Saving services for deaf children launch – rolling blog

Image courtesy of NDCS

6.03pm Am going to wrap up today’s blog. Very pleased that NDCS’s Save Services for Deaf Children campaign has made a splash today, with even MPs tweeting about it. We’re expecting some more media coverage over the next few days which will hopefully spread the word about the injustice of councils cutting budgets for some of the most disadvantaged children in society, when this funding has already been protected by central Government.

There’s loads you can do to support the campaign if you want to:

1) Visit the map, find out what’s happening in your area and share any intelligence you might have.

2) Contact your MP and ask him/her to help save services for deaf children.

3) If cuts are being made in your area, read our guide on how you can take action to fight these cuts at a local level.

The scale of the cuts, and the way in which they’ve been made, in many areas really is just outrageous. So I’m hoping this campaign will force local and central decision-makers to think again.

4.22pm The NDCS Save Services for Deaf Children map shows you what’s happening across the country, but if you want to see a list of which councils are making cuts, you might be interested in taking a look at the NDCS press release that went out today.

3.19pm CYP Now are the latest to cover today’s campaign launch in their online article. It includes a strong response from a Department for Education’s spokesperson:

“Local authorities have a statutory duty to identify children’s special educational needs (SEN) and provide the services to meet them – no ifs and buts.

“We’ve protected schools’ cash levels nationally and made sure local authorities can maintain specialised SEN provision – the best possible settlement considering the dire public finances. We expect local authorities target resources at the most vulnerable children, who need the most support, including deaf and hearing impaired children.”

No word on what action they will take though. NDCS wrote to the Secretary of State for Education earlier today asking him to intervene.

2.41pm “Vital services being cut, meh, happening everywhere, what can you do, what time is Britain’s Got Talent on?” is something I imagine a few people may be saying in response to NDCS’s Save Services for Deaf Children campaign.

Well, yes, these are difficult economic times, etc. But there are 3 things to take into account here.

1) The Government has already protected money for specialist support services for deaf children. The schools budget was kept at flat real per pupil in the last Comprehensive Spending Review. And what’s more, the Schools Budget is ring-fenced so you’re not allowed to spent it on other things, like Kit-Kats. So local authorities shouldn’t have any less money for these services. Other children are seeing their education funding protected, so why is it, in 28 local authorities, deaf children are facing cuts?

2) There are lots of things councils could do to save money. For example, NDCS is keen to see more councils join forces on services for deaf children. This would achieve economies of scale, whilst also helping to ensure a more comprehensive service can be delivered. Most local authorities seem to be rushing rather quickly to make front-line cuts before considering whether they can make savings this way.

3) For heaven’s sake, deaf children are already among the most disadvantaged children in society today. The last time I looked, there was still a massive attainment gap between deaf children and other children, even though deafness is not a learning disability. They need more support, not less. So why are deaf children’s services being targeted for cuts?

1.59pm Already quite a few parents have been leaving comments on the map to share intelligence about what they know about any cuts or changes to services for deaf children in their area. Given the reluctance by many local authorities to be open about their funding plans, NDCS is relying on parents to help them identify where cuts are being made.

Comments can be left anonymously and the locations don’t appear as exact on the map (so don’t bother trying to go and visit anyone). As an aside, a relocation of one of the parent comments went amiss the other day and a parent accidentally ended up being located in the middle of the North Sea before being placed correctly in Glasgow. NDCS – campaigning to save services for deaf children, but also saving parents in distress in the North Sea.

Interested in how NDCS created the map? More information here >

12.44pm With NDCS, it never rains but… As well as launching our new interactive map and our guide to parents for saving services, NDCS is also launching today a new campaign action for supporters. NDCS is asking all supporters to contact their MP to highlight these cuts being made to vital services. NDCS’s website makes it quick and easy and, through some voodoo wizadry that I don’t understand, it can also insert extra information for your MP about what’s happening in your own area.

11.45am One of the reasons NDCS wanted to publish its interactive map of cuts to deaf children’s services was that so parents could see if their local services were under threat… and take action if so. In many areas, councils are not coming clean with parents of deaf children. In 45 cases, NDCS had to issue Freedom of Information requests to force the council to reveal their plans. One parent of a deaf child in Stoke on Trent only found out about reductions when her child mentioned he hadn’t seen his Teacher of the Deaf for a while. If I were a cynical man, I’d say that councils are trying to make cuts by the back door and hoping that parents of deaf children won’t notice, or by the time parents do, it will be too late. There are still a sizeable number of local authorities who haven’t given us enough information. It’s just outrageous.

Where cuts are being made or services are still at risk, NDCS has produced a guide for parents on how they can campaign to save services for deaf children locally. NDCS is also continuing to directly support local parent campaigns in a number of areas including Stoke on Trent, Cumbria and Wiltshire, to name but a few.

11.24am Guardian journalist Cathy Heffernan has done a great comment piece on why Teachers of the Deaf are so important and the “gut-wrenching” cuts – well worth a read.

11am As well as our cuts map, NDCS has an image which shows where education services for deaf children are being cut or are at risk.

