The mission of the Australian National Child Hearing Health Outcomes Registry (ANCHOR) is to collect and connect child hearing health information into a national data system and research platform to drive better care and supports for deaf and hard of hearing children. ANCHOR’s aims are to: (1) Map Australia’s child hearing services and datasets; (2) Bring datasets from two Australian states (Victoria and Queensland) into a single system as the prototype; (3) Develop a Core Outcomes Set to measure what matters to deaf and hard of hearing children/young people, families, services and funders; and (4) Evaluate the cost/benefit of developing/maintaining ANCHOR. ANCHOR is being co-designed through engagement with >100 stakeholders from >49 organisations providing >300 services, and with inputs from families from the Australian Childhood Deafness Community Advisory Group.

This presentation discusses the methodology in building ANCHOR, in particular, the process of nation-wide engagement and consultation with families and stakeholders, as well as the preliminary findings from the national child hearing services map and Core Outcomes Set. We will discuss proposed and ongoing work to understand perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders, as well as directly capturing the opinions of young deaf and hard of hearing children, to ensure their voices are included in developing ANCHOR.