Political updates

NDCS Scotland works to influence politicians in the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government via its business at Holyrood.

In addition to seeking meetings to brief these key politicians on issues facing deaf children and their families in Scotland, our work includes monitoring and contributing to parliamentary business.

NDCS Scotland started 2009 as we mean to go on, by briefing MSPs on the needs of deaf pupils ahead of a parliamentary debate on the future of the Scottish exams framework.

To compliment the introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence in Our School, the Scottish Government has announced proposals to redesign the exams which pupils sit at S4.

NDCS Scotland responded to the Scottish Government consultation on the issue last year, and issued a briefing to MSPs ahead of the debate on 7 January 2009, highlighting the importance of making sure that the new curriculum and exams are fully accessible to deaf children.

The Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning then mentioned deaf children in her speech, calling on the Scottish Government to ensure that "all courses are available to all children, including those who are deaf."

Read the debate transcript.

This month, NDCS Scotland expressed disappointment in the lack of mention of deaf children in the Scottish Government's Early Years Strategy, which was published on 10 December 2008 and continued monitoring the Education Committee's consideration of the Additional Support for Learning Review Bill.

We attended a meeting of the Cross Party Group on Deafness on 10 December 2008 and expressed our disappointment with the fact that, despite our lobbying, the Early Years Strategy does not mention the needs of deaf children, nor indeed any other disability groups, in the early years.

The Education Committee published a paper summarising the views of the voluntary sector, including NDCS Scotland, as expressed at the November oral evidence taking session on the future of the Additional Support for Learning Act. The needs of deaf children are recorded in this informal paper. The formal, final report is expected before March 2009.

This month, we continued our Parliamentary campaigning on data collection on deaf children, and pursued parliamentary questioning on the Scottish Government's position on the attainment of deaf children and the importance of early years support for deaf children and their families. 

As a result of our sustained campaigning on improving audiology services fit for every deaf child, we were also delighted to receive confirmation in response to one of our questions that Scottish Government paediatric audiology standards are on the way.

Continuing our lobbying around the Additional Support for Learning framework, we also were invited to give written and oral evidence to the Education Committee on the Scottish Government's proposed amendment Bill.

Question Time
NDCS Scotland briefed Bill Butler MSP on our Pick a number campaign and the lack of data from the NHS on the number of babies disagnosed with a hearing loss as a result of newborn hearing screening when he was selected to ask a question at Health and Wellbeing Question Time on 6 November 2008.

NDCS Scotland are delighted that the Cabinet Secretary agreed to raise this issue with NHS Board Chief Executive and paid tribute to our work to collect data on deaf children living in Scotland.

Read the transcript of Bill Butler MSP's exchange with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing.

Parliamentary Questions
NDCS Scotland worked with the Convener of the Cross Party Group on Deafness to lodge a number of written questions on the importance of early years support for deaf children following diagnosis. The answers are disappointing. Despite our lobbying, the Government does not have any plans to publish guidance or standards for the delivery of early years support to deaf children following diagnosis of hearing loss. 

Read the questions and responses from the Minister for Children and Early Years here, here, here, and here.

Another parliamentary question elicited a response from the Scottish Government that it does acknowledge that there is an attainment gap between deaf pupils and their hearing peers in Scotland. 

Read the question and the Minister's response.

A final parliamentary question brought great news on the delivery of paediatric audiology standards - the Scottish Government is currently in the process of developing these. NDCS Scotland will be involved in the development of standards via our membership of the Audiology Services Advisory Group. 

Read the question and the Minister's response.

Committee Briefing
The Scottish Parliament's Education, Culture and Lifelong Learning Committee is gathering evidence on the Scottish Government's Additional Support for Learning Amendment Bill. NDCS Scotland gave written and oral evidence to the Committee on this piece of legislation as it impacts on Scottish deaf children and their families.

Read more about the Committee's role in this process.

Read NDCS Scotland's written evidence to the Committee, which calls for wider review of the Act (below).

NDCS Scotland started the new session in the Scottish Parliament by continuing our lobbying around rearly years support in Scotland by briefing MSPs ahead of a Scottish Government debate on Getting it Right for Every Child on 3 September 2008.

We then focused our campaigning on data collection and launched our Pick a number campaign. On 18 September 2008, we parked the NDCS Listening Bus outside the Scottish Parliament and invited MSPs to come aboard to sign up to our campaign and meet some of our young deaf supporters. 28 MSPs visited on the day and many more signed up to a motion Robin Harper MSP lodged in the Scottish Parliament. Take a look at our photo gallery from the day and see if your MSP came to show their support. 

With RNID and NDCS parent campaigners, we also had a successful meeting with the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health, Nicola Sturgeon on access to bilateral cochlear implants for profoundly deaf babies in Scotland. 

The Deputy First Minister gave us her assurance that if the provision of bilateral cochlear implants is recommended by NICE in England and Wales, she will ensure that deaf children in Scotland have access to the same option.

