- Aim: Drive the Department of Health (DH) action plan to ensure the standard 18-week waiting time target from referral to assessment for a hearing aid is met and consistent with RNID’s vision for a locally accessible service.
- Impact: DH has introduced a six-week target from referral to assessment for a hearing aid and through our campaigning and lobbying work, the average time people have to wait for an assessment has fallen dramatically with most areas meeting the six-week target.
However, this still leaves many people waiting to have their hearing aid fitted. An 18-week target from referral to fitting is due to be in place for December 2008 and we continue to work to ensure quality of the service is maintained and that the 18-week target is met.
- Aim: Lobby the government to support and fund the Access to Communication in English (ACE) report’s key recommendations by March 2008 to increase the number and quality of language service professionals (LSPs).
- Impact: We have continued to work with the ACE coalition to push the government towards improved access to and availability of LSPs. Further progress is dependent on accessing sustainable funding streams.
- Aim: The above aim and impact is available in BSL
- Impact: You should be seeing a video here instead of this text. Please visit the Macromedia site to get the Flash Video Player.
- Aim: Secure funding in Northern Ireland for British Sign Language (BSL) and Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpreter and tutor training courses from the Department of Employment and Learning by December 2007.
- Impact: Funding was secured for an introductory training course to run from January to December 2008. Further funding of £1.3m has been secured to develop longer term training courses in interpreting and tutor training from March 2009 to March 2012 under Department of Employment and Learning Spending Plans. £250,000 has been secured for promotion of the languages and access to public services for sign language users under the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure.
- Aim: The above aim and impact is available in BSL
- Impact: You should be seeing a video here instead of this text. Please visit the Macromedia site to get the Flash Video Player.
- Aim: Successfully integrate the Early Years Support Programme into the new National Children's Centre’s Programme with 75% of local authorities in England using the early support framework by March 2008.
- Impact: We secured £980,000 to facilitate smooth transition to the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme. The programme is now integrated as the standard approach for early years across local authority programmes throughout the country. It is also being looked at as a model for other early years services in other countries.
- Aim: Publish guidance on early years services covering all aspects of deafness and hearing loss.
- Impact: Guidance has been delayed due to major changes in early years framework and will now be published later this year once changes have been accounted for.
- Aim: Ensure new research undertaken and service plan developed in partnership with the Scottish Government to address the gaps in mental health service provision for deaf people in Scotland.
- Impact: We have secured funding from the Scottish Government, established a multi-agency steering group and appointed researchers to develop the basis for this new service. Its launch has been delayed by the need to secure approval from the Government’s Ethics and Research and Development Committees.
- Aim: Lever radical change in statutory community equipment services by securing funding to develop new models of service delivery to be copied nationally.
- Impact: As part of a government working group, we supported the development and piloting of a new way of delivering community equipment services through retail. We provided the specifications for the sensory products which have now been included in the National Product Catalogue, from which local authorities select appropriate products to meet the needs of their client groups.
Hearing aids
Joan Graham called RNID's telephone hearing check and got a pair of digital hearing aids, which she says "have given me my life back".
Until her retirement in 2003, Joan worked in a factory. Although she didn't realise it at the time, her hearing caused problems at work.
"People had to speak slowly and clearly for me to hear, and they had to face me. It made me feel embarrassed. I became shyer as a result."
Joan's hearing loss also affected important social occasions. "My great niece's christening was a bit of an ordeal. I couldn't hear what the vicar was saying when he was naming Chantelle. I felt left out.
"I definitely wouldn't have done anything about my hearing if it hadn't been for RNID's telephone hearing check. I used to say people don't speak clearly enough but it wasn't that, it was my hearing."
Now she has hearing aids, Joan says: "I'm more confident now, I don't mind being around strangers because I can hear what they're saying. Hearing aids have given me my life back, and my independence as well."
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information leaflets about tinnitus were distributed.