.

For further information contact Shanta Everington
DPPI, Unit F9, 89-93 Fonthill Road, London N4 3JH

Tel: 0800 018 4730
Text: 0800 018 9949
Shanta@dppi.org.uk

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EURO-CIU SYMPOSIUM 2007: Cochlear implantation: long-term issues - access and management

The National Cochlear Implant Users’ Association, the Cochlear Implanted Children’s Support group (CICS) and The Ear Foundation are jointly hosting the Biennial conference of the European Association of Cochlear Implant Users on Friday 20 April 2007 at the UK's National College for School Leadership in Nottingham.

The Symposium’s subject is to be “Cochlear implantation: long-term issues - access and management”, and will cover issues such as equity of access to cochlear implantation in different parts of the UK and Europe, access to bilateral cochlear implantation, and reliability of the cochlear implants.

The Programme includes many internationally-renowned speakers - such as Professor Quentin Summerfield, Professor Gerry O’Donoghue, Dr Lorraine Gailey, Sue Archbold and Liz Beadle from the UK; and Geoff Plant from the USA. This will be a truly international event with other speakers being Dr Volkmar Kratzsch (Germany), Dr Monika Lehnhardt (Germany), Ann-Charlotte Gyllenram, parent of a cochlear implant user (Sweden) and cochlear implant users Gilles Cognat (France) and Dr Ruud van Hardeveld (Netherlands). The conference language will be English, simultaneous translation will be available into German, French and Spanish. Palantype will be provided in English. British Sign Language will be available on request by Friday 6 April 2007.

Please send information for the next Bulletin, by 2 April 2007, to:
UK Council on Deafness, Westwood Park, London Road, Little Horkesley, Colchester, CO6 4BS. Email info@deafcouncil.org.uk

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