National Deaf Children’s Society 24/25

The National Deaf Children’s Society is dedicated to creating a world without barriers for deaf children and young people. It is our mission to overcome the social and educational barriers that hold deaf children back.

Thanks to the generosity of Childlife supporters, we have been able to provide life-changing support and invaluable information to deaf children and their families across the UK over the last year. This has included:

• Providing vital, timely help and advice via our Helpline service, responding to more than 1,770 calls, 320 live chats, and 710 email interactions. 100% of Helpline users said they were satisfied or very satisfied.
• Providing tailored guidance and casework to 1,562 families, with Education Appeals Specialists supporting 253 cases.
• Launching the Community Grants programme; with 23 successful applications from NDCS local affiliated groups for projects ranging from sign language classes to spoken language development.
• Creating and sharing 186 engagement opportunities with a network of parents, carers, professionals, deaf adults and supporters to help shape and improve our services. The impact of their insight has deepened our understanding of families’ experiences and challenges and helped inform our plans.
• Running more than 35 different online Information and Advice sessions, attended by 720 people.
• Launching a pilot course, First Signs, First Stories to introduce families of deaf children aged 0-2 years to BSL signs through storytelling.
• Getting feedback from more than 400 parents and deaf young people about their experience of accessing a Teacher of the Deaf.

Childhood deafness can have a huge impact on language development, communication and social skills, and we know that supporting deaf children during those early years is where we can make the biggest impact and set them up for life. Our goal is to reach more deaf children and young people than ever before, and our ambitious plan is to reach every deaf child, wherever they are and whenever they need us.

Childlife donors help our work in making this a reality. Thank you for your continued support.

Ben is Deputy Director of Fundraising at Childlife member charity, National Deaf Children’s Society.