UK Council on Deafness

October 2007 Parliamentary Report

In this Report

• Hansard Written Answers, 16th October
• Education; Hearing Impaired, 8th October 2007

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House of Commons Hansard Written Answers
16 Oct 2007
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Audio Equipment: Health Hazards

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform pursuant to the answer of 11 June 2007, Official Report, column 764W, on audio equipment: health hazards, what the evidential basis was for his statement that it is already widely understood that playing personal audio equipment too loud can damage people's hearing.

Mr. Thomas: Research conducted in 2005 by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) showed that 42 per cent. of people between the ages of 18 to 24 years who played their personal music players for at least an hour every day believed that they had the volume too high. There are no published figures to indicate the percentage of people in the sample who were both aware of the risks and believed they used safe volume levels.

The RNID has been running the 'Don't Lose the Music' campaign to further raise awareness of the dangers of playing personal audio equipment too loud.
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Education; Hearing Impaired, 8th October 2007

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families

(1) what estimate he has made of the amount spent on the education of deaf children in Norfolk in each of the last five years;

(2) if he will assess the effectiveness of the process for (a) the education of deaf children and (b) the appeal process against allocation decisions.

Jim Knight: The Department does not collect information on the amount spent on the education of particular groups of pupils with special educational needs (SEN). However, the following table shows information relating to budgeted expenditure on the education of children with special educational needs in Norfolk since 2003-04:

2003-04 - £42,233,000

2004-05 - £44,946,000

2005-06 - £48,604,000

2006-07 - £51,472,000

2007-08 - £60,953,000(1)

(1) Provisional Source:Section 52 statements

We do not make a separate assessment of the effectiveness of the education of deaf children. All pupils both with and without SEN are assessed at the end of key stages of learning and pupils with a statement of SEN have their needs reviewed annually. The statutory framework and the SEN code of practice should ensure that all children with special needs have those needs identified and assessed and receive appropriate support. We are currently in discussion with deaf and hearing impairment organisations about school attainment data for this group of pupils.

We have no plans to review the effectiveness of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST), which provides an independent and impartial appeal process against local authority decisions about the education of children with hearing impairments and other special educational needs. In the tribunal year 2005-06 the tribunal decided 31 cases in which hearing impairment was identified as the children's primary difficulty. The tribunal upheld 20 of 26 cases relating to school placement.

Under part 4 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA), schools must not discriminate against prospective disabled pupils in their admissions arrangements and should make reasonable adjustments to their admissions policies and procedures so that prospective disabled pupils are not disadvantaged by the school's admission arrangements. If a child is refused entry for other reasons, such as the school being full, then they have the same right to appeal as other children.

Local education appeals panels consider claims of discrimination in relation to admissions to, and permanent exclusions from, local authority maintained schools. SENDIST hears other claims about schools under the DDA.

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