2019 CRIDE Report (England) now available

CRIDE report on 2018/19 survey on educational provision for deaf children in England

In 2019, the Consortium for Research into Deaf Education (CRIDE) carried out its ninth annual survey on educational staffing and service provision for deaf children. It covers the 2018/19 academic year. This report sets out the results of the survey for England and is intended for heads of services, policymakers in local and central government and anyone with an interest in deaf education.

Summary of key findings

• There are at least 46,404 deaf children in England – a reported increase of 7% over the past year.

• 78% of school-aged deaf children attend mainstream schools (where there is no specialist provision). 6% attend mainstream schools with resource provisions, 3% attend special schools for deaf children whilst 12% attend special schools not specifically for deaf children.

• 22% of deaf children are recorded as having an additional special educational need.

• 14% of deaf children use an additional spoken language other than English in the home.

• Of children who have a severe or profound hearing loss, 63% mainly communicate using spoken English only in school or other education settings as their main language, 22% mainly use spoken English together with signed support whilst 9% mainly use British Sign Language.

• The most common post-school destination for deaf young people is further education, with 73% taking this option.

• 18% of deaf children identified by CRIDE have an Education, Health and Care plan.

• There are at least 1,306 Teacher of the Deaf posts, of which 3% were vacant. Of the 1,267 staff working as Teachers of the Deaf, 83% held the mandatory qualification.

• The number of qualified Teachers of the Deaf in employment working in a peripatetic role, in a resource provision and/or in a special school or college not specifically for deaf children, has increased slightly by 1% over the past year. Over the long-term, it has fallen by 15% since the CRIDE survey started in 2011. • Peripatetic Teachers of the Deaf have an average theoretical caseload of 62 deaf children. This has increased from 60 in 2017 and from 44 in 2013.

• 53% of peripatetic Teachers of the Deaf are over the age of 50 and thus are likely to retire in the next 10 to 15 years.

• There are at least 1,299.4 other specialist support staff working with deaf children in England, a 6% decrease since last year. In relation to teaching assistants/classroom support assistants, there has been a 10% decline whilst there has been a 7% decline for communication support workers/communicators.

• There are 246 resource provisions across England. This is an increase from 2018 when CRIDE identified 240 resource provisions.

• 19% of services report that they collect data on Key Stage 4 outcomes for all deaf children whilst 43% do so for deaf children on their caseload.

Download the full report cride-2019-england-report