The Board of Directors is responsible for the overall strategic and operational work of the BAA. Board Directors are both responsible for specific work areas and act as a liaison between a committee or work group. The current Board has 14 Directors, supported by our Marketing & Communications Manager and our PA. The Board meets quarterly and holds an annual strategy day to review the forward plan. Board minutes are published on the BAA website.


Executive Team

During the last eighteen months, we have developed a more active executive team to focus and maintain momentum between Board meetings. The President meets regularly with the Vice President, Past President, Treasurer and Marketing & Comms Manager. Each member of the executive team holds lead responsibilities for key objective areas and in supporting other Board Directors. These areas of responsibility are –

• President – Chairs the Board, is President and supports the Board Directors of Membership and Professional Development.
• Vice President – Supports the President and supports the Board Directors of Education, Early Professionals, and Professional and Workforce Support
• Past President – Supports the President and the Board Director of Service Quality Committee
• Treasurer – Supports the President and the Board Director for E-Learning
• Marketing & Comms Manager – Supports all Board and links with the Board Directors for Conference, Regional Groups and Promoting Audiology & Publications

 

2023/2024 Board Members
President's Blog 4th March 2024

World Hearing Day – a reminder to evaluate our practices and services?

The main theme for the World Health Organisation’s 2024 World Hearing Day was about Changing Mindsets. Recently, we have been reflecting on that for UK Audiology. Indeed, our Bamford Lecture at our annual conference in November challenged us all to consider our mindsets, attitude and approach to quality, and our audiology practice.

If you work as a healthcare provider, you don’t turn up to work intending to do a bad job. However, have you properly sat down and considered whether you can evidence if you are actually doing a good enough job?

BAA has made the Bamford Lecture recording available for all to watch, and I would encourage you to take a look here when you have 40 minutes.

BAA Board Directors have been heavily involved in the audiology review work over the last twelve months, contributing across the different subgroups in Scotland and now England. Vice President, Claire Benton, says in the forthcoming BAA magazine, “What is happening now is a huge opportunity for all of us. We have got the attention we need to make the necessary changes to make wholesale improvement across all areas of Audiology. However, this is not going to be done by others for us, or indeed by the few volunteers currently working on this. To get the change we need, all of us will have to do our part. It being difficult is not a reason to do nothing.”

The NHS England Standard Contract for 2024/2025 has now been published, and the technical guidance has made recommendations for all ICBs to develop Service Development Improvement Plans (SDIP) with all providers that deliver Paediatric Audiology to take all services forward to IQIPS accreditation.

This should mean that services that are not currently IQIPs accredited for paediatric audiology will be contacted by their ICB and supported to develop an action plan on how to become accredited. We would encourage all services to talk to their ICBs about supporting the extra resource this would take.

Our Service Quality Committee recently released the BAA Quality Improvement Toolkit, and I would encourage you to work your way through that as a first step to quality checking and potentially improving your audiology practice, your department, the profession, and ultimately for the benefit of every patient in our departments and practices.

Download the BAA Quality Improvement Toolkit here

Take care of yourselves,

Sam

Board Annual Awards

British Academy of Audiology Annual Awards

Every year at the BAA annual conference, we take the time to acknowledge those individuals and teams who have excelled or shown exceptional commitment to the Audiology profession over the past year.

Previous award winners can be found here.

This award will recognise an Audiology clinician who has gone above and beyond to improve the experience for a patient. The award is focused on patient care, and we particularly welcome testimonials and case studies from patients or colleagues, highlighting the reasons they should be nominated.

This award is presented in honour of Peggy Chalmers.  She contributed immeasurably to Audiology, improving professional standards and training, and supporting hundreds of students from the UK and overseas. Her hard work and enthusiasm inspired many professionals in Audiology. With this award, we hope each winner will continue to inspire with their excellent work.

The prize is awarded to a team that has worked together to improve the quality of service in their area, in particular showing innovative and original ideas.  Teams that work within an audiology department, in education, in research, or in an organisational capacity, are all eligible.

The BAA Team of the Year Award was created in 2004 to celebrate the coming together of different professions within Audiology.

This award will recognise a clinician who has gone above and beyond to provide a supportive learning environment for students in placement, providing leadership, guidance and inspiration. The award is focused on the mentoring of students, and we particularly welcome testimonials and case studies from students, colleagues and university placement teams highlighting the reason a particular person should be nominated.

The award is presented in honour of Paul Doody, an extraordinary Audiologist committed to training. He made a huge difference to the lives of numerous Audiologists.

This award is given to the student who performs well during their clinical placement.  Nominations are welcomed from departments to highlight exceptional students who have had a positive impact on the service during their placement.

This award is presented in honour of Lisa Bayliss, a 20-year-old student Audiologist who worked at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. Sadly, Lisa’s life was tragically taken on her way home from work in 1992. Lisa is greatly missed by all who met her, but especially her family, colleagues, and her patients. Lisa was kind, caring, and worked well with everyone she met.  She was described as a great people person.

This award is for Audiology clinicians working in paediatrics. It is aimed at those in any area of paediatrics who, it is felt, have influenced the field. We welcome nominations from colleagues, patients, and families, highlighting why this person stands out from the crowd.

The nominated person should have worked in their current position for at least 6 months.

This award is open to students on all Audiology courses, leading to qualification or registration.  We invite Higher Education Institutes to nominate a student you consider an outstanding Early Audiology Professional. Whether Foundation degree, undergraduate or post-graduate (for undergraduate students, consider those in the second year and above).

The student may have made significant contributions to their group, mentored other students, experience hearing loss themselves, and overcome barriers to communication to work in the profession, be studying against the odds, or have developed innovative practice or project work. Equally, the student you choose may have achieved a high academic standard that you wish to celebrate and recognise.

The award is given for the best contribution to a BAA publication.  The recipient is chosen from all articles printed in the previous year’s publications, and is chosen by the BAA publicity and communications team.

This award is presented in honour of Jos Millar, who showed a long-standing dedication to Audiology.  He started his career in audiology at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, and later in his career, he embarked on a challenge to set up a paediatric service in his hometown of Ballymena.

This award is given to the person who has exceptional feedback during the examination process of the Higher Training Scheme. The HTS committee selects the winner based on examination feedback.

This award is presented in honour of Richard May, who loved Audiology.  He was a student in the first intake of the MSc Audiology course in ISVR in 1972, and was the first Audiological Scientist in the country, at the Sussex Throat and Ear Hospital in Brighton.  He died suddenly in 1982, aged 32, and was described by his family as a wonderful, kind and clever man.

This award is presented for outstanding research by a student or early professional.  The award winner will be selected from all free papers presenting at the BAA conference, delivered by a student or early professional. A student is classed as anyone training and not yet qualified in Audiology, e.g. PTP, STP students, those doing apprenticeships, and an Early Professional is classed as those up to 5 years post-qualified.

This award is presented in honour of David Baguley, who loved to share knowledge. He was a prolific publisher of his research, and he spoke at conferences for professionals and the public to share that knowledge for the benefit of those with Hearing Loss and Tinnitus.

One of David’s passions was to encourage and support trainees and young professionals. He gave freely of his time to support others in their research, and this award, aimed at early professionals, is a fitting tribute to a man who will live on through the impact his writing and research has on the audiology community.