Scottish Government Debate on Getting it Right for Every Child
NDCS Scotland briefed MSPs on the need for best practice guidance for the delivery of multi-agency support for deaf children and their families in the early years.

This resulted in Marlyn Glen MSP raising our concerns during the debate.

Read the speech.

Motion
Robin Harper MSP worked with NDCS Scotland to lodge a motion encouraging MSPs to support our Pick a number campaign for better data collection on deaf children in Scotland.

To date, 23 MSPs have signed up to this motion, many of whom who were unable to make it to our Pick a number campaign launch in person.

Read the motion and find out if your MSP signed up.

NDCS Scotland rounded off the 2007-08 Parliamentary session with another busy month.

We pursued our campaigns on qualifications for teachers working with deaf children, on our attainment campaign, on the availability of bilateral cochlear implants on the NHS in Scotland, and celebrating the publication of the results of the Change Your World youth consultation in our  Big Plans for deaf children and young people in Scotland.

Taking forward our work on the emotional well-being of deaf children, we also influenced the Health and Sport Committee's evidence taking on access to specialist mental health services for deaf adults by encouraging members to also consider Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) too.

We continued working to hold the Scottish Government to account on NHS audiology workforce training.

Finallly, we were delighted to be publicly acknolwledged by the Scottish Government as a key stakeholder representing children with additional support for learning needs in response to a parliamentary question.

Parliamentary Question
Cathie Craigie MSP worked with NDCS to lodge another question on qualification standards for teachers working with deaf children in Scotland.

Read the question and the answer from the Minister for Children and Early Years.

Parliamentary Question
Patricia Ferguson MSP worked with NDCS Scotland to lodge further questions on the availability of bilateral cochlear implants for profoundly deaf children on the NHS in Scotland.

Read the question and the answer from the Minister for Public Health.

As a result of our work on this issue, NDCS Scotland has been invited to join with parents of deaf children and RNID Scotland at a meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing to discuss the issue.

Parliamentary Question
Tom McCabe MSP worked with NDCS Scotland to lodge further questions on audiology workforce training.

Read the questions and the answers from the Minister for Public Health here and here.

Question Time
NDCS Scotland briefed Dr Richard Simpson MSP on our campaign to raise the attainment of deaf children in Scotland when he was selected to ask a question at Education and Lifelong Learning Question Time on 19 June 2008.

Read the transript of Dr Simpson MSP's exchange with the Minister for Children and Early Years.

Committee Briefing
The Scottish Parliament's Health and Sport Committee took evidence this month on the lack of access to mental health services for deaf people in Scotland.

NDCS Scotland briefed Committee members to ensure that access to specialist mental health services for deaf children and adolescents was also considered to ensure the emotional wellbeing of Scotland's deaf children.

Read the transcript of the Health and Sport Committee's consideration of the issue (scroll to column 971).

Motion
Rounding off our work in the Scottish Parliament for this session, NDCS Scotland worked with Cathie Craigie MSP to host a launch for our Big Plans for Deaf Children and Young People in Scotland document, which was developed using the views expressed by young deaf people during our Change Your World consultation. 

We followed up our Member's Business Debate on this with a reception in Committee Room One of the Scottish Parliament on 18 June 2008 and Cathie Craigie MSP lodged a motion to commemorate the event.

39 MSPs have supported this motion to date.

Read the motion here and find out if your MSP has signed up.

This month, we continued our work to gather support amongst MSPs in the Scottish Parliament for our campaigns on early years provision for families of deaf children in Scotland, and widening access to TV for deaf children.

Motion
During Deaf Awareness Week 2008 and following on from her Parliamentary Question in December on the issue, Mary Mulligan MSP worked with NDCS Scotland to lodge a motion in the Scottish Parliament which calls on the Scottish Government to consider the specific support needs of deaf children and their families when developing its forthcoming Early Years and Early Intervention Framework with COSLA, and commit to producing detailed guidance for multi-agency professionals working with deaf children and their families in the early years setting.

The motion has to date attracted the support of 38 cross-party MSPs, which represents a third of all MSPs in the Scottish Parliament.

Read the motion and find out whether your MSP signed up.

Motion
Ken MacIntosh MSP worked with NDCS Scotland to lodge a motion to encourage wider access to television for young deaf people in Scotland and congrautulating the BBC on reaching 100% subtitled output across its main channels. 

To date, 51 cross party MSPs have signed up to this motion, the largest ever support for an NDCS motion in the Scottish Parliament.

Read the motion and find out whether your MSP has signed up.

This was a busy month. We worked with leading politicians to hold the Scottish Government to account on the qualifications for teachers working with deaf children in Scotland, the provision of Bilateral cochlear implants on the NHS in Scotland, and audiology workforce issues. 

Written Questions
NDCS Scotland worked with Robin Harper MSP, Convener of the Cross Party Group on Children and Young People, and Cathie Craigie MSP, Convener of the Cross Party Group on Deafness, to lodge a number of parliamentary questions on teachers working with deaf children.

