British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 - recommendations: SG response
Sets out a range of government actions in response to recommendations made by the Equalities, Human Rights, and Civil Justice report into the BSL (Scotland) Act 2015, the BSL National Plan 2023-2029, and BSL Local Plans by listed authorities.
6. Early years provision
6.1 Recommendation 11/paragraph 74
The Committee strongly agrees on the importance of young Deaf children being able to learn their native language of BSL from the earliest age and considers it unacceptable that some Deaf children can start nursery or school with no knowledge of the language.
6.1.1 Decision
Accept
6.1.2 Scottish Government Response
The Additional Support for Learning Act 2004 set duties for education authorities to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils, including D/deaf children. Duties under the Act can apply from under the age of 3 to the point at which a young person leaves school.
To support staff in the childcare workforce, the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), funded by the Scottish Government, launched a continuous professional learning (CPL) portal specifically for the childcare profession. All resources are quality assured and designed to support practice within the sector. We are investigating what BSL resources and information about training opportunities can be added to the portal to support childcare practitioners in this area.
We recognise the difficulties parents and carers of Deaf and Deafblind children have in learning BSL in early years. As stated in the BSL National Plan 2023-29, we are commit to working with the NHS and BSL providers to ensure the right support is provided at the earliest stages of childhood.
We value partnership working from organisations including the National Deaf Children’s Society and BDA Scotland, and commit to working with them and other partners to explore this issue further and identify next steps, including any training that might help to fill any gaps.
6.2 Recommendation 12 & 13/paragraphs 75 & 76
Paragraph 75: We greatly value the work being done to educate Deaf children by teachers of the Deaf and support workers but recognise that more needs to be done to ensure such learning opportunities are available to all Deaf children.
The shortage of qualified Teachers of the Deaf and interpreters of sufficient standard is having a direct impact on children’s learning. Too many Deaf children are leaving school without the language and support they need, and this is setting them up to fail in later life. This is not a future risk but is happening now, with lifelong consequences
Paragraph 76: For many Deaf people, BSL is not an additional language but their only language. That difference is crucial. Whilst investment in Gaelic schools is rightly celebrated, the same parity of esteem has not been extended to BSL, despite the fact that Deaf children cannot simply ‘choose’ another language in order to get on in society. We therefore invite the Scottish Government to set out what additional steps it intends to take to increase the number of qualified teachers of the Deaf, invest in Deaf education, and help bring about a parity of esteem with other minority languages such as Gaelic.
6.2.1 Decision
Accept
6.2.2 Scottish Government Response
Under the Children, Young People, and Families section of the BSL National Plan 2023-2029 there are several actions relating to appropriate qualifications for staff support for D/deaf children in different education settings including supporting early years workers, teachers of the Deaf, and teachers working with Deaf and Deafblind children to learn BSL up to the appropriate level (up to Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) level 6 for early years workers and up to SCQF level 10 for teachers of the Deaf and teachers working with Deaf and Deafblind children).
We are working with partners to update the existing qualifications guidance for teachers of children and young people who are blind or partially sighted, D/deaf or D/deafblind to ensure education authorities and teaching professionals have the latest advice on recommended qualifications and teacher competencies, and routes to gaining them. The revised guidance aims to enhance the attainment levels of children and young people with these additional needs.
A recent consultation on proposed revisions to the existing guidance will enable views across the education and third sector to be considered before the final draft is published. The conclusion of the teacher competency guidance update will allow us to consider next steps for the Teachers of Deaf children and young people workforce