Sign inBAA Conference kicks off with promise to see Kingdon recommendations implemented
The recent publication of the Kingdon Review of children's hearing services revealed long-overlooked issues for the hearing health profession under NHS control. The British Academy of Audiology has been at the heart of the process to examine and rectify failures by NHS services that have left families of undiagnosed children devastated.
In her opening address to the 21st Annual Conference of the British Academy of Audiology in Telford, Shropshire, BAA President Claire Benton underlined her organisation’s determination to see recent recommendations on improving UK audiology services fully implemented.
Clearly emotional, Benton was responding to an ongoing scandal of failures in NHS paediatric audiology services, the latest chapter of which has seen the publication by the UK Government of an independent review chaired by Dr. Camilla Kingdon, which contains recommendations for UK audiology that go way beyond child services.
Two years ago, Claire Benton, then President elect, gave a powerful speech to which she referred in her address in opening the 2025 Conference, saying she was criticised then for “overegging” her speech. Stressing the importance she and others at the BAA give to the question of audiology service failures – and thanking many of the professionals “in the room” who have worked to redress the situation – Benton teared up as she referred to the BAA’s involvement: “It’s been a lot”.
The BAA, along with other leading hearing bodies and charities in the UK, has criticised the delay in reports and implementation of recommendations to improve UK audiology. The Kingdon Review laid the blame at the door of NHS England management.
As part of an otherwise professional and routine conference inauguration, BAA President Benton underlined that the Kingdon recommendations need to be implemented and that improvement would come.
“We aren’t there yet; there is still so much to do to improve our profession,” Benton told a packed hall.
Rejecting the possibility of further delays or avoidance of recommendations, she said: “We’re not going to let that happen”.
In a BAA statement on the Kingdon Review, the President referred to specific ways to find improvement in the profession. “This report echoes what audiologists have been saying for years. We now need rapid completion of the review and recall, modern commissioning with clear safety and experience KPIs, a single professional register, and clinically networked services so no clinician is left isolated, and no child is left behind.” The BAA statement includes lengthy comments on its work towards meeting each of the 12 Kingdon recommendations.
Source: Live at BAA
