Is anyone listening? Children’s hearing services in England need a radical overhaul

Hearing loss is a common congenital anomaly and there is clear evidence of the benefits of early diagnosis and then treatment. For maximum positive impact, the diagnosis needs to be made as early as possible, ideally in the first months of life-this is the rationale for the national newborn hearing screening programme in the UK. When diagnosis and treatment do not occur early, the opportunity for the child to develop spoken language is slowly diminished over time with potentially devastating consequences.A national review into children's hearing services in England was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care when it became clear that many children were being failed by these services. The scale of the harm may never be fully understood, but well over 300 children had their hearing loss missed, with likely lifelong consequences. Hearing services were found to be highly varied and outcomes unacceptably variable, with poor assurance of quality at trust and integrated care board level. The audiology workforce has been neglected for years with little professional governance and no coherent workforce planning.The Kingdon review has made 12 recommendations to place hearing services for children on a surer footing, underpinning services with a clear approach to commissioning and suggesting a networked model of service delivery. A structured data-driven quality assurance approach to monitoring of service quality is recommended, as is a wholescale review of education and training of the audiology workforce.