Lancaster Insurance Services partners with AVUK

Lancaster Insurance Services has partnered with charity Auditory Verbal UK (AVUK) to support more deaf children to have the same opportunities in life as their hearing peers.

The classic car insurance specialist is the second company in the Markerstudy Broking division to team up with the charity, after Brightside Insurance Services Ltd announced its’ association earlier in the year, and this new partnership will help AVUK in its passion to help support more deaf children and give them an equal start in life.

AVUK is the only charity in the UK offering Auditory Verbal therapy – a highly specialised family centred programme which helps deaf babies and children learn to listen and speak - and classic car owners are now able to support the charity by adding a £1, £5 or £10 optional donation when purchasing a classic car insurance policy with Lancaster.

AVUK Chief Executive Anita Grover said: “We are delighted to announce this partnership with Lancaster, which will help us in our mission to enable deaf children to have the same opportunities as hearing children. There are 7,200 deaf children under five in the UK who currently face the possibility of lower academic achievement and employment prospects and who are at higher risk of poor mental health, bullying and social exclusion. But it doesn’t have to be this way. When children and families have access to effective, early support, deaf children can get an equal start at school and opportunities are transformed.”

The ambition is for every one of these 7,200 children to have the opportunity to access an Auditory Verbal therapy programme close to their home, free of charge if they want their child to learn to listen and talk. Four out of five children who attend the AVUK play based family-centred approach achieve age-appropriate spoken language and many attend mainstream school. But many children do not have the opportunity to access Auditory Verbal therapy and many people do not know that it is possible for a deaf child to learn to talk as well as a hearing child.

Andrew Evanson, Senior Operations Manager at Lancaster Insurance Services, said: “As a business, we’re passionate about supporting charities and have been since Lancaster was formed. Our colleagues at Brightside have already raised over £2,000 for AVUK and we’re extremely proud to be partnering with the charity and helping to raise awareness of the incredible work they do.”

AVUK has bases in London and Oxfordshire and supports UK families from both sites as well as remotely. Specially trained Auditory Verbal therapists use play-based parent coaching techniques to enable families to turn everyday activities into ways to improve their child’s communication skills and maximise hearing technology such as cochlear implants and hearing aids.

AVUK has never received any direct Government funding and relies on the generosity of trusts, foundations, individuals as well as partnerships like this one with Lancaster. To ensure that income is not a barrier to deaf babies and children receiving support, the AVUK bursary scheme enables families on low incomes to access the Auditory Verbal UK programme. A year of Auditory Verbal therapy costs £6,825.

For more information about Auditory Verbal UK, visit www.avuk.org.