CSD Consultants
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Sarah Beazley
BSc (Hons), MRCSLT
Sarah has worked with deaf people since 1983. She organised a specialist service in Leeds and then took posts at Leeds Polytechnic, Manchester Polytechnic and Manchester University as a lecturer on undergraduate and postgraduate courses for speech and language therapists and teachers of deaf children.
In tandem with her academic work, she worked as a specialist consultant speech and language therapist in the NHS for many years and also developed a service for deaf students in a bilingual post-16 setting.
Sarah currently works with a local not-for-profit organisation providing residential and other services for young people with complex needs and contributes to the development a whole schools approach to service delivery in addition to taking a lead in training.
Sarah has done some professional work in the Middle East. She is an Executive Editor for the international journal 'Disability & Society' and has written many publications in the area of deafness and disability.
Judy Halden
(1955-2025)
Judy worked with deaf people as a speech and language therapist, and later as specialist teacher for deaf children, for over 40 years. She shaped national practice in many roles including setting up CSD consultants with Sarah and Ruth in the early 1990s. Judy brought her eye for detail as well as a wealth of experience to our small team and became not only a perfect co-tutor but a dear friend. Judy worked tirelessly to support SLTs developing as specialists in working with deaf people and co-authored the book Beazley, S., & Halden, J. (2025). Working with Deaf Children and Young People: A Guide for Practitioners. Taylor & Francis which sadly she did not live to see in print.
We miss her deeply.
Ruth Merritt and Sarah Beazley
WINNER!
Wealth
Manager
of the Year
Ruth Merritt
BA (Hons), MRCSLT
Ruth qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) in 1982 and has worked most of her career developing specialist skills in the field of deafness working in a range of schools, clinic and hospital settings including working at Great Ormond Street Hospital Paediatric Cochlear Implant Programme as the Joint Principal Speech and Language Therapist from 2002- 2011.
Since 2011, Ruth has also worked as a consultant SLT for a primary school with a unit for children with complex communication needs including cerebral palsy, learning disorder, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, dyspraxia and Profound Multiple Learning Difficulties.
Ruth has taught at a number of Undergraduate SLT courses and continues to teach on the two postgraduate courses for SLTS working in the field of deafness.
Ruth is also regularly instructed as an expert witness in medico-legal cases and SEN Tribunals related to children and adults with deafness and cerebral palsy.
Click here to view her website