Read the questions and answers from the Minister for Children and Early Years here and here.

Our campaigns officer also worked with Patricia Ferguson MSP to lodge a parliamentary question on the availability of bilateral cochlear implants on the NHS.

Read the question and the answer from the Minister for Public Health.

Finally, we worked with Tom McCabe MSP to lodge a number of written questions on NHS Audiology Workforce training.

Read the questions and answers from the Minister for Public Health here: S3W-11924; S3W-11928; S3W-11929; S3W-11930; S3W-11925; S3W-11926; S3W-119207.

In January 2008, NDCS Scotland campaigned to raise the profile of our Moving On project which is designed to help more young deaf people into work after leaving school. 

Motion
Elaine Smith MSP worked with NDCS to lodge a motion in the Scottish Parliament on Access to Work for Young Deaf People, which attracted the support of 28 cross-party MSPs.

Read the motion and find out if your MSP signed up.

This was a very busy month.

We worked with leading politicians to hold the Scottish Government to account on a variety of issues affecting deaf children and their families in Scotland: Early years support; the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004; communication support workers; teachers working with deaf children; attainment of deaf pupils and the number of deaf children in Scotland. In addition, we've been promoting awareness of our Supporting BME Families of Deaf Children in Glasgow project.

Motion
Bashir Ahmad MSP  worked with NDCS Scotland to lodge motion S3M-00962 (NDCS Supporting Black and Minority Ethnic Families of Deaf Children Project), which attracted the support of 20 cross-party MSPs.

Read the motion and check if your MSP signed up.

Bashir Ahmad MSP was inspired to lodge this motion after NDCS Scotland invited him to attend a coffee morning in Glasgow with Mohammed Sarwar MP.

Written Parliamentary Questions
NDCS Scotland worked with Cathie Craigie MSP and Jeremy Purvis MSP to lodge a number of questions on numbers of deaf children in Scotland, the attainment of deaf pupils in Scotland, the Additional Support for Learning Act, and teachers and communication support workers working with deaf pupils in Scotland.

Read the questions and answers from the Minister for Children and Early Years here and here and here.

Scottish Government Question Time
On the 13 December 2007, NDCS Scotland worked with Bashir Ahmad MSP and Mary Mulligan MSP to raise questions with the Minister for Children and Early Years on his plans to introduce a coordinated early years framework for deaf children following diagnosis.

Read the MSPs' questions to the Minister and the Minister's response.

NDCS Scotland's campaign centred around the Change Your World youth consultation this month, when the Scottish Parliament debated motion S3M-465 on the 3 October 2007.

NDCS Scotland also briefed MSPs ahead of the debate where the Scottish Government announced its plans for a 10-year Early Years and Early Intervention Strategy.

Member's Business Debate
The debate kick-started our campaigning presence in Scotland, and allowed us an opportunity, through briefing MSP speakers, to raise Change Your World, our plans for a youth strategy, campaigns on attainment of deaf pupils, early years support, and the quality of audiology services, and bring them to the public attention of the Scottish Government.

Cathie Craigie MSP led the debate, and Mary Scanlon MSP, Nigel Don MSP, and Robin Harper MSP all spoke to the motion. 

Stewart Maxwell MSP, Minister for Communities, whose portfolio includes equalities, responded to the debate on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Read our briefing to MSPs below and click to read the debate.

Debate Briefing
On 31 October 2007, the Scottish Government called a debate on its plans to develop a 10-year Early Years and Early Intervention Framework in partnership with COSLA.

NDCS Scotland issued a briefing note to MSPs ahead of the debate.

Read the transcript.

NDCS Scotland's campaigns focused on the NDCS Change Your World consultation this month.

Motion S3M-00465#

Cathie Craigie (Cumbernauld and Kilsyth) (Scottish Labour):

NDCS Change Your World consultation - That the Parliament congratulates the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) on its groundbreaking Change Your World consultation exercise, which represents the first ever discussion with young deaf and hearing-impaired people in Scotland and the United Kingdom about the issues and challenges which affect them; believes that deafness and other hearing impairments should not be a barrier for children in achieving their true potential; acknowledges the work of the NDCS in representing the interests of all deaf children and young people from birth until they reach independence; welcomes this opportunity to engage with young deaf Scots, and considers that as many young people as possible in Cumbernauld and Kilsyth and across Scotland with a hearing impairment should be encouraged to get involved and make their voice heard.Supported by: Jamie Hepburn; Irene Oldfather; Michael McMahon; Christine Grahame; Liam McArthur; Bill Butler; Jackie Baillie; Claire Baker; Karen Whitefield; Dr Elaine Murray; Ken Macintosh; Patrick Harvie; John Park; Trish Godman; Mary Mulligan; Elaine Smith; Rhoda Grant; Marilyn Livingstone; Joe FitzPatrick; Nigel Don; Hugh Henry; Robin Harper; Mary Scanlon.

Lodged on 12 September 2007; taken in the Chamber on 3 October 2007.