UK Council on Deafness

November 2005 Parliamentary Report

In this Report

• Cued Speech - Commons Written Answers (1 Nov 2005)
• Electoral Administration Bill - Commons Hansard Debates (8 Nov 2005)
• Disability Living Allowance- Work and Pensions (9 Nov 2005)
• Questions for Oral or Written Answer (9 Nov 2005)
• Smoke Alarms - Commons written Answers (14 Nov 2005)
• Connexions - Deaf and Hard of Hearing People - Commons written Answers (16 Nov 2005)
• Electoral Administration Bill - Standing Committee (17 Nov 2005)
• Other - Uncorrected Evidence (18 Nov 2005)
• Sign Language - Commons Written Answers (22 Nov 2005)
• Deaf People (Benefit Claims) - Commons Hansard Written Answers (28 Nov 2005)
• Deaf Children - Lords Hansard Written Answers (29 Nov 2005)
• Smoke Alarms - Commons Written Answers (30 Nov 2005)

Commons Written Answers  (1 Nov 2005)
Cued Speech

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has to publicise and encourage the use of cued speech among the parents of deaf babies.

Maria Eagle: I have been asked to reply.

It is not Governments place to recommend one particular form of communication with deaf babies and children. Through the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme it seeks to empower parents of hearing impaired children so that they can make informed choices about early communication and support options.

The Newborn Hearing Screening Programme has greatly improved the early identification of hearing impairments. This has enabled local services to provide earlier support and appropriate interventions, and parents to get the best information on local options. The screening programme also aims to improve practice throughout services. It works alongside other wider DfES initiatives such as the Early Support Programme.

The Early Support Programme aims to improve the services for disabled children aged 0 to 3 years and their families and has been operating since May 2002. It has produced a Monitoring Protocol for Deaf Babies and Children which, for the first time, offers a national resource to track development and progress over the first 3 years or so after identification of deafness.

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House of Commons Hansard Debates (8 Nov 2005)
Electoral Administration Bill

Mr. Heath : Provision for setting aside the personal identifier in such circumstances has already been made by the Government, who foresaw the problem. My amendment would not change that; it would simply introduce the provision across the country rather than in some parts of it.

Miss Begg: But earlier the hon. Gentleman described exactly what the barriers are. Which personal identifiers will be easiest? That is probably where we are looking to pilot. Should we use date of birth? I would go along with that; it is probably an easy identifier. Should we use a signature? Most certainly it would be easy for most people, but we might use the mother's maiden name or a range of other things that will be easier for an individual to remember than things that we might think are easy to remember. That is why I said in a previous intervention that using the national insurance number might be difficult. Remember, the purpose of this measure is to encourage more and more people to register. For people with a learning disability, for instance, something we have not thought of might be an easier personal identifier than the ones we have come up with.

I also referred earlier to the point made by Scope, the Royal National Institute for Deaf People and the Royal National Institute of the Blind, as well as other disabled organisations: whether it would be more successful to have individual registration with identifiers or household registration, also with identifiers; whether distributing the forms by household would make them too complex, too difficult to read and too difficult to access; and whether using an individual form would lead to a huge drop in the number of people who register. Nothing I have heard during our debates makes me think that we have the answers to those questions, which is why we need a pilot.

On Second Reading, I also made a plea for consistency across the different electoral regions. I might seem to be contradicting myself, but I think that we need pilots to find out what is easy and what is accessible. Having been registered in more than one electoral district—indeed, for a short time I was registered in three—I know that the variety of information and the differences between information that one receives in different areas can make it either easier or more difficult to work out how to register and what the form says.

I have puzzled over the exact meaning of a number of forms, especially in relation to declaration of citizenship, as it is not always clear whether that is mandatory. In one electoral register, one must declare one's nationality, while in my home register in Aberdeen, one does not have to do so. There is still confusion about exactly what is needed, and that is why the Government are right to pursue pilots. I accept the point made by the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome that the pilots must ultimately come up with a final solution. I hope that, as a result of the pilots, we will find out what works, what does not work, what is easy, what is accessible, and above all, what leads to security of poll and cuts out fraud to make sure that everyone has confidence in the electoral system.

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Work and Pensions (9 Nov 2005)
Disability Living Allowance

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 7 June 2005, Official Report, column 452W, on disability living allowance, what progress has been made in developing a new claim form for disability living allowance; and which groups are being consulted as part of this development.

Mrs. McGuire: The administration of disability living allowance is a matter for the chief executive of the Disability and Carers Service, Mr. Terry Moran. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Terry Moran to Mr. Mike Hancock, dated 7 November 2005:

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 7th June Official Report column 452W on disability living allowance, what progress has been made in developing a new claim form for disability living allowance; and which groups are being consulted as part of this development. The Secretary of State has asked me, as Chief Executive of the Disability and Carers Service (DCS), to reply to your question.

