Deaf children face teaching inequality

The charity surveyed 144 councils for its study, called Hands Up for Help, which found that specialist Teachers of the Deaf caseloads varied markedly.

While on average these specialists support 31 deaf children, in some areas their caseload was more than 100.

Brian Gale, director of policy and campaigns at NDCS, said: "It is unacceptable that deaf children are missing out on vital support at school because of where they live. Deafness is not a learning disability yet too many deaf children are failing at school."

The charity points out that seven out of 10 deaf children fail to get any A* to C grades at GCSE and is calling on the government to ensure equal access to specialist support nationwide.

Teachers of the Deaf provide one-to-one teaching support as well as train mainstream teachers to support deaf children.