National Deaf Children’s Society launches professional community

The National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) has launched a professional community for those working with deaf children and their families. The community is hosted on Facebook and is for professionals in education, health and social care to come together and discuss topics relating to working with deaf children.

The NDCS have also recently announced news of a potential new apprenticeship to train as a Teacher of the Deaf. They have been working with the National Sensory Impairment Partnership and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to develop a Level 7 apprenticeship route for becoming a qualified Teacher of the Deaf. Once the apprenticeship has been approved, local authority specialist education services and schools will be able to draw from funding available through the apprenticeship levy to cover most of the costs available in training staff to become qualified Teachers of the Deaf. Through the apprenticeship, trainee Teachers of the Deaf will also have protected time for study. They are hopeful of submitting the documentation for final agreement shortly and are aware that this may help to support authorities and schools who are facing significant funding issues to fund training for Teachers of the Deaf. They hope this will address the decline in the number of qualified Teachers of the Deaf which has seen the number reduce by 17% since 2011.