Chamber and committees

Information on individual school leaver destinations by reason for additional support need is held from 2007-08 onwards. Only limited analysis of school leaver destinations by pupil characteristics is available in 2006-07, prior to this information was collected at a school level.

In 2010-11, the proportion of leavers with a hearing impairment, from publicly funded secondary schools, entering positive destinations was higher than for any other additional support need and was similar to that for those with no additional support needs, 89.1 per cent compared to 89.7 per cent. See table 3.3: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/schleavdest2011

Information on school leavers from publicly funded schools, from 2007-08 onwards, broken down by additional support need is published on our website at the following links:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/PubDestinationLeavers and

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/dsintleav

Table 1 sets out the attainment levels of school leavers with a hearing impairment from mainstream and special schools. However, no significant conclusions can be drawn from the data as there is a very small number of leavers from specialist provision with a hearing impairment.

Table 1. Highest Qualifications Attained by School Leavers with a Hearing Impairment, 2009-10.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, as amended, places a duty on education authorities to identify, meet and keep under review the additional support needs of all pupils for whom they are responsible and to tailor provision according to their individual needs.

In November 2010, Education Scotland published the Review of the Additional Support for Learning Act: Adding Benefits for Learners which noted that children with sensory impairments continue to have their additional support needs identified and addressed at an early stage through well established partnership working between health and education and through the implementation of early intervention strategies. In November 2007, Education Scotland also published guidance for schools Count Us In: Achieving Success for Deaf Pupils. This aims to help teachers, support staff and managers to improve the experiences and outcomes of deaf and hard of hearing children and young people.

The National Partnership Group is currently developing detailed plans to implement the recommendations in Teaching Scotland's Future. The overall aim of the group is to improve outcomes for children and young people through improved learning and teaching. This includes developing detailed plans to implement proposals on teachers' career-long professional learning at Masters level and identifying priority areas for continuing professional development.

The Scottish Government also fund the Scottish Sensory Centre to provide high-quality continuing professional development to teachers of children with sensory impairments, including deaf and hard of hearing children.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, as amended, places a duty on education authorities to identify, meet and keep under review the additional support needs of all pupils for whom they are responsible and to tailor provision according to their individual needs.

In November 2010, Education Scotland published the Review of the Additional Support for Learning Act: Adding Benefits for Learners which noted that children with sensory impairments continue to have their additional support needs identified and addressed at an early stage through well established partnership working between health and education and through the implementation of early intervention strategies. In November 2007, Education Scotland also published guidance for schools Count Us In: Achieving Success for Deaf Pupils. This aims to help teachers, support staff and managers to improve the experiences and outcomes of deaf and hard of hearing children and young people.

The National Partnership Group is currently developing detailed plans to implement the recommendations in Teaching Scotland's Future. The overall aim of the group is to improve outcomes for children and young people through improved learning and teaching. This includes developing detailed plans to implement proposals on teachers' career-long professional learning at Masters level and identifying priority areas for continuing professional development.

The Scottish Government also fund the Scottish Sensory Centre to provide high-quality continuing professional development to teachers of children with sensory impairments, including deaf and hard of hearing children.

The Scottish Government holds information, supplied by the Scottish Qualifications Authority, on exams taken in Scotland. This information can be matched, by Scottish Candidate Number, to the Pupil Census, which collects information on additional support needs, including a category of hearing impairment. Attainment can be reported in a number of different ways, the only information the Scottish Government publishes on attainment by additional support need category is that of school leavers. Information on school leaver attainment by additional support need is published on our website:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/PubAttainment.

The BSL Roadmap has helped identify and inform issues and allowed the Scottish Government and many other agencies in the community to develop policy and strategies to help improve the lives of BSL users and people who have a sensory impairment.

Since the introduction of the Roadmap, the Scottish Government has (this list is illustrative but not exhaustive):

officially recognised BSL as a language (5 March 2010);

worked with Third Sector partners in piloting a number of sensory impairment one-stop-shops across Scotland;

joined a newly created working group looking at lipreading provision, the availability of lipreading tutors and re-establishment of a lipreading tutors training course in Scotland;

worked with organisations representing BSL users, as well as the wider sensory impaired community, to assist and support users to gain a full understanding and awareness of Self Directed Support;

made improvements in Audiology services, including the development of quality standards;

established a pilot to consider the practicalities and benefits of establishing a local record of deaf children with the aim of ensuring their needs are addressed in a more “joined up” way across health, education, etc;

considered how best to respond to some of the issues affecting families with Deaf babies, and

set up a Languages Working Group to advise on how we can deliver on our commitment to strengthen language learning in Scotland, whereby all children should have the opportunity to learn two languages in addition to their first language which, for some children, will be BSL.

NHS Health Scotland has:

commissioned and published a literature review “Researching Models of BSL Interpreting in the UK and Beyond” which presented various options for providing BSL interpreting using new technologies;

developed the Competency Framework for Interpreting as part of the Translating, Interpreting and Communication Support (TICS) Joint Action Group, which provides guidance for those working with patients with preferred communication other than spoken English, including British Sign Language;

continued to facilitate sharing of good practice in communication support between NHS boards through the TICS Joint Action Group, and

begun developing a new programme of work to ensure communication preferences are recorded and actions are taken to overcome communication and physical barriers to health related appointments and consultations.

NHS 24 is in the process of establishing a pilot for remote BSL interpreting.

Other aspects influenced by the Roadmap include:

two cohorts of Deaf students have completed the Heriot-Watt University Graduate Diploma in Training of BSL Tutors;

Heriot-Watt University is introducing an undergraduate course in British Sign Language (Interpreting, Translating and Applied Language Studies) with support from the Scottish Funding Council;

the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has a suite of stand alone National Qualifications Units in learning British Sign Language, and

SQA has validated a professional development award designed to develop skills in British Sign Language which was made available to centres in August 2011.

Scottish Planning Policy does not set minimum car parking standards for new housing developments. Planning Advice Note 75: Planning and Transport advises that parking policies must be adapted to particular local circumstances, for example through the development of a local authority’s own maximum and optional underpinning minimum parking standards.

The Scottish building regulations do not require any car parking provision for new housing developments. However, where car parking is provided within the curtilage of flatted properties a proportion of the spaces (1:20) should be designed to be accessible to a person with a mobility impairment.

Post-application qualification brings an element of certainty to the application process by dispensing with conditional offers. It is already the case for a proportion of pupils in Scotland that they will apply to University in sixth year having achieved the necessary highers for entry to higher education in fifth year. Accordingly, the notion of a post-results application system is not completely new here.

We would however want to think about the implications for those who need two years to attain their entry qualifications, particularly those from widening access backgrounds who tend to take longer to accumulate the necessary qualifications.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 requires social landlords to have in place a tenant participation strategy that includes arrangements for landlords to consult their registered tenant organisations (RTOs) on a range of housing and related matters. The act does not specify how social landlords should consult their RTOs.

In September 2002 the Scottish Executive issued guidance for landlords on the preparation of tenant participation strategies. This guidance suggested a variety of methods for landlords to consult and engage with RTOs, including public meetings, conferences, seminars, tenants’ forums, and special taskforces of tenants and housing officers to review policy or management of services.

Landlords should, in consultation with their RTOs, agree their consultation arrangements and publish these as part of the tenant participation strategy.

The information requested is not held centrally.