PRESS RELEASE

September 22nd, 2008

From the office of DUNCAN MCNEIL, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde

MSP back campaigns for deaf pupils

Greenock and Inverclyde MSP Duncan McNeil is backing a campaign that calls for a national register for deaf children.

Experts at the National Deaf Children’s Society believe there could be as many as twice the recorded number of deaf children in Scotland’s schools.

And they are campaigning for the health authorities to gather accurate data on the number of deaf children in Scotland.

NDCS Scotland uses birth prevalence rates from elsewhere in the UK to estimate that there are 2,891 deaf children in Scotland today, with at least 1,800 of these children of school age.

However, the latest Scottish school census, Pupils in Scotland 2007, records only 905 deaf pupils in Scotland’s schools.

Christopher Ratcliffe, director of NDCS Scotland said: “The advent of Newborn Hearing Screening tests in 2005 was a golden opportunity to start a nationally agreed register of deaf children, which would allow us to accurately track and monitor their progress. 

“Yet, three years on, we still have no central record of the number of Scottish children diagnosed with a hearing loss at birth.

“NDCS estimates that there are almost twice as many deaf pupils in Scotland’s schools than recorded in the current official schools census. 

“What is happening to the deaf children who are slipping through the net?  Are they getting the targeted interventions and support they need?  How are they performing at school?”

This week, local MSP Duncan McNeil gave his support to the ‘Pick a Number’ campaign.

Mr McNeil said: “Only by knowing how many deaf children there are in Scotland can we be sure that public services are effectively working to get it right for every deaf child. 

“I have now written to our local NHS and education services to find out how many deaf children they are working with in my constituency.”

ENDS