Is this really the right time to push ahead with special educational needs reform?

Sad parliamentary geeks of the world, rejoice! The long-expected Children and Families Bill has now been published, setting out, amongst other, wide-ranging proposals for reform to the special educational needs framework. This is likely to result in significant changes to how deaf children and their families are supported and educated. If you’re unfamiliar with what the reforms mean, the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) have produced a FAQ for parents of deaf children.

For much of this year, I’m going to be working on the Bill and briefing politicians what it might mean for deaf children and which bits of the Bill they should support, question, clarify or violently throw their Committee chairs against the wall and revolt against. Who knows, I might end up accidentally changing the law again.

In short, it’s going to be a big deal. So before we get into all of that, it’s worth asking a fairly fundamental question: is it sensible to go ahead with these proposals now?

The reason I ask is that the NDCS Stolen Futures campaign has already found that in the two years running up to April 2013, 1 in 3 councils have cut vital services for deaf children. So who is going to be left to implement these reforms?

The reforms are not cost-neutral. That much is clear from the ‘pathfinders’ who have been testing out the reforms. One Teacher of the Deaf working in one of the pathfinder areas told me that the work she had been doing on creating new ‘Education, Health and Care Plans’ involved lengthy meetings with parents and lots of work to co-ordinate with other professionals. This is not to say that the reforms are a bad idea. But it is to question whether they are sustainable in the long-run, without extra investment. However, the Department for Education have been clear that there is no new money on the table.

The big fear is that this reform actually causes so much upheaval that services get worse and deaf children’s education suffers. Parents of deaf children are already a little anxious about what this all means. In a NDCS survey, just 6% of parents of deaf children thought the proposals would mean that deaf children would get better support. 80% of parents who were familiar the reforms said they thought the real aim was to reduce spending. The Department clearly has some work to do to reassure parents.

As the Bill goes through Parliament, NDCS is going to be reinforcing this point: that unless the Department for Education ‘step up’ and intervene where local authorities are making cuts to services, their SEN reforms risk making a bad situation worse.

Stolen Futures campaign video and why the Government needs to step up

Image courtesy of NDCS

Well, today was very exciting. The new campaign video for the National Deaf Children’s Society Stolen Futures campaign was released. It features actor Jim Carter (him off Downton Abbey, not the ex-peacenik-President) and my heroine Dame Evelyn Glennie (her banging the drums at the Olympics). And Jim then appeared on Lorraine this morning to tell everyone about the petition. Don’t tell anyone but I’ve always had a secret crush on Lorraine. It’s that husky Scottish voice. Rrrr.

Anyhow, the video is great. Please do watch and see for yourself. But it has a serious side. Vital services for deaf children are still being cut across the UK. Deaf children’s futures are still being stolen. And the Department for Education are still buck passing. The National Deaf Children’s Society still needs 100,000 signatures to force the Department to take responsibility.

“It’s a matter for local authorities,” the Department say.

“We’ve protected funding for vulnerable learners,” they protest.

“Go and have a go at the council bosses, light some firecrackers down the council building,” they haven’t quite said but it lies near the surface.

By April 2013, one in three local authorities will have cut the vital services that deaf children rely on. Is the Department for Education seriously expecting parents from across all those areas or charitable organisations like the National Deaf Children’s Society to be able to hold them all to account? For real?

It’s the Department for Education’s money. It’s their responsibility. They need to sort it.

Hence, the petition to get them to intervene. It’s building momentum. Over 28,500 so far. Share the video with everyone you know to help them see why this is so important. Get them to sign the petition. And then get them to share the video with everyone they know. And that way we can get the Department for Education to finally step up.

Deaf children deserve better than all this buck passing.

Stop what you’re doing, sign a petition and help stop cuts to deaf children’s services

My colleague Jenny caught me talking to myself the other day. I simply reminded her about the importance of internal communications in our office. And in the best spirit of internal communication, I am going to interview myself in this blog. I think I’m sitting comfortably, so here we go.

Hello! Do you have 5 minutes to sign a petition? 

God, not another pointless pontificating petition for socialist eco-warrior peaceniks to sign…

No, no, no – this is a petition to help save services for deaf children. 1 in 4 councils are cutting vital services for deaf children like Teachers of the Deaf, communication support workers, audiologists, social workers, speech and language therapists. NDCS’s Stolen Futures report sets out the full scale of cuts across England.

Yeah, yeah, all very sad, boo hoo, but cuts are taking place everywhere, innit?

