A charity supporting deaf children has announced that it will be entering liquidation, citing an “increasingly challenging and turbulent environment”.
Auditory Verbal UK (AVUK) was set up over 20 years ago to provide deaf and hearing-impaired children auditory verbal therapy to help them learn to speak.
AVUK will be placed into liquidation this Friday, it announced in a statement on its website, with “no operations or services expected to be provided beyond this date”.
The charity “has been operating in an increasingly challenging and turbulent environment for some time”, it said.
Despite having made “strong progress” in recent months on Auditory Verbal UK’s strategy, the financial pressures facing the charity have now “intensified to a point where it is no longer possible for us to operate sustainably”, it said.
According to the charity’s accounts for the financial year ending 31 July 2025, it recorded an annual income of £1.23m and an annual expenditure of £1.84m.
AVUK’s fundraised income dropped by around £1m from the previous year, when it received a legacy payment of £590,000.
The accounts show it had an average of 30 staff during the year, amounting to an average of 22 full-time equivalent employees.
Aim to secure alternative provisions
AVUK said it was working with partners to secure alternative provisions to ensure that its beneficiaries could continue to access auditory verbal therapy support from professionals.
It added that anybody who was owed funds from the charity would receive a formal notification from S&W Partners, AVUK’s proposed liquidators.
“We have campaigned hard and engaged with UK governments to make the case for long-term, public investment so that auditory verbal therapy could be delivered by trained professionals within publicly funded services, giving all families with young deaf children the opportunity to access this support,” the charity said.
“While significant progress has been made, our clear and consistent asks for sustained government support have not been met and access via public services remains very limited.”
S&W Partners has been approached for comment.
