Argyll and Bute Council British Sign Language Plan 2024 - 2030
Argyll and Bute Council · 10 October 2024
Back to Policy and Resources Committee — 10 October 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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ARGYLL AND BUTE COUNCIL POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE CUSTOMER SUPPORT SERVICES 10 OCTOBER 2024 ARGYLL AND BUTE COUNCIL BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE PLAN 2024-2030 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Argyll and Bute Council is required to create a new British Sign Language Plan. This will replace the Joint British Sign Language Plan 2018-2024, which was approved in 2018. 1.2 This report sets out the steps which have been taken to develop the new plan and presents the plan for approval. 2.0 RECOMMENDATIONS 2.1 It is recommended that the Policy and Resources Committee approves the Argyll and Bute Council British Sign Language Plan 2024-2030. 3.0 DETAIL 3.1 The Scottish Government published its second National British Sign Language plan in November 2023. According to legislation, following its approval, listed authorities, of which Argyll and Bute Council is one, were required to produce local plans. 3.2 Work on preparing the plan got underway in January 2024. To meet the requirements of the legislation, two distinct strands of work were carried out. One was to ascertain progress made with regard to the previous plan (Argyll and Bute Council Joint British Sign Language Plan 2018-2024). The second strand was to develop the new plan. These two strands have been combined to create a single document (Appendix 1). 3.3 Learning from the previous plan, we have attempted to keep the new one as realistic as possible. We decided not to develop a multi-agency plan as was the case previously, when the plan was produced jointly with Live Argyll and NHS Highland. In practice, only two actions in the previous plan were delivered by Live Argyll, and there is nothing deliverable by Live Argyll in the new plan. With
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regard to NHS Highland (and the HSCP), we have agreed to coordinate our activities and reporting while keeping the plans separate. 3.5 Discussions took place with officers from Live Argyll, NHS, HSCP, Education, Employability, Governance and Law, and Community Justice during the development of the draft plan. Actions have been agreed by the officers who will be responsible for their delivery. 3.6 In preparing the plan, we encountered a number of barriers, not least is the identification of our Deaf community within Argyll and Bute, which appears to be small and dispersed. Unlike other areas, we do not have a Deaf Club or other organisation which can be used as a focus for consultation activity. 3.7 The 2011 Census reported that there were 152 people aged 3 and over in the area who used BSL at home (0.2% of the total). While the 2022 Census indicates that there are 2,137 individuals aged 3 and over who can use British Sign Language in the area (2.5%), the questions are not directly comparable and the 2,137 figure is highly unlikely to reflect everyday use of the language. 3.8 We are required by the legislation to consult about our plan with BSL users and tactile BSL users. To meet this requirement, we carried out a short, online consultation on the draft plan. The plan and consultation questions were made available to respondents as a downloadable Word document and in a BSL translation video uploaded to YouTube, with links to the video provided from the consultation page set up on the council’s website. The consultation itself was promoted through the council’s Keep in the Loop emails, social media, and the consultation section of the council’s website. 3.9 The consultation ran for six weeks from early May. We received two responses, one from a BSL user, one not. The only comment made with regard to the content of the plan was that we should provide funding to enable Education staff to increase their proficiency in BSL, moving from BSL Level 1 to BSL Level 2. However, as this is captured by action 12 in the plan: ‘Offer opportunities to teachers to build on their BSL learning’, we do not propose the plan be revised in light of this. 3.10 Upon approval of the BSL plan, next steps will be to publish the final version of the plan and to develop a more detailed implementation plan for the actions. We will produce an interim report on the plan’s progress half-way through the plan’s life, in 2027. We will also include the BSL plan as a standing agenda item at the council’s Equality Forum meetings to enable progress to be monitored throughout the lifetime of the plan. 3.11 The Argyll and Bute British Sign Language Plan 2024-2030 and completed Equality and Socio-Economic Impact Assessment are appended to this report as appendices 1 and 2 respectively.
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4.0 CONCLUSION 4.1 This report has set out the actions taken to develop Argyll and Bute Council’s British Sign Language Plan 2024-2030. The plan is appended to the report for approval. 5.0 IMPLICATIONS 5.1 Policy None arising directly from this report. 5.2 Financial None arising directly from this report. 5.3 Legal The creation of the British Sign Language Plan is required to meet legislation. 5.4 HR None arising directly from this report. 5.5 Fairer Scotland Duty: 5.5.1 Equalities - protected characteristics: We are required to produce a BSL plan. This relates to the protected characteristic of disability. An equalities and socio-economic impact assessment has been completed in respect of the plan and the link is appended to this report. 5.5.2 Socio-Economic Duty: The proposals in the BSL plan relate to a specific community of interest: the Deaf community. An equalities and socio- economic impact assessment has been completed in respect of the plan and the link is appended to this report. 5.5.3 Islands: no islands impacts arise from the proposed approach or plan. 5.6 Climate Change None arising specifically from the proposals in this report. 5.7 Risk Failure to comply with legislation may put the council at legal and reputational risk. 5.8 Customer Service some actions in the plan may result in better customer service for BSL users. 5.9 The Rights of the Child (UNCRC): some actions in the plan relate to the provision of Education services for children. Kirsty Flanagan, Executive Director with responsibility for Customer Support Services Policy Lead: Councillor Mark Irvine
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For further information contact: Chris Carr OD Project Officer chris.carr@argyll-bute.gov.uk APPENDICES Appendix 1: Argyll and Bute Council British Sign Language Plan 2024-2030 Appendix 2: Equality and Socio-Economic Impact Assessment for Argyll and Bute Council British Sign Language Plan 2024-2030