9.47am Lots of radio interviews happening, including Sky News radio and BBC London Breakfast. I will see if I can root out some transcripts. NDCS is also working hard to secure local press coverage in some of the areas where swingeing cuts are being made.

8.55am Here’s the NDCS news story on the campaign relaunch for Save Services for Deaf Children. Very pleased to see it’s already been covered in the Guardian.

8.26am The focus of today is going to be the “map” that I talked about earlier. On this, NDCS has put everything we know about what each local authority is up to on funding for education services in 2011/12. And it makes for grim reading – 28 local authorities have told us they are making cuts. That’s nearly 1 in 5 local authorities that are targeting deaf children’s services for cuts. On top of this, a further 24 have yet to confirm whether or not they’re making cuts.

The map also shows the feedback we’ve had from parents about their services and any cuts that have already happened. The map is a great place for parents of deaf children to go and find out what’s happening in their area, and share with NDCS any new information or their views on what’s going on.

8.10am Yes, the rolling blog is back for today’s relaunch by the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) of the Save Services for Deaf Children campaign. The aim of the campaign? To remind key decision-makers that deaf children are already among the most disadvantaged children in society today, and should not be forced to bear the brunt of public spending cuts.

Sadly, NDCS has uncovered lots of evidence that swingeing cuts are being made to education services that deaf children rely on. NDCS is publishing what they’ve learnt so far today – via a new fancy interactive online map.

NDCS is also seeking to spread the word far and wide that we need help from parents and other NDCS supporters to save these services, and hopefully NDCS will be in the papers, on the radio, everywhere. This blog will obviously be the place to be though.

I’ll do my best to do regular updates throughout the day. I’ll also do my best to avoid typos but apologies in advance for any incoherence.

Any questions or comments, leave them below and will try and respond asap.

Deaf Awareness Week – tip number five

Image courtesy of NDCS

Deaf Awareness Week will be over at the end of this weekend for another year . Sadness, indeed. How was it for you? I think any opportunity to shout out about the simple things that can be done to include and involve deaf people is a good thing. With that in mind, here’s my fifth and final personal deaf awareness tip.

5. Don’t be scared to ask.

I won’t be offended. I probably won’t mind. Yes, go ahead and ask me about my deafness and how I communicate.

I’m often surprised people don’t. Do I look fierce? I may be increasingly grumpy with age but I’m not Gordon Brown, I don’t stab people with pens or call them a bigot behind their back. I’m always happy to talk about myself and my experiences as a deaf person. Frankly, I can’t think of many things more interesting. So go ahead and ask me what helps me understand what’s being said and how I prefer to get my voice across. It’s nice and I appreciate it. It’s better than having impossible conversations, trying to stumble on, hoping for the best before finally discovering that we weren’t actually talking about Chewbacca from Star Wars.

It’s also better than making assumptions about a deaf person’s communication approach straight-off. As a child, I didn’t sign, and would always be confused and irritated when people just started signing to me, without also speaking, before checking that I actually signed myself.

This is not to say that communication isn’t a two-way responsibility. It’s obviously important for deaf people themselves to take charge of their communication and proactively explain to other people what works for them. But many deaf children are not particularly confident in doing so, either because of their age or because they haven’t been empowered to be assertive about their deafness. So my fifth and final deaf awareness tip of the week is: don’t be scared to ask. Get down to a deaf child’s level and ask them to explain to you what communication approach works for them – sign? speech? combination? flags? drums? Make sure they know that they can stop you and ask you to do something in a different way. Check and refine your communication approach as you go.

And that’s it from me. Don’t forget that these are just my own deaf awareness tips that are most important to me – the National Deaf Children’s Society have something more official. And you can also check out a poster done by Welsh deaf pupils last year.

Finally, remember, deaf awareness is for life, not just for one week in May!

Deaf Awareness Week – tip number four

Time for another of my own personal deaf awareness tips? Here’s my fourth:

4. Never say “it’s not important”

Imagine a deaf child struggling to follow what’s going on and asking their friends what everyone is talking about, and the response is “it’s not important” or “it doesn’t matter”. There are few things more deflating or more likely to make someone feel left out.

I can understand some of the reasons why a hearing person might say this. It may be a casual throw-away remark. Explaining it may take more time than it took to say it in the first place. The remark was directed at someone else. Etc, etc. It’s rarely said in malice.

But the point is if it was important enough to say in the first place, then it’s important enough to make sure it’s been understood. Otherwise, it’s like excluding and punishing a deaf child for being deaf. To me, it’s virtually a human right for a deaf person. Few things are more likely to demoralise and undermine someone’s confidence. And there are many deaf children already who are not exactly bursting with confidence.

And if you’re saying “it’s not important” because the deaf child hasn’t understood, then this is just another way of saying “it’s OK to give up” to a deaf child. Is that a message we want deaf children to take on board?

So my fourth tip is to always try and include a deaf child in everything you’re saying, and to never EVER say “it’s not important” (even when it really isn’t important).

My final deaf awareness tip follows tomorrow. Any final bids for what I should cover?

