Why are we doing this survey?
The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) is working with the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS), the British Association of Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People (BATOD), and other stakeholders. Our goal is to develop a list of skills and experience that speech and language therapists (SLTs) should have when they working with deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children and young people. This will be used to create the RCSLT Deafness Competency framework for Speech and Language Therapists.
We want to hear about your experiences of speech and language therapy. We want to hear from deaf and hard of hearing people, parents, carers, family members, and others with relevant lived experience. Your views will help us understand what knowledge, skills and qualities are most important for SLTs working in this area.
Who can take part?
You can complete this survey if you are:
- A deaf or hard of hearing adult (aged 18 or over)
- A parent, carer or guardian of a deaf or hard of hearing child or young person
- A professional responding on behalf of a child or young person where appropriate permissions have been obtained
What will taking part involve?
The survey contains 17 questions, but you may not have to answer all of them. It should take approximately 10-20 minutes to complete.
Participation is voluntary. You do not have to answer any question you do not wish to answer, unless marked as required.
You are welcome to complete the survey more than once if you would like to tell us about different experiences. For example, you may wish to complete one survey about your own experiences and another about a child, family member or person you support.
This survey will be open until
9th October 2026
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About this British Sign Language (BSL) video
This BSL version of the survey will open in a new window when you click the link in the survey.
Questions in the video have been numbered one to 17 to match the question numbers in the survey.
When you complete the survey online, some questions may be skipped depending on your answers, but this video contains all the questions.
BSL video link will be added on 8 September.
What will happen to my information?
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All survey responses will be anonymous and will be used to inform the development of the RCSLT Deafness Competency Framework. Responses will be retained for the duration of the project in accordance with the
RCSLT Privacy Notice
.
If you choose to provide your name and contact details to receive project updates or future opportunities to be involved, these details will be stored separately from your survey responses and used only for this purpose for the duration of the project.
Please do not include information that could identify yourself or another person in any free-text response boxes.
Questions about this survey
If you have any questions about this survey or the Deafness Competency Framework project, please contact: sarah.waterman@rcslt.org