The DCS has been developing and testing different disability living allowance (DLA) claim forms since September 2003, in order to address concerns from disabled people and their representative organisations about the difficulties they were experiencing in claiming disability benefits. This has culminated in a claim form for DLA adult working age customers, currently being tested in the areas serviced by the Disability Benefits Centres at Manchester and Bootle. The effectiveness of the claim for both customers and DCS will be evaluated fully before any decisions are made about the way forward.

The establishment of the DCS as an Agency on 1st November 2004 marked an increased focus on understanding the needs of its customers through early proactive and open consultation with customer representative organisations. Consequently, the claim form currently being tested was subject to considerable consultation and input from a wide range of customer groups through the DCS Advisory Forum (formerly the Modern Service Working Group). The Forum provides the DCS' main consultation mechanism through its membership of 14 national Voluntary and Community Sector officers, who represent customers with a wide range of disabilities. Some of the Forum members also sought input from additional organisations, whom they considered could offer valuable input.

The list of organisations is attached at annexe 1.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Annexe 1

Organisation

Macmillan Cancer Relief

Mencap

Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB)

Mind

Disability Alliance

Local Government Association (LGA)

Carers UK

Citizens Advice

Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID)

Princess Royal Trust for Carers

Re-Think

National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS)

Age Concern

Contact A Family

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Questions for Oral or Written Answer
beginning on Wednesday 9 November 2005
(the 'Questions Book')

Mr Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne):To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what measures she is taking to ensure that the NHS delivers specialist support to those who became severely or profoundly deaf after the age of 16 years.

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Commons Written Answers  (14 Nov 2005)
Smoke Alarms

Mike Penning: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether his Department plans to issue guidance to fire services on the need to ensure smoke alarms provided to deaf and hard of hearing people meet the British Standard.

Jim Fitzpatrick: The Government is funding free smoke alarms for 1.25 million vulnerable households in England under the £25 million Home Fire Risk Check initiative over the period 2004-08. Many FRSs are fitting alarms for the deaf and hard of hearing under this initiative. Specific advice is already included in guidance prepared by the Chief Fire Officers Association. In summary, people who use hearing aids may be able to hear conventional interconnecting alarms, but if this is found not to be the case, specialist alarms should be fitted. We would expect all smoke alarms to meet appropriate British Standards.

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Commons Written Answers  (16 Nov 2005)
Connexions
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Pupils

Mike Penning : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what research she has commissioned on academic achievements of deafand hard of hearing pupils in (a) mainstream schools and (b) special schools and units in Hertfordshire.

Maria Eagle: It is for schools and local authorities to monitor the progress and attainment of children with special educational needs (SEN) for whom they have responsibility. We have not commissioned any research at local authority level into the attainment of children with different types of SEN in different educational settings. However, Ofsted is currently carrying out a study looking at how provision has changed over the past five years and how different types of provision affect outcomes for children with SEN. This report is scheduled to be published in summer 2006.

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House of Commons Standing Committee  (17 Nov 2005)
Electoral Administration Bill

Question proposed: That the clause stand part of the Bill.

Mr. Djanogly: The brief points that I want to make apply to clauses 37 and 38, as we have now moved on to the subject of offences related to voting. In a survey of Conservative agents their response to the clauses was that the police often do not seriously deal with violations of electoral law. One agent was told by a senior police officer that enforcing election law is not a priority; another maintained that the police do not understand election law. Another, who originally thought the police were doing a fairly good job, came back and said there were problems. That is an important point.

We can address election law and the penalties for breaking it, but ultimately the police have to buy in to the process. I would be interested to hear to what extent, if at all, the Government, in connection with the Electoral Commission, propose to have an educational programme with the police so that we move forward on the important issues together.

Mr. Clive Betts (Sheffield, Attercliffe) (Lab): I shall not try your patience, Mr. Conway. I am sure that I would be picked up fairly quickly if I, in any way, gave the impression of moving a starred amendment.

I want to try to raise an issue of concern that Ministers can consider, which may well be appropriate for the code of guidance and has been drawn to my attention by Sense on behalf of a number of charities and other bodies that represent disabled people. They believe that undue influence can also apply to the actions of a presiding officer. The concern is that someone might present themselves at a polling station who has a disability—maybe cerebral palsy, a mental illness or deafness that causes them to speak in a slurred way that is difficult to understand—and it might lead a presiding officer to decide that they do not have the capacity to cast a vote.

Those groups are concerned about such an occurrence, and initially wanted an amendment to the Bill that would prevent that. Maybe Ministers could reflect on that. They might be prepared to consider representations from the organisations and to consider whether it would be possible to give some guidance to presiding officers to ensure that that potential was removed and anyone with such a disability was not, at first appearance, deemed incapable of casting their vote and therefore excluded from the voting process.