Yeah, but are things really so bad that we have to start cutting help for deaf children, some of the most vulnerable children in society. To force deaf children to sit in classrooms missing what’s being said and falling further and further behind because their Teacher of the Deaf isn’t able to come in anymore? Is that how we think we should treat deaf children?

Er, yes, that’s bad but…

Hang on dear, there’s more. Imagine you’re a Mum who’s just found out that your child is deaf. You know nothing about deafness. 9 out of 10 parents don’t. You need someone to explain what deafness is, how you can teach your child to develop language and communication, and help you navigate all the other services out there. You need someone to give you hope.

Yeah, OK, it’s pretty immoral and something needs to be done, but a petition, yeah? Hardly going to change the world…

But if this petition gets 100,000 signatures, Parliament will hold a debate on the petition.

A debate? Snooze… I thought we were trying to stop the cuts? How is a debate going to change things?

A debate is still a big deal. Very few petitions hit the 100,000 mark so those that do get noticed. Government Ministers will have to explain themselves in front of everyone and answer some tough searching questions about what’s happening to deaf kids. Even if nothing happens immediately, it’s going to put them under huge amounts of pressure to do something. Plus, it will send a really strong signal that people care about deaf children. That people think the Government and councils should have some basic decency and not abandon deaf children.

But what’s the point of asking Westminster to do anything? The local councils are the bad guys right? Why can’t you just keep fighting them locally like you’ve been doing already? Take them to court and flog ‘em? 

True, dat. It is the councils making cuts. But the Government holds the big purse strings. And they have real powers of direction over councils. There’s 152 councils in England. As much as they would like to and as much as they can try to, organisations like NDCS can’t fight the local cuts everywhere. Central Government can, should and needs to intervene.

100,000 signatures though? Impossible. Do you want me to raise the Titanic while I’m at it? 

Impossible? It’s said that everyone in the world is connected through six people. Around 500 people read my last blog last week. You all have friends, right? You also have colleagues, social groups that you’re involved in? If you sign it, then get 10 people to sign the petition and then they too get 10 people to sign it, we’re half way there already.

And I suppose when you get to  halfway other people will start to notice and say to themselves, actually yeah, this is a pretty appalling way to treat some of the most vulnerable children in society.

Absolutely. Aren’t you a clever clogs. And think what a signal it would send if the needs of deaf children reach the top of the agenda. Councils and Government would seriously think twice about ever doing anything to mess with people who care about deaf children and other disabled children.

Alright then, I’ll sign the bloody thing. Er, and how do I do that? 

Easy. Go to this website. Add your details. Click send. Then wait for an email to confirm you’re not some lunatic spambot and click on the link in the email. And you’re done. Then email everyone you know and get them all fired up. Sorted.

I’ll do my best. I’m still just 1 person though. Can I really make a difference?

Yes. If enough people take small steps to stand up to an injustice, big things can happen.

Deaf children are some of the most vulnerable children in society. If we don’t stand up for their rights and stop the cuts, then who will?

What does the big special educational needs shake up mean for deaf children?

The Department for Education are now full steam ahead with the biggest shake up of the special educational needs framework in England for 30 years. It certainly feels like 30 years since they announced their initial proposals but has actually only been less than 2 years. So what will the shake up mean for deaf children? Will it lead to better services and more choice for parents?

Well, despite a recent ‘Next steps’ update from the Department, some of the details are still somewhat hazy and will only become clear when the Department publishes their new laws in draft in September. Lots of the proposals are also still being tested by pilot pathfinders in 30-odd areas across England. The reforms are mega and it’ s impossible to try and summarise everything in one go. But I’ll have a go. Here’s a selection of 3 key questions and areas of uncertainty.

1) Education, Health and Care Plans

The statements are dead. Long live the Education, Health and Care plans. Yes, the statements – the legal entitlements to support that around 25% of deaf children currently have – is going to be broadened out and replaced with Education, Health and Care plans. The stated intention is to better ensure joined up working and prevent parents from having to give professionals the same information over and over again when their child is being assessed.

But will it do the job? Some key issues include:

* Existing legal protections won’t be lost (i.e. for education). But it’s not yet clear whether the plans will introduce any new legal protections (i.e. for health and social care). If it doesn’t, it kind of begs the question as to what the whole point of changing it is.

* Who will get one? When similar reforms have been done in other parts of the UK, the stated intention has been to reduce the number of children with statements. Will the same happen in England?

* Who’s going to do all these assessments? NDCS’s latest Save Services report, Stolen Futures, has found that 1 in 3 councils have cut education services since April 2011. Half of these cuts involve Teachers of the Deaf. Are the Government’s ambitions being thwarted by the cuts taking place on the ground?

