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 qe2referral@qe2cp.westminster.sch.uk with 'HI referral' in the subject line.

Who to contact

Contact Name: Kathryn Gilgallon
Contact Position: Bi-borough Sensory Support Service Team Leader
Telephone: 020 7641 5825 ext 1
E-mail: k.gilgallon@qe2cp.westminster.sch.uk

Local Offer

How do we ensure the quality of this service?

The Bi-borough Hearing Support Team adheres to Quality Standards for Sensory Support Services in England. These standards provide us with a framework for self-evaluation based on some of the key areas of the SEN Local Area Inspections.

Based on the standards, we identified key performance indicators which allow us to monitor the outcomes. The outcomes are reported termly to the Local Authority. This includes feedback from schools, children, young people and their families, training evaluation, KPIs analysis, case studies and development plans.

What to do if you have a complaint?

Bi-borough Hearing Support Team are proud of their continuing professionalism, values and commitment to the children and young people in their care. Every year the team evaluates the impact of the service through questionnaires and other forms of communication. If you are pleased with our work, we are always happy to hear from you.

However, there may be situations where the service or a member of the team has not met your expectations and you would like to make that view known to us.

As a team we are open to receiving any feedback and to efficiently resolve any complaints. Please contact us on:

Anna Selwyn - Head of Service

a.selwyn@qe2cp.westminster.sch.uk

Kathryn Gilgallon - Bi-borough Sensory Support Service Team Leader

k.gilgallon@qe2cp.westminster.sch.uk

Last Updated 30/11/2023