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Other  (18 Nov 2005)
Uncorrected Evidence

Q147 Helen Southworth : The focus on public service is essential, I am sure we all agree, in this particular part of the process. Vulnerable individuals more than any other group of people need to be able to have advocates to speak for them. How is the BBC going to work with those organisations that are advocates on behalf of people with disabilities or older people or particularly vulnerable groups? What are you going to do?

Ms Thomson: We have a long history of working with groups like the blind and the deaf. Our technologists have worked a lot on developing technology which will help them benefit from digital technology. Our research people have developed audio description technology and one of the big benefits of digital switchover is it makes TV much more accessible to groups with disabilities and we would seek to build on that and work with them. Digital UK will have a key role in working with groups to help the vulnerable. I would expect our local radio network and our network of digital buses and so on equally to have a key role because people trust the BBC. We have yet to know exactly what it is we will need to do, but we will be using all the means at our disposal to make sure that these people find it as easy a process as possible.

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Commons Written Answers  (22 Nov 2005)
Sign Language

Mr. Waterson : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how much of her Department's budget in 2005-06 is dedicated to funding training in sign language and lip reading (2) what measures she is taking to ensure that the NHS delivers specialist support to those who became severely or profoundly deaf after the age of 16 years.

Mr. Byrne : This information is not held centrally. It is the responsibility of the national health service and local authorities to determine how best to provide services for people with hearing impairments. This includes resource allocation for training staff in appropriate means of communication and specialist support services

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Commons Hansard Written Answers (28 Nov 2005)
Deaf People (Benefit Claims)

Annette Brooke (Mid-Dorset and North Poole) (LD): What representations he has received about the difficulties that people who are prelingually profoundly deaf may experience while claiming benefits; and if he will make a statement.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mrs. Anne McGuire): Our aim is to provide an accessible service to all our customers. People who are prelingually profoundly deaf may claim benefit in a variety of ways, including by using a British sign language interpreter, or suitable communicator, to help in their own home if required.

Annette Brooke: Is the Minister aware that a recent survey of all customer service managers in the disability and carers service by the ombudsman's office revealed that only three requests for British sign language interpreters had been received in a whole year? From the ombudsman's report, which overwhelmingly supported my constituent, it appears that help is needed to access help. Will the Minister assure me that she will work with the voluntary sector and other bodies to improve
accessibility to the benefits system—and, indeed, pathways to work—for anyone with a sensory disability?

Mrs. McGuire: I am aware of the case that the hon. Lady mentions, and I hope that I can give her some reassurance. Among other organisations, my officials are meeting Sign It!, which I understand was the group that supported her constituent. That group provides communication and interpreter support to the deaf community. We are working with it to explore the potential for improving arrangements for making claims. I reassure the House that the disability and carers service has produced a British sign language DVD version of its customer information leaflet, which will be available from 16 December 2005. We are examining further ways in which we can ensure that communication is extended.

Mary Creagh (Wakefield) (Lab): What impact does my hon. Friend think the access-to-work scheme has had on people who become deaf over time, either while in employment or due to age-related nerve deafness or industrial deafness? Is she aware of a report by the Disability Employment Coalition that says that for every pound spent on the scheme, £1.48 is accrued in extra revenue to the Treasury? Does she agree that deaf, deafened and hard-of-hearing people need help not only to enter employment, but to stay in employment and off the benefit system?

Mrs. McGuire : I thank my hon. Friend for raising the access-to-work scheme. As she and many hon. Members will be aware, that successful scheme supports disabled people, many of whom become disabled of a result of illness or accidents during their working lives. The scheme helps them into employment and sustains them in employment. I am aware of the report that my hon. Friend mentions. Some of the figures in it are perhaps not universally accepted, but it highlights the importance of such support to disabled people to ensure that they can fulfil their potential in the workplace.

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Lords Written Answers  (29 Nov 2005)
Deaf Children

Lord Ashley of Stoke asked Her Majesty's Government:

What information has been collected about deaf children in (a) mainstream schools, and (b) special units within those schools; and what are the main features which that information reveals.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Lord Adonis): Information available on the number of pupils with hearing impairments in mainstream primary and secondary schools is given in the table. The data show that the percentage of pupils with a hearing impairment in primary and secondary schools is a small percentage (2.3 per cent) of the overall number of pupils with identified SEN in those schools.

Pupils in special units within mainstream schools cannot be separately identified at present but this information will be collected from 2007.

(1) Pupils at School Action Plus and with statements of SEN.

Maintained Primary and Secondary Schools

Source: Annual Schools Census

1 Includes middle schools as deemed. Excludes maintained nursery schools as this information is not available from all such schools.

2 Pupils at School Action Plus and those pupils with statements of SEN provide information on their primary and, if appropriate, their secondary

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Commons Written Answers  (30 Nov 2005)
Smoke Alarms

Paul Rowen: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will issue guidance to fire services on the need for smoke alarms provided to deaf and hard of hearing people to meet the British Standard.

Jim Fitzpatrick: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mike Penning) on 14 November 2005.

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