* What will the plan look like? Will it have a proper focus on how deaf children should be doing and what support they need to get there? Or will it be a wiffly-waffly smiley face document of general platitudes? Some of the pathfinders seem to be going down the latter route…

2) Personal budgets

Parents who have a statement/plan will now get the chance to take control over the budget for their child’s services and buy in services from whoever they choose. The right to personal budgets will be an option and councils are expected to provide support to parents to help them navigate the system through what are sometimes known as ‘key workers’. Tricky issues here include:

* What will parents be able to buy with a personal budget?

* Choice for parents is great. But if parents chose not to buy from existing services, how much of a problem will that be?  Will existing council-run services have to wind down? Will personal budgets in effect end up actually reducing choice for other parents?

* The concept of personal budgets assumes a choice of services for parents. Yet does this really apply to educational services for deaf children? Can a parent pop down to Tesco to get a new Teacher of the Deaf?

3) The local offer

Every council will now have to say what’s available in their area for parents of children with special educational needs via a new ‘local offer’. The idea is that it will improve accountability and help parents get the information they need more readily. But…

* Will information be broken down by type of special educational need? The needs of a child with autism will be very different from that of a deaf child so how will councils produce something which is genuinely useful to all parents without cutting down the Amazon?

* Will there be a set format for a local offer? If not, how easy will parents find it to make comparisons between what’s in their own area and in neighbouring councils?

* Do parents really want a local offer? Or do they want a national offer? To be confident that the same basic services for deaf children will be available everywhere? I suspect the latter, but the Department has effectively already ruled this out.

This is barely scratching the surface and there are loads of other unanswered questions. NDCS’s response to the initial proposals sets out some of these other issues. Suffice to say, it would be a shame if the biggest, and badly needed, shake up of special educational needs reform doesn’t improve things for deaf children. So anyone with an interest in deaf education should start paying very close attention to the developing proposals in the coming months to make they do deliver for deaf children. Watch this space very closely.

If you’ve got any views on what the reforms will mean for deaf children, drop a line below – be good to hear from you.

Is the Government telling deaf people to PIP off on disability benefits?

It took me a while but I finally read through the Department for Work and Pension’s consultation on the eligibility criteria for the new benefits for disabled people, Personal Independence Payments. Otherwise known as PIP. To be fair, there were three, rather long documents, to read through to understand what was being proposed. And I’m still not sure I’ve got it.

For those that don’t know, PIP is the new DLA (Disability Living Allowance), a benefit for disabled people to fund the various additional costs associated with being disabled. Though the Government keep implying otherwise, it’s not linked to employment status. PIP will be introduced from next spring for disabled young people aged 16+. Disabled children have a stay of execution and will remain on DLA for now.

The Government have confirmed that when the move to PIP happens, 500,000 disabled people will lose their PIP. Yup, that’s half a million people who will be worse off. And looking at the guidance, it seems that many deaf people will be among the losers.

This is because in order to get the new “standard” rate of PIP, a deaf person would have to show that they couldn’t understand “basic” information when communicating out and about. Difficulties in understanding anything more than basic information will, on its own, not get you the points you need to qualify. Examples given in the document seem to suggest that only deaf people who communicate entirely and solely in sign language will be eligible for the new PIP. Everyone else, it would seem, nothing.

Ministers at the Department for Work and Pensions recently said that deafness was a “moderate” disability. The policy intention is that funding needs to be taken away from deaf people and given to those with more severe disabled needs. This is obviously a rather narrow way to frame political choices. It’s also an approach that treats deaf people as being less “deserving” of support, regardless of any additional support that may be needed to understand more than just “hello” and “bye bye” and which ignores the additional costs and disadvantaged associated with being deaf in a hearing world.

The National Deaf Children’s Society have drafted a short guide on what the changes might mean for deaf young people. This also include some tips and suggestions on how to respond to the consultation. If you think the changes are unfair, I would encourage you to have your say and ask the Government to raise the threshold of support to make sure deaf people get the help they need.

Family sign language video goes global

NDCS campaigner and proud Dad, Nick Beese, recently did some filming in support of NDCS’s Sign Up campaign to ensure all families have access to family sign language. Here’s an amazingly sweet clip featuring daughter Ava chatting with her Mum:

I’m not alone in loving this video; the video has gone viral on youtube and the last time I looked it has nearly 800,000 hits. When I looked this morning, it was around 400,000.

