Next year
Our plans for the future
Enriching lives | Challenging stigma | Valuing hearing | Working together
Enriching lives
Establish Hear to Help as the principal service for hearing aid support in the UK so that everyone who might benefit from assistive technologies has access to the information and services they need. Reach 18,000 people every year. In areas that our services aren't able to reach, we'll support other organisations in developing services based on our volunteer models.
Improve our information service to reach more people at the right time so they can make informed choices about their hearing loss or tinnitus.
Increase the number of people benefitting from equipment that can help with their hearing loss by extending the reach and effectiveness of the website shop and Solutions catalogue. Increase the number of web shop visitors by 25%, the distribution of Solutions to reach 200,000 people and add 25 new lines to our product range.
Through contracts with local authorities, carry out 1,400 community equipment assessments in England to ensure that people who are deaf or hard of hearing have access to quality equipment that meets their needs.
Improve communications for people who are deaf or hard of hearing by piloting speech recognition-based speech-to-text for use in meetings, lectures and other situations. This cheaper and more widely available alternative to existing services will enable people to communicate more easily with each other.
Provide first class communication support to people who use British Sign Language by delivering 18,000 assignments that aid communication for people who are deaf.
Extend our reach to deliver greater benefit to people who are deaf and do not use sign language, most of whom are unaware of how communication support can change their lives. Deliver 1,800 electronic and non sign-language interpreting assignments (for people with English as their first language), and work towards increasing the number of other organisations that can also deliver this service.
Lobby local authorities to commit to funding lipreading classes, with a target of at least four local authorities to commit in the year.
Working with the government, the telecommunication sector and the emergency services, establish a national 999 SMS service for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The lack of such a service potentially puts people who can't use a telephone at unacceptable risk.
Work with clients who are long-term unemployed or on Incapacity Benefit and maintain levels of support for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The target is for 1,000 clients to receive advice and guidance, 200 to access training and education, 180 to secure full-time or part-time employment, with seven out of 10 sustaining employment for at least three months.
Ensure that people who are deaf and have additional support needs are able to live as independently as possible by delivering a high-quality residential care service to 152 service users and supported living services to 71 service users.
Better understand the impact of technology on hearing loss through research into children wearing bilateral cochlear implants in the classroom and how this could improve future outcomes for children.
Produce new research to develop a service, working with other organisations where appropriate, to support young people who are deaf or hard of hearing to be successful and confident in life. Review the model developed in Wales for young people's services as part of the process to assess its suitability nationally. Develop proposals about using the internet to deliver new service models.
Challenging stigma
Campaign for an NHS hearing screening programme for everyone who could benefit. Provide evidence of barriers to people getting their hearing checked and recommendations for reform. Achieve five national media features on this issue. Produce definitive research to demonstrate the economic benefits of hearing screening.
Campaign to reduce the stigma attached to testing hearing, which discourages
people from taking action over possible hearing loss, by demonstrating
the benefits of hearing aids and highlighting the social costs of hearing
loss as well as the benefits of hearing health and rehabilitation.
Ensure that people who are hard of hearing can access public services
and business by securing better access through loop systems. Deliver two
major relationships with service providers covering 20,000 outlets.
Encourage people to take early action about their hearing loss with a target of 180,000 people taking our telephone check and 400,000 taking the internet check.
Campaign for accessible audiology services in local communities, reducing the need for people to travel long distances to access such services.
Ensure that equalities legislation fully protects and promotes the rights and aspirations of people who are deaf or hard of hearing by lobbying the government on the Equalities Bill.
Ensure that people have access to the latest treatments for hearing loss including making sure there is fair access to cochlear implants.
Enable people with hearing loss to live more freely and independently by making public services and transport more accessible. Target public services and transport services to take up our Louder than Words charter, and deaf awareness and sign language training – with a goal of 5,000 people receiving this training.
Valuing hearing
Improve public understanding of medical research into hearing loss through a national conference for our supporters and members showcasing our significant achievements over the past 10 years.
Attract talented new scientists into hearing research, building future capacity, by doubling the intake of PhD students. Launch a new funding scheme to enable undergraduates to gain experience of hearing research during their summer holidays.
Invest £750,000 in supporting cutting-edge research to improve, protect and restore hearing, and launch a major new drug-discovery initiative to reduce acquired hearing loss.
Develop our Don't Lose the Music campaign to a wider audience to raise music-lovers' awareness of hearing health. Introduce noise-limiting software for MP3 players, run 12 'noise squad' events across the UK, encourage 2,000 face to face pledges to change behaviour, and achieve eight pieces of major national media coverage.
Working together
Increase our capacity to serve and support people at local level by developing a volunteer-based service involving 525 volunteers. Establish 78 links to other groups and 24 new projects to involve volunteers.
Ensure we have a culture and approach that supports and values people, improves and shares knowledge management and fosters effective ways of working with other organisations.
Develop our membership scheme to support people to live the lives they want, stay connected to others and support RNID activities if they choose.
Develop relationships with local statutory bodies, charities and others to work together to improve the lives of people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
