Last AGM turned out to be a pivotal moment for the charity.

Looking back 2 years ago it was brought to the charities attention about 2 worrying situations regarding 2 separate students and the support they were receiving.

Then I spent a year frequently meeting with education, including ToD, highlighting areas of concern, getting promises of changes in procedures.

Also, we had a lot of communication with MSG audiology asking for a second audiologist. Numerous meetings with NDCS, we organised a forum trying to highlight where the service can and would fail the children.

One thing NDCS suggested was CHSWG which I did mention at the last AGM. CHSWG stands for Children’s Services Working Group, all professionals working with children with a hearing loss plus parents to work together and help improve the care and service for the children. I was aware that similar things have been attempted in the past and had broken down, but the attending audiologist said at the last AGM that CHSWG really works well. I didn’t have a lot of time if I wanted to get the ball rolling before the summer holidays. We contacted education to get their support, Jon and I met with Emma lawler, speech and language therapist, and I met with MSG audiology to get an understanding of how to organise these meetings.

The first meeting was organised for November.

Day of the meeting - ToD phoned in sick - you can imagine my disappointment. But thankfully Karen Allaway offered to step in so the meeting could continue.

The meeting was focused on audiology as Nel confirmed that she was leaving at the end of the year.

Then we hit rock bottom at the start of 2024. No ToD (still ill) Karen was away for her course, no one at MSG, in fact no paediatric audiologist on the island. This was exactly the situation we wanted to avoid.

Next CHSWG meeting organised for January. No TofD as he was still ill, so we invited Dave Stumpf. No acting audiologist so we decided to invite Jon Buckland chief executive of MSG. Jon and Dave both attended.

Jon was able to confirm that a review was going to take place in spring time and a new audiologist was going to start in a few weeks.

Dave explained about the send review and changes taking place in the near future, then we all took it in turn to explain the impact that the lack of ToD and and a current audiologist was having on the children and their parents. It was good that Jon and Dave could see that the children were being failed in more than one area and that this simply wasn’t good enough.

By Easter, we received the news that the MSG audiology review was on the way, the ToD retired due to ill health, I am very pleased to say that we have a new locum ToD Nicola Meaden who is here today and we didn’t get our 2 audiologists, but we did get 1 ½.

But that’s isn’t all we have been up to over the last 12 months, here is the run through of our year…..

August…After the last AGM we had the Aztech visit in August. We were so lucky, the GFC had a game on that day so Aztech was deserted. This meant that we had access to everything and it was relatively calm and quiet for the children that struggle with lots of noise. It was definitely an event to do again - if only we could time it with another football game. Thank you to Hayley for organising that one.

October… we decided to show the CoCo film on at the Candy Gardens Cinema - unfortunately we had to cancel due to low numbers, thank you to Denise and Elliot for their time on this one.

November…. 1st CHSWG meeting.

November…. Round Table Xmas Fayre, organised mostly be Gill, but we all pitched in, making Decorations, Hug in a mug, Pom Pom lights, colkies ( to die for), mini Xmas cakes, flannel reindeers & cup cakes, reindeer food. Most of the items sold out raising a total of £326.00

December… Emma dusted off our xmas tree and decorated it beautifully for the Town Church Tree Festival, again, our tree stood out, simple, yet very effective, thank you Emma.

December….Gill organised ice skating, all the children went home with a chocolate treat and their bones intact (phew)

January 2nd CHSWG meeting.

Feb extra CHSWG meeting.

March….pottery painting, again we had our own private room which was nice and quiet, this was a relaxed event allowing parents and children to have a conversation whilst working on our master piece. Thank you to Denise for organising and making sure the children all left with a chocolate egg.

April CHSWG meeting

May….visit to the airport control tower, this was such a treat, organised by Steph and Tristan, we were split into 2 groups and each got a turn in the radar room and then up in the control tower where we watched planes take off and land.

Looking forward to a rib trip to Herm later on this month.

So once again, I have to pass my gratitude to Hayley and Emma sitting next to me and the rest of the committee, we really shared the work load this year organising events everyone has put lots into running the charity, Charlie for being my Guru and updating the child protection procedures and Denise has been helpfully keeping our Facebook page busy and keeping an eye on our emails. Thank you, without you guys none of the things we have achieved would have happened.

I would like to say a special mention to Jon who has helped with the formal things like the Guernsey registry, for checking all my emails before I send them and also for all his input with the CHSWG, setting up the terms of reference, chairing or writing the minutes for the meetings. I am very passionate about children with a hearing loss getting the level of service they deserve, to the point where I do lose sleep, but it was my passion and Jon’s calming yet professional influence that really got the CHSWG in motion.

I would also like to mention Karen, I know I have mentioned ToD a few times but I want to acknowledge that Karen has been working hard holding the fort whilst the ToD was on long term sickness, this has been going on for many years, putting a lot of pressure on her whilst trying to study too. I know she has stayed because she cares so thank you, Karen for sticking with it.

Last point, I want to talk about the future, for the first time in a long time I am feeling excited - I am delighted that sensory support and audiology have joined us tonight, I think that it’s vital we work together, it is important that we keep communicating, keep working together suppoting the children and their parents in any way we can.

Thank you for listening.