Teacher of deaf children qualifications

As parents, you will know how invaluable the support provided to you by your ToD is, right from the moment of diagnosis. 

They are professionals with specific skills and specialist knowledge of deafness acquired through university led training who support you and your child to get the best out of the education system and your child’s communication aids. They are increasingly also now relied on to provide invaluable practical support and advice to mainstream teachers who have a deaf child in their class. ToDs are skilled professionals.

However, in February 2007, the then Scottish Executive issued new guidance on the training route for ToDs, giving local authorities permission to allow ToD candidates to undertake locally delivered training courses instead of the university-led courses if they wished. ToD candidates who choose to go down this route will have five years to prove that they satisfy a set of competencies which the Government says are the minimum training requirements to teach deaf children. There is no requirement to undertake an observed teaching practice with deaf children, nor to acquire BSL beyond Level 1.

Before the new guidance was introduced, with no prior consultation with NDCS or BATOD, parents could be satisfied that all ToDs working wholly or mainly with their deaf child had been trained to do so via a university accredited, postgraduate training course, regardless of which part of the country they live in.

Now, the system is open to wide variation in standards of training. No one institution will have responsibility for monitoring or accrediting the standards of locally delivered training courses. Equally, there will be no central monitoring of the new qualifications achieved by Scotland’s ToD profession.

NDCS is not against the move to a locally delivered training route in principle. But we are against the lack of central monitoring of standards.

If it is down to local authorities to monitor and accredit their ToD’s competence, with no central monitoring, NDCS fears that we will end up with huge variation in standards throughout Scotland - in essence, creating a postcode lottery.

NDCS has joined forced with BATOD to campaign on this issue. We have developed a set of competencies that we believe must be the minimum standard for all ToDs to achieve. Jointly, we are also campaigning for a wholescale review of the current ToD workforce in Scotland.

• December 2008: NDCS and BATOD met with the Children's Policy Committee of ADES on 28 November 2008. We presented our concerns to them, and the Sub Committee has agreed to take our issue to the next Executive Committee Meeting of ADES in the New Year, with a view to working with Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to address the issue of standards throughout Scotland. 
• November 2008: NDCS has secured a meeting with the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland to discuss our concerns over the current training competencies with them. We also attended the BATOD Scotland Annual Conference to brief and update BATOD members on our work on this issue.
• May 2008: NDCS and BATOD Scotland met with the General Teaching Council for Scotland on 20 May 2008 and outlined our concerns to them. On 10 May 2008, NDCS Scotland addressed a National Council meeting of BATOD Scotland to brief them on this campaign, and gain wider support from within the ToD profession. We had a wonderful response, and all present indicated their support and a willingness to get involved. The GTC advised us to seek a meeting with the Association of Directors of Education Scotland (ADES) to raise our concerns with them.
• April 2008: As a result of lobbying at the Cross Party Group on Deafness and the Cross Party Group on Children and Young People, a range of written questions have been lodged in the Scottish Parliament by the respective conveners of each group. The answers reveal that the Scottish Government believes that there are 43 qualified ToDs working in Scotland today, that it has no plans to conduct a wholescale review of the ToD workforce, and that it has no specific plans to encourage more teaching professionals to train as ToDs.
• February 2008: At our meeting with the Minister for Children and Early Years in February 2008, we raised the issue of ensuring excellence in the ToD profession. The Minister confirmed with us that the competencies had now been accepted by the GTC Scotland as part of their professional recognition scheme.
• October 2007 to January 2008: NDCS has had a variety of meetings with the Additional Support for Learning Department at the Scottish Government to brief them of our opposition to the current situation.
  

In Wales, following pressure from concerned charities representing deaf pupils and teachers working with them, the Welsh Assembly Government conducted a wholescale review of the Welsh ToD profession, which resulted in a recruitment drive to train 24 new ToDs over two years.

All of these ToDs will have a university delivered post-graduate qualification in deaf education.

All ToDs working in England and Northern Ireland are still required to have a university delivered post graduate qualification in deaf education.

The Scottish Government has made it clear to NDCS that it expects Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) to ensure ToD standards in schools where deaf children are present.

Read more

• Count Us In: Achieving Success for Deaf Pupils

Write to your local MSP to ask them to put pressure on their local authorities to reveal how many ToDs it employs and what training route they are using. 

Write to the Minister for Schools to tell her that as a parent of a deaf child, you are concerned about the impact of this flexible training route on your child's education, and ask her to introduce monitoring of standards.

Contact campaigns.scotland@ndcs.org.uk for further details.

NDCS Scotland needs you!

• Does your deaf child receive fantastic support from a ToD? 
  
• How many times a week/month/year do they receive this support?
  
• Do you have concerns about this change in the training route?
  

Please tell us about it. Here's what one parent said:

"I feel that the education system is lacking for deaf children. Teachers are often unsure of how to ‘teach’ a deaf child, often leaving them to their own resources."

Case studies like these help NDCS to demonstrate to the government the case for action on training for teachers of deaf children.

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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