Not all deaf children are lucky enough to be like Ava. For the 9 out of 10 deaf children who are born to parents with no experience of deafness, many will face communication difficulties unless their parents get support on how to communicate with deaf children. At the moment though, too many parents are being forced to pay hundreds of pounds just to learn to communicate with their deaf child. Not what I would call fair.

NDCS’s Sign Up campaign is campaigning for families to have fair access to sign language. You can support the campaign in a range of ways, including by signing a government petition.

In the meantime, a huge thanks to Nick Beese and Ava for bringing the campaign to life in a great way and helping it go global.

Speaking to media about NDCS’s Save Services campaign

Image courtesy of Remark!

Sometimes I wonder if the N in NDCS stands for nagging, judging by the persistence with which some people have been trying to get me to resume blogging about campaigning for deaf children. Well, NDCS is nothing if not determined.

Where have I been? It’s been a busy few months. Lots of councils across England still seem intent on slashing the services upon which deaf children rely on to do well. Depressingly, a few have joined my list in the past few weeks, and I’m not talking about my Christmas card list.

I also lost my media virginity by doing my first TV interview, for the Hub, a programme commissioned by the innovative British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust. Thanks to lots of patient prepping from NDCS’s media team, I was allowed to answer a few questions about NDCS’s Save Services for Deaf Children campaign and managed to slip in the key messages that sum up the issues. Hopefully, the answers helped spread the word about the campaign and motivated a few more people to support the campaign. And thankfully I managed to get through the interview without splurting out some expletive about councils making cuts.

Should I be allowed in front of a camera again? Judge for yourself online – I’m on programme 8.

I promise not to leave it too long before my next blog about campaigning at the Nagging Deaf Children’s Society.

Prime Minister gives big boost to family sign language

How many opportunities does a MP get to ask the Prime Minister a question at Prime Minister’s Question Time? Not very often, would be my guess.

Which is why I’m doubly impressed that Malcolm Bruce MP has now asked two questions in three years focusing on deafness and sign language. Malcolm has a deaf daughter and is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Deafness. Even so, to nobble the Prime Minister twice on this in front of everyone at the highest level is pretty dedicated.

Image courtesy of NDCS

The first question was to Gordon Brown in 2008; Malcolm asked if he would meet a delegation of sign language users. Gordon agreed and the meeting led to the government-funded project, called I-Sign. The National Deaf Children’s Society was a part of this and led on a workstream to increase access to family sign language. With 90% of deaf children born to hearing families, many families struggle to learn to communicate with their deaf child. Yet most local authorities offer pretty little support to families wanting to learn family-appropriate signs at convenient times at minimal cost. Through the I-Sign project, NDCS created a family sign language DVD and website and working with others helped to pilot special courses in the North West and South West. Do check out the website – it features a beautiful seaside town that makes me wish I could go and live in my computer.

The pilots are now over. But families still need support. Hence, the return of Malcolm Bruce at Prime Minster’s Question more recently to ask if David Cameron would consider rolling out the pilots to the rest of England.

The reply was once again very positive and encouraging. David described sign language as “incredibly valuable”, said the pilots had been “successful” and said he would ask the Department for Education to meet with Malcolm and another delegation. Bingo.

It will be no mean feat to get the Department for Education to agree to a roll-out. But thanks to Malcolm, the mission has made a promising first start. Will the Department refuse to expand on something the Prime Minister refers to as successful?

Watch this space.

Stopping Stoke from slashing services for deaf children

A combination of holidays and post-holiday work mean I haven’t been blogging for a while. But I think I might break the silence to give an update on the Save Services for Deaf Children campaign in Stoke on Trent. Stoke has been one of the big battlegrounds from the start. 2 years ago, they had 8 Teachers of the Deaf. When deaf children start school again in September, there will just be 4. Despite this, the council still maintain the fiction that their changes will improve matters for deaf children in Stoke.

A few campaign tactics from the start have been bearing fruit recently. NDCS set up a petition early on and which attracted nearly 600 signatures. As a result, NDCS was asked to speak before the whole council last week. By all accounts, this had a big impact. One councillor wrote in to NDCS to say it was a “very moving, reasoned and inspiring speech”. The speech got a round of applause and was covered in the respected local paper too.

Encouragingly, the petition has now been unanimously referred to a scrutiny committee within the council which will look again at the decision. Though I’m not holding my breath, the hope is that the council will finally realise they cannot slash the service for deaf children in Stoke by half without it having a devastating impact on deaf children.

The moral of the blog though? Even doing a simple thing like creating and signing a petition can have a big impact in saving services.

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.