Dr Camilla Kingdon, having been directly appointed as a minister by the secretary of state for health and social care, will chair an independent review of children’s hearing services.

The review, commissioned by Wes Streeting, the secretary of state for health and social care, will consider NHS England’s response to the service failures in paediatric audiology, how governance arrangements between NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care )DHSC) could be improved, and how NHS England’s handling of any future service failures in similar services could be improved.

The review followed a December 2021 report which was published detailing issues in paediatric audiology in NHS Lothian, which focused on whether children’s hearing tests were being conducted properly and adequately followed up.

Further issues with the diagnosis of hearing issues in newborns and children in Scotland followed in 2023, with a subsequent assessment of paediatric audiology services in children across England in 2023 and 2024 identified similar problems. Subsequently, NHS England established the Paediatric Hearing Services Improvement Programme in 2023 to try remedy these problems.

Dr Kingdon will bring relevant experience to the role, having been a consultant neonatologist for over 20 years, and president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) until March 2024.