Pick a number

How many deaf children are there in Scotland? Nobody knows.

The Scottish Government does not know how many deaf children there are in Scotland today. This was revealed in response to a parliamentary question from the Convener of the Cross Party Group on Deafness.

Accessing the best possible services should not be a lottery for parents of deaf children in Scotland. But for public services to effectively meet the education, health and social care needs of these children, we need to know how many deaf children there are in Scotland and where they live.

On the basis of birth prevalence rates recorded as a result of Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNHS) Programmes throughout the UK, NDCS can estimate that there are 2,891 deaf children in Scotland today.

This is a conservative estimate, as it does not include children with mild losses – more data is becoming available on this as a result of UNHS, but we do not yet have a national figure to work from in Scotland.

NDCS can therefore further estimate that there are at least 1,800 school aged deaf children attending Scottish schools. Yet, the latest Scottish pupil census records only 905 deaf pupils.

The reason for this shortfall
The pupil census only records those deaf children who have a coordinated support plan (CSP) or individualised education plan (IEP) where deafness is a reason for additional support. But we know that not all deaf pupils are accessing these plans.  There is currently no national figure from the NHS on the number of children in Scotland with a confirmed hearing loss.

Many of the MSPs and Scottish MPs who have so far signed up to support the Pick a number campaign have written to their local NHS boards and education authorities to ask how many deaf children live in their constituencies. The responses are very revealing, and NDCS Scotland has great pleasure in publishing the results of our "snapshot survey" on our website during Deaf Awareness Week 2009.

There are 32 local authorities in Scotland, and 14 NHS boards.  Across the 18 local authorities who have responded to our initial survey, 1,307 deaf children have been identified, and from the 6 NHS boards who have responded, 1,606 deaf children have been counted.  Remember, the Pupil Census for 2007 recorded only 905 deaf children in the whole of Scotland. 

NDCS Scotland's Pick a Number campaign has had a big impact!

As a result of NDCS campaigning, MSPs have now voted to introduce a change to the law which means that from now on, information on the number of all children with additional support for learning needs, whether they have a CSP or an IEP in place or not, will be collected from local authorities and published nationally  - bingo!

And partners in the NHS are working with us to look at how a national register of deaf children could be developed! 

• May 2009:  Campaign victory for NDCS as MSPs vote for better data collection on deaf pupils in Scottish schools!  Read more >
• May 2009:  The lack of available data on the number of babies diagnosed with a hearing loss in Scotland since Universal Newborn Hearing Screening was introduced is raised by MSPs during a Parliamentary debate as a result of an NDCS Scotland briefing.  Read more > 
• May 2009:  The University of Edinburgh publishes research which confirms that the annual pupil census seriously underestimates the true number of deaf pupils in Scotland. Read more >   
• April 2009:  NDCS Scotland continues lobbying for further changes to the Additional Support for Learning Act to improve data collection.  Read more > 
• 5 February 2009: The Pick a Number campaign is again raised in the Scottish Parliament by Mary Mulligan MSP during a debate on Early Years support.  She calls on the Government to give serious consideration to creating a national register of deaf children.  Read her speech> 
• 20 November 2008: NDCS Scotland submits written evidence to the Scottish Parliament on the Additional Support for Learning Act, which points out the impact that lack of access to CSPs is having on the monitoring of deaf children in Scotland.  Read more >
• 6 November 2008: Bill Butler MSP raisesd the NDCS Pick a number campaign at Scottish Government Question Time. Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon MSP pays tribute to the work of NDCS to gather data on the number of deaf children in Scotland, and agrees to raise this issue when she meets with NHS Chief Executive. Read their exchange >
• 26 September 2008: Robin Harper MSP, Co-Convener of the Scottish Parliament's Cross Party Group on Children and Young People, lodged a Parliamentary motion welcoming the NDCS Pick a number campaign.  
• 18 September 2008: NDCS Scotland launched the Pick a number campaign by parking the NDCS Listening Bus outside the Scottish Parliament and asking MSPs to pop in and learn more about the campaign. 28 MSPs, including the Scottish Government Minister for Schools, visited on the day.

Write to your local MSP to ask them to put pressure on their local authorities to reveal how many deaf children have been refused a coordinated support plan (CSP) or individualised education plan (IEP) in your area. 

Write to Government Ministers to ask them to support our campaign and gather better data.

For advice on how to go about doing this, please email campaigns.scotland@ndcs.org.uk.

NDCS Scotland needs you!

• Does your deaf child have a coordinated support plan (CSP) or individualised education plan (IEP)?
  If not, they are not being recorded and monitored by the Scottish Government. Tell us about it!
  
  
• Or, are you frustrated at a lack of educational resources available for your deaf child?
  Let us know!  

If we can prove that there are more deaf pupils than currently recorded, we can argue for more resources.

If you have any questions about this campaign in your area or if you would like to tell us about your experiences, please get in touch.

Email: campaigns.scotland@ndcs.org.uk

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