Care Quality Commission letter about Paediatric Audiology Services

The independent regulator of health and social care in England

Dear colleague,

Re: Paediatric audiology services

As you may be aware, an expert review undertaken by NHS Lothian in Scotland found failings in the standard of paediatric audiology services that resulted in delayed identification and missed treatment of children with hearing loss. This resulted in permanent, avoidable deafness for some children.

These findings led to a review of the service provided by 4 NHS trusts in England which found similar failing. A Paediatric Hearing Services Improvement Programme has been established by NHS England to support providers and integrated care boards (ICBs) to improve the quality of these services. The programme is undertaking work to understand the scale of the problem and the number of children who have been affected, and to develop the strategic tools and interventions to support sustainable improvements.

Childhood deafness is a significant health and developmental risk. A National Deaf Children’s Society survey in 2023 showed that:

527,898 children are known to the hearing services.
In 2022 there were an estimated 8,405 children not supported by a hearing service.
Ninety-four percent of children referred to ear nose and throat (ENT) services were missing the six-week initial appointment target, with an average waiting time of 141 days.
More than half of respondents (52%) reported that their trusts were missing the 126-day target for grommets surgery. This was a rise of 23% since 2019. The average waiting time was now 178 days, with a maximum wait of 540 days.
Most paediatric audiology services (79%) did not offer wax removal, and most of them referred children to ear nose and throat (ENT) services for this, leading to lengthy delays.
Thirty-nine percent of services failed to meet the 42-day waiting list target for an initial hearing assessment for babies and children who were not referred via newborn hearing screening.
Only 26 services (23%) reported that they were currently accredited by Improving Quality in Physiological Services (IQIPs).
The main themes identified by providers in the same survey were long waiting lists, staffing issues, increasing demands on services, barriers to gaining Improving Quality in Physiological Services (IQIPs) accreditation and other resource or funding issues.

The total number of children with permanent deafness reported to be on services’ caseloads has decreased by more than 7% since 2019. The incidence of permanent deafness generally remains stable, so this may suggest that some children have not yet been identified.

CQC are working closely with NHS England to help understand the current situation across the country regarding the level of assurance boards have about the quality of hearing services for children that they commission or provide.

The UKAS IQIPS (Improving quality in physiological services) is the only recognised accreditation standard for physiological science services inclusive of audiology services. Whilst accreditation cannot be mandated by CQC, we strongly encourage participation in UKAS diagnostic accreditation schemes, including IQIPS. Participation and performance in such schemes are evidence of good practice that is used to inform CQC’s judgements about the safety and quality of care. ICB’s should ensure there are plans in place so that trusts can implement, achieve, and maintain accreditation using the available tools, and that there is oversight of quality management systems.

Services that are not IQIPs accredited should formally register this as a quality risk in their quality reporting system.

Please can I ask that at the next full board meeting, the board considers the assurance that they have about the safety, quality, and accessibility of your children’s hearing services. Following that consideration, the board should submit a report to CQC that makes clear:

Whether you have achieved IQUIPS accreditation, including whether there were any improvement recommendations made.
Whether you are working towards IQIPS accreditation.
What stage that work has reached and the assurance the board has about paediatric audiology, using the IQIPS standards as a guide for the areas to tell us about.
The expected timeline for gaining accreditation.
The number and severity of incidents where a child has suffered detriment due to delayed or missed diagnosis or treatment or not received timely follow up care and support.
NHS England have asked that where services that are not UKAS IQIPS accredited, heads of services should provide an external evidence-based assessment of their provision. If your services are not UKAS IQIPS accredited, we would like you to include a copy of that assessment report when responding to this letter.

Boards may be aware that UKAS have a benchmarking tool for provider of audiology services considering accreditation to help them understand what stage they are at and where the focus of work may need to be. Please can you supply a copy of the completed tool if you have used it.

We are keen to understand the progress made towards accreditation and how the service across the county is improving over time. We would therefore ask that further to your initial report to CQC (as outlined above), an additional review of assurance is conducted at a subsequent board meeting and a further follow up report on progress is provided to us.

The intent of this letter is information gathering and to gain a picture of service provision and the speed with which improvements are being made across the country. We are wanting to collaborate with other stakeholders to do our part in bringing about improvements in the care and treatment of this cohort of children.

Information returns from providers will be shared with operational colleagues to add to the wider information held about providers. It may be used to assist in the determination of risk levels within services for children and young people, but at this point it is not the intent to undertake stand-alone site visits based on what we are told about the service in your trust. That does not mean we will not conduct a thematic review or bespoke assessment process in the future, but rather to reiterate that we want to focus on getting a clear picture about what is happening at provider level now.

For clarity, we require consideration by the full board at the next meeting. An initial response should be sent to CQC no later than 30 June 2024. A subsequent response should follow after the next full board meeting. If there is any reason this cannot be achieved, please do come back to us with the reasons and when you consider you might be able to tell us about your service.

Please send your responses to Terri Salt, the lead senior specialist for this work, by email to terri.salt@cqc.org.uk. Terri can also be contacted if you have any questions or queries about this letter.

Yours sincerely,

Prem Premachandran MBE
Medical Director
Care Quality Commission