02 May 2025

NCHA member update - 2 May

This week:

• Help us test our new website
• Parliaments approve HCPC fee uplift
• Streeting orders inquiry into paediatric audiology
• Research compares OTC earbuds to hearing aids
• Adults ‘open to the idea of home hearing test'
• Charities highlight ‘inaccessibility' of hearing services
• Ears to the ground
• Health policy

Help us test our new website

We are pleased to announce that we will launch a new online member magazine shortly. Clarity will offer different user experiences to reflect FODO Group membership, with members able to read the latest news and views on hearing care, eye care or both. If you would like to join our user experience panel this month and help shape what's on offer, please email [email protected].  

Parliaments approve HCPC fee uplift

The UK and Scottish parliaments have approved the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) proposed registration fee increase of £6.98, which will take the annual cost to £123.34.
 
The change happens immediately for new applicants while existing members will pay the higher fee when their profession is up for renewal. The renewal deadline for hearing aid dispensers is 31 July 2026, and for clinical scientists, it is 30 September 2025.
 
The HCPC said the rise would enable it to continue to fulfil its statutory duty to protect patients and service users. "The proposed increase is the minimum amount necessary to continue to fund our programme of critical investments," including in dealing with Fitness to Practice referrals, it said.
 
The council also said from this summer it would start phasing in a change allowing registrants to pay their fee in quarterly instalments across the year, instead of the current bi-annual requirement.

Streeting orders inquiry into paediatric audiology

Wes Streeting has commissioned an independent review into children's hearing services, describing as "unforgivable" the lack of action to address widespread failures in diagnoses and follow-ups identified four years ago.

Dr Camilla Kingdon, a consultant neonatologist and former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, will chair the review. It will initially report in three months. Read the full story.

Research compares OTC earbuds to hearing aids

Research published in the Hearing Review provides an in-depth analysis of Apple AirPod Pro 2 earbuds' performance as hearing aids, based on measures of insertion gain and signal-to-noise advantage with different programs, including Hearing Aid, Media Assist and Conversation Boost modes.
 
The researchers from the National Acoustic Laboratories in Australia conclude that the OTCs are an "appealing introduction for those not ready to adopt traditional hearing aids". They add that traditional hearing aids remain "better suited for individuals with greater hearing needs or in more complex listening environments".

Adults 'open to the idea of home hearing test'

Preliminary findings from researchers at the Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness suggest that 65% of adults would be willing to conduct an NHS hearing test at home. However, 52% would choose to see an audiologist for a hearing aid fitting if given a choice. Read more about the survey.

Charities highlight 'inaccessibility' of hearing services

A new report from the charities RNID and SignHealth reveals a widespread failure within NHS services to implement the Accessible Information Standard. This legal requirement since 2016 requires health services to make "reasonable adjustments" to remove barriers deaf people and people with hearing loss face when accessing care, including providing information in an accessible format.
 
The report, 'Still ignored: the fight for accessible healthcare', says that 70% of respondents had never been asked about their information and communication needs. They reported health consequences, including stopping attempts to make an appointment, not understanding their diagnosis, receiving incorrect diagnoses and inadequate follow-up care.
 
Elsewhere, the patient safety commissioner reports on the difficulties people with sensory impairment, including hearing loss, face in dealing with medicines and medical technology. Read the blog.

Ears to the ground

• The British Society of Audiology has updated its Guiding Principles of Person-Centred Care in Adult Hearing Rehabilitation for the first time since 2016.
• The government has updated its Newborn Hearing Screening Programme (NHSP) operational guidance, including the process for booking staff onto their external competency assessment. It has also updated its NHSP information for parents page.
• UCLH has appointed Professor Nish Mehta as honorary consultant ENT surgeon for advanced otology and auditory implantation and chair of otology and auditory implants at the UCL Ear Institute. The post begins in July.
• Specsavers has changed its billboard slogan to Specsandhearingsavers for six weeks only, as part of a campaign to highlight its hearing care provision.
• Researchers at Bath University have published research showing women have significantly more sensitive hearing than men.
• EssilorLuxottica has launched Nuance Audio Glasses, an OTC product that integrates vision correction with hearing aid amplification for mild-to-moderate losses. 
• The Guardian gives four stars to a thriller starring Rose Ayling-Ellis that seamlessly switches between spoken and signed language.

Health policy

• The King's Fund reports a "startling collapse" in NHS satisfaction since the pandemic, based on responses in the British Social Attitudes Survey.
• The NHS Confederation has published Beyond the waiting room: reimagining primary care for the next decade, starting with general practice, with follow-up editions to cover audiology and optometry.
• The Health Foundation examines whether the government and the public share the same NHS goals. It found the public supports cutting waiting lists and agrees that primary care is crucial as it's where most people access the care and support they need.
• Samantha Jones is the new permanent secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care.