House of Commons Hansard Written Answers
11 Nov 2008
 Local Safeguarding Children Boards: Hearing Impaired
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many local children's safeguarding boards have undertaken a review of their local procedures, policies and training programmes to ensure that the needs of deaf children are recognised and met, as recommended by the Department of Health's 2005 report Mental Health and Deafness: Towards Equity and Access.  Beverley Hughes: Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) coordinate local work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and ensure the effectiveness of that work. This includes ensuring that deaf children are effectively safeguarded and supported. Government have encouraged LSCBs to engage widely within their communities to build a full picture of safeguarding priorities to inform the activity of their member organisations and partners. In February 2006 the DCSF issued practice guidance for LSCBs on Safeguarding Disabled Children which specifically addressed the needs of deaf children. The practice guidance is being updated and will be published in spring next year. We have also encouraged those with specific expertise in this area to work with the LSCBs, including the National Deaf Children's Society, the NSPCC, the British Society for Mental Health and Deafness and the UK Council on Deafness. In close collaboration with local authority and other partners, the DCSF is also undertaking a stocktake of LSCBs to develop recommendations that will help all LSCBs perform at the level of the best. The stocktake will report in spring 2009.  

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers
12 Nov 2008
Special Educational Needs: Hearing Impaired

Tom Levitt: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what progress has been made in narrowing the gap in educational attainment between deaf children and their hearing peers; and what steps he plans to take to further narrow the gap.  Sarah McCarthy-Fry: We have been looking at the data on attainment gaps between hearing impaired children and their peers with the National Deaf Children's Society, in the context of our public service agreement target to narrow attainment gaps between disadvantaged pupils and their peers. Our national strategies advisers are looking with local authorities at the proportions of children who are achieving less than levels expected for their age at Key Stages 2 and 4, and at the actions being taken to reduce those proportions over time. We have commissioned research from the National Children's Bureau and the Thomas Coram Research Centre to establish why there are such wide variations between authorities on the identification and classification of children with all types of SEN but using deaf/hearing children and autism spectrum disorders as exemplars. To help narrow outcome gaps between children with SEN and disabilities (including children whose hearing is impaired) and their peers, we committed £18 million in the Children's Plan to: improve work force knowledge, skills and understanding of SEN and disability through better initial teacher training and continuing professional development; developing better data for schools on how well children are progressing, and guidance for schools on what constitutes good progress; and continue to strengthen the position of SEN coordinators in schools. The Training and Development Agency is currently consulting on proposals for nationally accredited training courses for new SEN coordinators. We have also committing to funding, from September 2009, additional places on courses leading to approved mandatory qualifications (MQ) for teaching children and young people with sensory impairments. The TDA has been working with interested parties to establish arrangements for making best use of the funding we are making available. In addition, we have committed £800,000 for a pilot project to raise awareness of British Sign Language and upskill the current specialist work force.  


House of Commons Hansard Written Answers
26 Nov 2008
Special Educational Needs

Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many maintained special schools there were in each year since 1997.  Jim Knight: The numbers of maintained special schools are shown in table A1 of the following statistical first release: ‘Pupil Characteristics and Class Sizes in Maintained Schools in England': http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000786/NationalTablesWeb.xls. Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what progress has been made in developing a project to test ways of improving the system of providing accessible versions of text books for blind and partially sighted pupils.  Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Good progress has been made on the accessible resources pilot project. The invitation to tender was advertised and circulated to interested organisations on 22 September. The deadline for bids is 11 November and interviews will take place in December, with the project commencing in early 2009. Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what sign language qualifications a communication support worker working with deaf children is expected to hold; and what measures are in place to ensure all communication support workers hold such a qualification.  Sarah McCarthy-Fry: We do not specify minimum competence in signing for teaching assistants or communication support workers but we would expect them to assist teachers with mandatory qualifications during lesson times by providing educational support for deaf and hearing impaired children. All schools receive a school development grant which they are able to use to support improvements in any aspect of teaching and learning and it is for individual teachers and their schools to determine their own particular training and development needs. Local authorities may also retain a proportion of this grant, under conditions, to provide specific training and development of Special Educational Needs. We are committed to providing a suitable education for all children. In the Children's Plan we announced new resources to increase the number of teachers taking mandatory qualifications for teaching deaf and hearing impaired children, with some free places available from September 2009.