Memorandum submitted by the National Deaf
Children's Society
1. SUMMARY
1.1 Deaf children and their families do
not have access to appropriate social care support due to the
lack of training, knowledge and experience in social workers and
a shortfall in professionals with a specialism in working with
deaf children. All social workers need training on how to meet
the needs of deaf children and their families. There are government
standards for social workers working with deaf children and urgent
steps must be taken at a local and national level to ensure that
they are met.
2. INTRODUCTION
2.1 The National Deaf Children's Society
(NDCS) is the national charity dedicated to creating a world without
barriers for deaf children and young people. We represent the
interests and campaign for the rights of all deaf children and
young people from birth until they reach independence. There are
over 35,000 deaf children in the UK and three more are born every
day.
2.2 NDCS welcomes the opportunity to submit evidence
to the Inquiry into the Training of Children and Family Social
Workers. Throughout this submission, we highlight the need to
prioritise the social care needs of deaf children. The following
sections outline the reasons for a specific focus on appropriate
training for all social workers in the assessment of deaf children
and their families in order to meet these needs.
2.3 Deafness fundamentally interferes with
the usual processes of language acquisition and personal and social
development. Effects are varied depending on the individual child,
their family circumstances and the nature of the deafness. However,
it is well evidenced[20]
that deaf children are more likely to experience mental health
problems and are more vulnerable to abuse than hearing children.[21]
3. KEY CONCERNS
3.1 NDCS is concerned that there is limited
knowledge and experience among professionals in working and communicating
with deaf children. For example, if a social worker is unable
to communicate with the deaf child and involve them in the assessment,
it will be difficult to assess whether the child's social and
emotional needs are being met. Furthermore, an untrained inexperienced
social worker may not fully appreciate the extent of neglect and
emotional abuse of a deaf child whose non-communicativeness may
be attributed to their deafness. Without the correct knowledge
and experience social workers will not have the ability to conduct
assessments for deaf children, including the Common Assessment
Framework and the Assessment Framework for core assessments.
3.2 NDCS believes that social care issues surrounding
children with disabilities have been neglected. This is evidenced
by three reports:
(a) The government report Mental health and
deafness: Towards Equity and Access (2005) recognised the
particular vulnerability of deaf children to abuse and recommended
that Area Child Protection Committees (now Local Safeguarding
Children's Boards or LSCBs) review their child protection arrangements
for deaf children. NDCS is concerned that few have done so.
(b) The NHS Quality Audit of the Newborn Hearing
Screening Programme 2006-08[22]
has highlighted the lack of social care involvement in the multi-agency
work to support deaf children.
(c) Research commissioned by NDCS from the University
of Manchester[23]
which looked at the impact of the reorganisation of children's
services on social care for deaf children, found that in many
cases the social care needs of deaf children have fallen off the
radar of key social care decision makers. The report states, "The
lack of appropriate deaf children and family knowledge and skills
was expressed as a recurring issue by all Sites".
3.3 The University of Manchester research
also reported that this lack of appropriate skills and knowledge
commonly led to two errors:
"Firstly the deafness was `seen' as the
presenting problem and explanation for other issues and secondly,
significant difficulties that might need social work intervention
were `not seen' because people were too focused on the child's
deafness as the main problem. These errors were recognised as
potentially occurring both amongst other professional groups working
with deaf children and families and amongst social workers who
did not have deaf related skills/experience."
3.4 The research also showed that despite
being a key developmental risk factor, deafness itself rarely
triggers a social care intervention in response to a referral
unless there is evidence of immediate critical harm. Fundamental
preventative work associated with safeguarding is not routinely
carried out. Neither disabled children's teams nor child protection
teams are equipped with the knowledge, skills or experience to
appropriately respond to referrals concerning deaf children. This
is symptomatic of a lack of specialists available to support deaf
children and their families once the need for a social care intervention
has been identified. This includes specialist social workers for
deaf children, interpreters, communication support workers and
intermediaries.
3.5 In a number of local authorities support
for deaf children and their families is provided by specialist
sensory support teams located in adult social services. Members
of those teams may not have up to date training in child development
and child protection.
4. RECOMMENDATIONS
4.1 The Government should assess whether
there are sufficient numbers of specialist social care staff trained
to work with deaf children; and take appropriate action to address
any recruitment shortfall.
4.2 There should be appropriate training for
all social workers in the assessment of deaf children and their
families and meeting their social care needs. Communication is
a key issue on all levels. If every social work training course
included awareness of issues in communicating with deaf and disabled
children it would heighten awareness that when working with deaf
children there are additional factors which must be taken into
account, for example, extra time must be allocated for direct
work.
4.3 The Children's Workforce Development
Council has drawn National Occupational Standards for social workers
working with children with a sensory impairment[24]
a key principle of these standards is:
"It is vital that those working in the field
of hearing impairment, Deaf issues and the cultural communication
needs of children, young people and adults have the necessary
and appropriate skills to communicate effectively with people
who may use a range of communication tools/ techniques or methods.
This standard relates to those working with people who are Deaf
or hard of hearing and all communication must be appropriate to
their needs. It is also important that workers recognise the need
for specialist communication skills and the risk of miscommunication."
These standards also set out performance criteria
to meet the various elements within them. All local authorities
should ensure that social workers working with deaf children have
suitable training courses and professional development opportunities
to meet these criteria.
4.4 Where support for deaf children and their
families is provided by specialist sensory support teams within
adult social services, training should be provided to ensure the
social workers have up to date knowledge on child protection and
working with children.
May 2009
20 http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4103995 Back
21
ADSS, BDA, LGA. NCB, NDCS & RNID (2002): Deaf Children:
Positive Practice Standards in Social Services and NSPCC (2003):
It Doesn't Happen to Disabled Children both cite reliable
studies from the USA which indicate that deaf and disabled children
are two to three times more likely to suffer physical, sexual
or emotional abuse, or to experience neglect (eg Sullivan P M,
Brookhouser P, Scanlan J (2000) Maltreatment of deaf and hard
of hearing children in: P Hindley, N Kitson (Eds) Mental Health
and Deafness (pp 149-184), London: Whurr). Back
22
http://hearing.screening.nhs.uk/QA_Reports Back
23
http://www.ndcs.org.uk/document.rm?id=3501 Back
24
http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/nos/sensory-services Back
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