News and Stories

Following our concerns about proposed cuts to specialist cleft surgery training, we are pleased to share that funding has now been secured for future cleft surgery fellows.

Members of CLAPA’s management team recently sat in on a cleft clinic hosted by the South West Cleft Service - and tested out their new hi-tech speech investigation assessment suite. 

We were pleased to have the opportunity to submit evidence to the Committee and hope our recommendations help ensure the reforms continue to support high-quality, equitable care for everyone affected by cleft.

“This response reinforces why the campaign remains necessary - and why we'll continue to work on this issue while our concerns remain unresolved."

“The Appearance Matters conference was a great opportunity to share our findings with peers in the sector, from across the UK and internationally."

CLAPA has had its first big success in influencing government legislation – reinforcing our role as advocates for people born with cleft.

We're making some updates to our Privacy Policy. Because this will change the kind of data we collect and what we do with it, we're publishing these changes here 30 days before they go live.

CLAPA has written to the Government to warn that ending specialist training fellowships for cleft surgeons could pose a serious risk to the future sustainability and safety of cleft care in England.

The same CLAPA you know and love - with a bold new energy. Learn all about our rebrand and the launch of this new website in February 2026.

Many people affected by cleft say it has an impact on their mental health. For those struggling in the CLAPA community help is at hand with a free counselling service.

Cleft++ Mentoring Service aims to support young people born with a cleft in this new and exciting project.

This page explains how the project came about and what the name means to us.