Agenda and attendees
Present
(Chair) Naomi Austin, Alison Davis, Anna Davis, Ange Ward, Ruth Loska, Rob Low, Sul Regan, Katy Liriano, Alison Lawson, Joanna Wanmer
Apologies
Rachel Bowman, Emma Gupta, Prodip Das,
- Apologies
- Matters arising from previous minutes
- Service updates
- Feedback from parents reps
- AOB
Service Updates
Sul Regan (SNS)
Maintained good contact with families through out lockdown. All staff at Bevendean are at Level 1 BSL. There are 3 level 3s and by end of year expectation to have all at level 2 or above.
Bevendean unit were restricting pupil attendance to 1 hour during lockdown, which was awkward for parents. Now every school has a different policy on how their school is practicing. Such plans are not written with ToD safety considered. Sul is working to influence these plans and advised that F2F coverage will be forced to be compromised but some of this will be taken up through video call substitution.
Home visits have been in the gardens/parks. Many families now happy to have team enter the home. Wearing face masks and face shields if taking impressions. Some
children who are more at risk cannot have such visits so these remain video link only. Caroline is continuing to provide BSL support via video. Some transition age pupils are finding this partial return to school more challenging than total lockdown with more background noise and face masks. Disparity on mask usage across schools and consequent compromise to speech reading abilities. Looking forward to the Marvel aids being issued out.
One teacher unable to return to work initially but now resolved.
Q. If contacting a secondary school which teacher is contacted?
A. Typically the SENCO
Q. Are all pupils being offered impressions?
A. Yes
Q- Are all pupils being asked to wear PPE?
A. No pre-school are not but their parents are.
Q. Have ToD had input into how schools are utilising the ‘Catch Up’ funds?
A. No, not yet.
Katy Liriano (SALT)
Offering videotherapy where possible although this has some limitations. Long term looking to return to F2F. Have to wear masks, gloves and apron when conducting F2F
Looking for exceptions to the mandatory use of masks to allow therapy but this is not easy to achieve.
Q. Are you able to access clear masks
A. No not yet
Discussion ensued regarding procurement of face masks and whether they were fit for purpose. NDCS are running a survey of clear mask policy so Alison offered to take this information back to the team.
Ruth Loska (NHSP)
Difficult during lockdown but now reverting to normal. Main difficulty was resuming clinics at the RACH.
Staffing pressures are slightly compromising service at the moment but recruitment is underway. As an interim measure temporary workforce options are being sourced. Three members of staff underway with their diploma.
Q. How much of a backlog exists?
A. None.
Ange Ward (Sussex Community Audiology)
Aetiology: There have been some delays in investigations but most services are now back up and running. Some preliminary F2F appointments for developmental checks but principally contact has been through telephone. Seems to work very well that way so may take this approach going forward. Few new diagnoses so little back up.
Audiology: Equipment issues since coming out of lockdown found equipment out of calibration. Have had to borrow equipment from Crawley and from BSUH until calibration completed. Hope to be up and running completely in November. However, only 50% capacity c.f. pre-COVID activity. Are using lots of telemedicine and posting resources onto a website.
Decision made to abandon 2020-21 reception hearing screening. Will be using letters to parents for what to look for, then being offered a screen if concerns raised.
Q. No school screen for this academic year at all?
A. Correct
Q. Concern that this could signal change to dropping school-aged screen, suggested to compile audit of change in identification rates.
A. These data are already being compiled
Q. How many children have been picked up / year
A. 6 children
Q. Will the community Audiology team have input into handling the responses from the parents?
A. No these are being processed by the screening team.
Q. Are the school made aware of this change and the imperative upon them to be more vigilant in their classrooms.
A. No teachers are not being made aware, but Ange agreed to take this up.
Rob Low (BSUH Audiology)
- Service returning to a more normal F2F format. All children who have been cancelled over the lockdown period have been triaged and categorised in a 4 tier prioritisation. Since resuming F2F the service has been working through these and currently the position is:
- 2. Cat A – 100% (on going prioritisation of these)
- 3. Cat B – 92% seen or appt booked in (6 not seen: 3 declined due to health, 1 needs dewax first, 2 unable to contact)
- 4. Cat C – 46% seen or appt booked in
- 5. Cat D – 10% seen or appt booked in
- NHSP: Following national guidance our service temporarily suspended but is now fully resumed. There are no outstanding referrals and the following return was sent to S4H.
- Maternity Leave: Two paediatric Leads have indicated that they will be commencing maternity leave in the next 2-4 months. An advert for maternity leave cover has gone out, followed by a 2 week extension, but no applicants have been brought to interview. It is therefore likely that Charlotte on 0.47 WTE and Rob (also managing service) will be the only Paediatric Leads for a year or so. There are other paediatric audiologists who will support the service to ensure that no child is left unsupported when need presents.
- Marvels: All children are being upgraded to the Phonak Marvel hearing aids as they come through clinic. In addition the service is posting out upgrades then supporting with video link meetings to instruct on use.
- Move to RACH: There is renewed optimism that the service may be moving into the RACH level 10 within this financial year. The move has been signed off by the Trusts CEO and the budget identified to pay for the move. Rob has been meeting with key managers to progress the business case, the next meeting is this Friday.
- Clear masks have been rejected by the Trust
- Since ENT are not planning to insert grommets within the next 6 months Audiology is supporting children with a conductive hearing loss. We are issuing out BAHA devices to pre-schoolers on softbands and AdHear adhesive bone routing devices to school aged children since these offer a more cosmetic solution.
Alison Davies / Anna Davis (Parent Reps)
Reps have asked for issues to bring to the CHSWG but no questions have been proffered. Parents are generally happy with services. Only issue was face masks so very disappointing that these will not be available within the Trusts.
The website designer has been re-commissioned and progress is now much more active.
Joanna Wanmer (NDCS)
Some action points were listed in the last minutes which have not yet been moved forward. Could we make space in the next agenda to progress some of these topics.
Joanna highlighted the lack of social care provision for deaf children and in particular with reference to equipment provision.
AOB
NDCS Action Plan: Offered up as a potential structure for future meetings.
Rob has volunteered to chair the next Pan-Sussex CHSWG
Money to support the PaCC initiatives delivered by CHSWG continue to be paid to Ali personally. She asked if we could develop a CHSWG bank account. Currently the CHSWG is not a formal entity which would permit the formation of an account.
Actions
Each service reviews the NDCS Action plan and comes up with their objectives based upon this plan.
Next meeting to take place in January 2021 Naomi to set up and mail out after the meeting.