• Dr Camilla Kingdon has accepted a direct ministerial appointment by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
• As a consultant neonatologist and former President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), Dr Kingdon brings extensive expertise to the review

The Secretary of State, Wes Streeting, has commissioned an independent review of children’s hearing services and has appointed Dr Camilla Kingdon as its independent chair.

The review will consider:

• the NHS England response to the service failures in paediatric audiology

• how the relevant governance arrangements between NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) could be improved and identify lessons learned

• how NHS England’s handling of any future service failures in similar services could be improved and identify lessons learned

Dr Kingdon brings extensive expertise to the review. She has been a consultant neonatologist at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital for over 20 years and until March last year she was President of RCPCH. She has an MA in Medical Careers Management and was Head of the London School of Paediatrics and Child Health for 5 years from 2014.

Dr Kingdon is also the independent chair of the NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Service National Provider Network for England, tasked with implementing the recommendations of the Cass Review (the independent review of gender identity services for children and young people) in England. She has been a non-executive director on the board at Great Ormond Street Hospital since January 2025, is chair of the UK Healthy Air Coalition, a coalition of charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working to tackle air pollution, and is a member of the NHS Assembly.

Background to the review

In December 2021, a report was published into service issues in paediatric audiology in NHS Lothian, which focused on whether children’s hearing tests were being conducted properly and effectively followed up.

Further issues with the diagnosis of hearing issues in newborns and children were identified in other Scottish NHS trusts in 2023. Subsequent assessment of NHS audiology services in paediatric departments across England in 2023 and 2024 identified similar problems. NHS England established the Paediatric Hearing Services Improvement Programme in 2023 to address the issues and oversee remedial action.