NAFWC 34/2005 - Quality Standards in Educational Services for Children and Young People with Sensory Impairment

During 2003 and 2004, the Welsh Assembly Government conducted audits of educational provision for children and young people with hearing impairment, visual impairment and multi-sensory impairment and published separate reports for consultation1. As a result of these consultation processes, common issues were identified across the three impairments and this has enabled us to combine the three into a single document. The following quality standards are consequently being published to assist service providers in delivering high quality support for children and young people with sensory impairment.

By clearly outlining quality standards for educational services for children and young people with hearing, visual or multi-sensory impairment, standards will continue to rise and high quality intervention and support will be provided. These standards are to be used as benchmarks against which services provided can be evaluated by LEAs by using the self-evaluation tool at Appendix C.

The standards will:

• increase the options available to the child or young person;
• improve the access and availability of specialist support across all LEAs in Wales;
• ensure a continuum of equitable provision;
• assist LEAs and others in determining appropriate resources and arrangements;
• assist in the monitoring and evaluation process; and
• ensure availability of specialist regional services, where appropriate.