Members' Business — S6M-08219 Jeremy Balfour: Ensuring that Lothian Late-diagnosed Deaf Children Get the Support That They Need

That the Parliament notes the belief that every child affected by the failings identified in the 2021 audit of NHS Lothian’s paediatric audiology service, carried out by the British Academy of Audiology (BAA), must get the support that they need to thrive and to overcome any additional barriers that they face due to the failings identified in the report; understands that the audit did not include children seen later than 2018, which, it considers, means that there were further years until any failings were addressed by an action plan, and that there may be many more children who were not diagnosed in a timely manner; recognises that the key stages for fluent first language development are birth to three years old; understands that the BAA report found that the average age of identification of deafness was 4.5 years for children in the NHS Lothian area, which, it understands, is far longer than comparable figures in the rest of the UK; considers that the failings identified in NHS Lothian’s paediatric audiology service will mean that many of the affected children were diagnosed after this critical period and are therefore likely to experience a significant adverse impact on their language and communications development, potentially leaving such children with more complex needs that may need to be addressed though co-ordinated support from health, education, social work and other agencies; understands that the families of affected children have come together to form Families Failed by Lothian Audiology Action Group (FLAAG); further understands that the parents involved in FLAAG have identified a number of areas where their children are not getting the support that they need; understands that the families involved in FLAAG report that they have experienced a lack of access to BSL tutors, speech and language therapy and appropriately qualified professionals to support their deaf children and help remediate any damage caused by the failures of the audiology service, and notes the calls on all public and voluntary sector bodies that are supporting the late-diagnosed deaf children in the Lothians and beyond to work together to ensure that they always get the support that they need.