Cleft Care UK (CCUK) a cross sectional survey of five year old children with non-syndromic unilateral cleft lip and palate.

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of reconfigured cleft care in the United Kingdom. This study was carried out 15 years after an initial survey commissioned by the Clinical Standards Advisory Group (CSAG) led to government recommendations on centralisation. 

CCUK was a multi-centre cross sectional study of five year olds born with non-syndromic unilateral cleft lip and palate. We recruited children born between 01/04/2005 and 31/03/2007 in cleft centre audit clinics. We identified 359 eligible children and we recruited 268 to the study

We obtained consent for the collection of routine clinical measures (speech recordings, photographs, models, oral health, psychosocial) and research measures (height, weight, head circumference). We used methodology for each clinical measure that followed those of the earlier survey as closely as possible. 

There were three main areas of outcome measures- anatomical outcome, speech and wellbeing.  

A supplement of 6 papers that describes outcomes, including comparisons of outcomes against children in the CSAG audit which took place 15 years earlier prior to centralisation of cleft services has been published in Orthodontics & Craniofacial Research

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ocr.2015.18.issue-S2/issuetoc

The policy implications of this study were summarised in Policy Bristol Briefing No 44 in October 2017

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/policybristol/briefings-and-reports-pdfs/2017-briefings--reports-pdfs/PolicyBristol_Briefing_October_2017_Cleft_Care_UK.pdf