Norfolk charity says staff shortages mean deaf children are left behind
The National Deaf Children’s Society is warning that deaf children across the UK now face an "educational emergency"
A Norfolk charity which supports those with hearing loss say a lack of specialist support staff means deaf children are being left behind.
The National Deaf Children’s Society is warning that deaf children across the UK now face an "educational emergency"- owing to a lack of staff.
It's after a national report published by the Consortium for Research into Deaf Education (CRIDE), shows that one in five qualified Teachers of the Deaf posts in England have been lost since 2012, with nearly four in 10 local authorities seeing a decrease in the number of Teachers of the Deaf over the past year.
The charity’s grim prediction is that by 2030 their numbers will have plummeted by a third (32%) when compared to 2012, should the downward trend continue.
The drop in numbers comes against a backdrop of more than a quarter of services finding it challenging to recruit new teachers of the deaf to permanent or supply posts, often because of a lack of qualified applicants.
"The issue is around funding, around career prospects"
Anna Pugh is the manager of West Norfolk Deaf Association:
"Deaf children are far behind their peers in literacy and numeracy and that impacts on their life-skills and their career prospects.
"The earlier you can get any child to have some language and communication development skills, the better.
"If we have fewer access to support then those children get more and more behind and get neglected. That has an impact on somebody's whole life, not just on their first 5 or 15 years.
"From talking to teachers I think the issue is around funding, around career prospects and around all of those consequences that come from cutbacks. I think there has been a lack of investment in education, particularly for deaf children".