Deaf Awareness Week – tip number three

How is your Deaf Awareness Week going for you? Are you coping with the excitement? It’s the midway point of my five blogs on my own deaf awareness tips. With no further ado, here’s my third tip.

3. Don’t be a parrot.

Yesterday, I blogged that communicating with deaf children and grown ups is all about context. If I don’t understand the context, chances are that I’m going to have major problems understanding what’s being said. Which is why I get incredibly annoyed when, if I don’t understand something, people insist on just repeating themselves verbatim. Again. And again. And again. Until I get incredibly exasperated and flummox off in a huff.

So my deaf awareness tip no.3 is: don’t be a parrot. Don’t repeat yourselves endlessly. Saying the same thing louder or more slowly might help if you’re talking to foreigners, but it won’t help with deaf people. As a deaf child, when someone repeated something I didn’t understand, I would get incredibly annoyed. It always felt a bit demeaning, like I was some naughty boy that just wasn’t paying attention the first time around. Worse, it sometimes made me feel like I was trapped until I could work it out.

What WILL help is explaining it in a different way or outlining the context. Describe what you’re trying to say. Worst comes to the worse, write it down. Text it on your mobile. Point. Use visual clues. Express yourself though the medium of Morris-Dancing if you need to. There’s always another way to be understood. But never give up. And don’t be a parrot.

Again, thoughts on today’s and the other deaf awareness tips very welcome – just leave a comment below. The penultimate tip follows tomorrow…

Deaf Awareness Week – tip number two

It’s day two of deaf awareness week and I’m blogging my own personal deaf awareness tips all week long. Here’s my second:

2. Remember, it’s all about context.

I’ve always thought that communicating as a deaf person is a bit like completing a jigsaw. I have hearing aids and when I was younger I had radio aids too. Sure, they helped which is great. But they don’t “cure” my deafness. Making things louder does not help my strange deaf brain “make sense”, process and understand what the noises mean. So I rely on lipreading to help me make sense of stuff. But this isn’t an exact science either (Charlie Swinbourne’s excellent blog explains more about this). So I might also rely on other clues or use my intuition – if I’m at the Asda checkout, I’m guessing that I’m going to be asked about wanting cash-back or a carry bags. If instead I get asked about the football game last night, I’m probably going to look a bit blank (this is true on nearly all other occasions, but anyhow).

Completing a jigsaw is obviously much easier if you know what the finished product is meant to look like. Or if the individual pieces reveal little clues. It’s the same with me for communication. If I know what you’re talking about in advance, if I’ve got enough clues or if it’s in the right “context”, I can guess or make sense of what you’re going to go on and say, even if I don’t quite catch all the individual words you throw at me.

What does this mean in practice? Well, for example, you could start a conversation by saying what the topic is (“Did you see the TV last night?) rather than launching straight into the detail (“Louis Walsh was an idiot saying yes to that dancing woman on Britain’s Got Talent last night”). If you’re changing the topic or if the topic is alien to the situation, you could, for example, just literally move your hands to gesture you’ve moved on, rather than just immediately segue from asking if I want a cup of tea to the relative merits of the Alternative Vote system. For deaf children, it could mean teachers putting the classroom topic on the whiteboard or literally closing a folder or pile of papers to indicate the end of something and start of something else.

In short, my second deaf awareness tip of the week is: it’s all about context. Make the context clear, and communication will be much easier.

Is this an important deaf awareness tip for you too? Or is there something more important you’re waiting to see? I have three other tips lined up, but leave a comment below to share your ideas and thoughts.

Deaf Awareness Week – tip number one

Don’t pull down the bunting just yet – it’s Deaf Awareness Week!

In the interests of spreading some of that magic “awareness”, I’m going to be blogging this week my top 5 deaf awareness tips. The National Deaf Children’s Society have a definite list in their communication tips flyer but these are my own tips, most important to me, which I’ve picked up in my little life as a deaf child, young person and pretend-grown up. I’ll blog one tip each day – here’s my first.

1. Don’t patronise me.

As a child, one of the things that used to really rile me was people assuming that because I was deaf, I was dumb and stupid. That I was going to be a poor little mute thing, not going to do very much. So many times, I would detect a faint look of surprise when people saw that I – a deaf child – could use the medium of my lips to create speech. This would then turn into a look of astonishment when I not only spoke, but could construct a WHOLE sentence. Some people virtually passed out on the floor when they found out I went to a posh university. Anyhow, the end result of all this was that I was an insufferable show-off as a child, determined to demonstrate that just because I was deaf, I was not stupid.

I hope things are better now. But I still detect sometimes a prejudice that deaf children are never going to achieve as well as other children, and that the National Deaf Children’s Society is wasting it’s time in campaigning to close the attainment gap. And I worry that some deaf children pick up these subtle messages, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. I think this is not only wrong, but offensive and dangerous.

So my first and, most important, deaf awareness tip of the week is never to underestimate or patronise deaf children when you’re communicating with deaf children and grown ups. Our ears may be wonky but our brains work just fine, thank you very much.

Back tomorrow with my own second deaf awareness tip. Do let me know below what you think of my first or if you want to share your own important deaf awareness tips.