Bi-borough Hearing Support Team

The Bi-borough Hearing Support Team offers specialist support to children and young people (aged 0-25) who or deaf or have some degree of hearing loss.

The team consists of Qualified Teachers of the Deaf (QToD) who have first qualified as teachers and then taken extra training in providing quality teaching to mainstream learners with hearing loss.

What do the Qualified Teachers of the Deaf do?

Qualified Teachers of the Deaf will:

• conduct specialist assessments and interpretation of results
• provide advice and guidance
• teach directly in groups or one-to-one using an enriched language input
• work in partnership with parents/carers and other professionals to ensure holisitic support for the deaf learner and wider family
• carry out continuing professional development
• fit and maintain specialist hearing equipment (e.g hearing aids, cochlear implants, assistive listening devices or Soundfield Systems)

Please download this information booklet for more information on what the Hearing Support Team can offer you. 

Eligibility

The service supports all children and young people with hearing loss from birth to 25 years. The C&YP should live within the boroughs of Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBKC) or Westminster if pre-school age and/or attend a school or nursery within the borough. This includes mainstream schools, academies, free schools, independent schools and private schools.

The service is free to all children and young people with hearing loss in Bi-borough maintained schools, to all children under 5 and to all Bi-borough residents who have hearing loss support written in their Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

It also supports out of borough placements, within reasonable distance, where the Bi-borough resident C&YP has hearing loss support in their EHCP.

If a child or young person from another borough is a student in Bi-borough and has an EHCP with HI needs specifically stated in section F of EHCP then they are usually supported by the local authority in whuch they reside. Sometimes, reciprocal or commissioning agreements are sought.

Referral Process

Referrals can be made by schools, the local authority, health professionals or families. 

To make a referral please complete this referral form and email to [email protected] with 'HI referral' in the subject line.