Scod Is 90 Years Old This Year

SCoD is 90 years old this year

Parliamentary Reception

The West of Scotland Deaf Children’s Society and SCoD have now sent out invitations to our Parliamentary Reception in Septemberthat will be hosted by Mark Griffin MSP. We are planning more events with and for our members and information will follow.

National Council

The next SCoD National Council meeting which will be on Tuesday 5 September 2017. This will take place in the Park Inn on West George Street in Glasgow. The main item for discussion will be the “future of SCoD”. Papers will follow soon.

Cross Party Group on Deafness (CPGD)

The next CPGD will take place in the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 13 September 2017. The first part of the meeting will be the 2017 AGM and the second part will be the ordinary meeting. Papers have been sent out.

Scottish Parliament Equalities and Human Rights Committee (EHRIC)

SCoD along with two of our members, GCVS and Voluntary Action Scotland got a mention in a letter from the EHRIC to the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament about the Commission on Parliamentary Reform’s recommendations about scrutiny of human rights, engagement and diversity, and committee time for scrutiny. We will share a copy of the letter separately with our members.

SCoD’s Autumn Training Programme

Information is available on our website -

Two courses are now “live” and can be booked through our website. The two courses are:

Human Rights, your business and your customers

Date: Tuesday 12 September 12.00 noon to 4.00 pm

Venue: The Albany Learning and Conference Centre

For more information and to book a place, go to

Inclusive Communication and Accessible Information

Date: Monday 18 September 12.00 noon to 4.00 pm

Venue: National Deaf Children’s Society, Empire House, 131 West Nile Street, Glasgow G1 2RX

For more information and to book a place,go to

If you have several members of staff who you think could benefit from the training we have on offer, we can come to you to deliver the training to your organisation or part of it. For more information, contact us at

We are offering AWARENESSbites online deaf awareness training – more information in the training part of this bulletin.

Membership

We are always happy to have new members and are specifically looking for new members who have an interest in

• BSL language development
• Communication barriers and solutions
• General awareness

If you want to know more about joining SCoD and being part of the Deaf Sector, please contact us on or telephone 0141 248 2474.

If you are a BSL user, you can use contactSCOTLAND-BSL to contact us.

SCoD’s “Connect & Collaborate” Conference 2018

Our Conference is on 8 March 2018. Have you all got this date in your diary?

The theme will be “Connect and Collaborate” and will be around the topic “Integration, Inclusion and Wellbeing”. We will announce shortly the programme and “early bird” tickets will be on sale from September. Watch this space!

Disclosure: Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG)

If you have staff who will be working with children and/or vulnerable adults they will need to be a member of the PVG Scheme. If you are not able to sign the forms yourself why not get SCoD to do it for you!

For more information about booking an appointment or general information, please visit our website:

Special Request!

We are moving towards a more digitally inclusive organisation and instead of paper handouts at our training sessions, we would like to be able to give participants packs of information on USB sticks/flash drives. Do any of you have USBs with your logos/messages on them that you would be willing to give us to use as part of our new training programme so that you get some publicity for your own organisation?

If you would like to help, please contact Mandy or Janis at or telephone 0141 248 2474 to discuss.

New member of staff

We are pleased to introduce our new Modern Apprentice, Mason Dickson. He is going to be supporting SCoD to become more digitally inclusive and help us move to a cloud-based way of working.

Best wishes

Janis & the SCoD Team

GENERAL NEWS

Solar Bear – A DYT Production Performance

A huge congratulations to Solar Bear on their performance on “A DYT Production” which took place on Wednesday 2 August 2017 at the Tron Theatre. An outstanding performance from the performers.

Deaf Youth Theatre are looking for new members, for more information please contact

Angus Council improves street conditions for blind residents

Angus Council improves street conditions for blind residents – read this and see what your thoughts are.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) update

Atos Healthcare, the company that has responsibility for the PIP Assessments in Scotland has changed its name to “Independent Assessment Services – delivered by Atos”. To go with their name change, they have launched a new website with information about the PIP Assessment, including a list of the assessment centres it provides. The web address is

“Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is ending” leaflet

An updated ‘Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is ending’ leaflet is now available. The leaflet gives information about DLA ending and also includes information about making a claim for Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

Leaflets are free of charge and can be ordered by organisations that help and support DLA claimants. You can order printed copies of the leaflet – up to a maximum of 10 packs of 25 leaflets (total of 250).

For details of how to order go to gov.uk

To order leaflets email: . Please put ‘DLA/PIP leaflet order’ in the email subject box and provide the following details:

• recipient’s name
• organization
• delivery address
• a contact telephone number
• number of English leaflet packs required (code DLA/PIP 01)

Second Independent Review of the Personal Independence Payment assessment

The Second Independent Review of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment carried out by Paul Gray was published on 30 March 2017.

The Government welcomes the Review and will publish a detailed response in due course. The report outlines a number of recommendations many of which focus on areas where the Department is already making improvements, such as a pilot of audio recordings of face-to-face assessments which has been undertaken and findings are now being evaluated.

The recommendations in the Review cover four main themes:

• Quality and consistency,
• Further evidence,
• Assessment, and
• Transparency and Trust.

Audio Recording Pilot

A pilot has recently been undertaken to test the audio recording of PIP face-to-face assessments. This was something that was in the Paul Gray Review and the Department had already started this work. The pilot included around 400 claimants and took place in Birmingham by Capita.

Capita contacted those claimants who had a face-to-face assessment scheduled and invited them to take part in the pilot. Participation was entirely voluntary and participants were required to sign a consent form to take part and were given a copy of the recording on a CD if they requested one.

The DWPis continuously looking at ways to improve the claimant experience and this pilot will allow us to examine whether there are any benefits to audio recording face-to-face assessments.

The DWP is currently evaluating the findings from the pilot to determine next steps.

SCoDcomment: Since the possibility of recording the PIP assessments was first discussed at the DWP PIP Implementation Stakeholder Forum, Mandy has been asking what will be put in place for deaf people who cannot hear an audio recording and for BSL users who should be able to film the assessment. As yet, there has been no decisions on how deaf people will have equality of access with their hearing peers. The minimum should be that an audio recording takes place and the DWP provides a transcript for people who are Deafened or Hard of Hearing; and a transcript and a BSL/English Interpreter to explain it for Deaf and Deafblind people. Ideally, the assessments would also be filmed.

Although the Scottish Government will in time take over PIP in Scotland, the DWP still decide on process until that happens. The equality and accessibility of this pilot could be raised as a matter of urgency with the APPG on Deafness.

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Ideas for Ears - Hearing well on the phone

A message from Sally Shaw;

“Hello all,

I wonder if you might support me on something. The organisation I run, Ideas for Ears, is circulating a questionnaire to capture data regarding people’s experiences of making and receiving phone calls. I wondered if you could complete it and pass it on to others who might be interested.

The questionnaire asks about use of mobiles, landlines and other forms of communication. We are working to influence phone service providers about the need for new solutions to help more people hear well on the phone. The findings from the questionnaire will help to influence the telecoms industry as to where to put their time and money.

We need people with and without hearing difficulties to complete it.

Not being able to hear conversation clearly during a phone call is an issue faced by many. Unfamiliar accents, background noise and variable clarity or volume can cause frustration, and sometimes even fear, when having phone calls. The questionnaire will help us to understand and quantify the issues that people are experiencing.

Here is the link to the questionnaire. The more responses we get, the more data and evidence we will have to influence the industry specialists. The questions may be less relevant to those who have very little or no hearing.

Everyone who completes the questionnaire has the chance to win £300 in Amazon vouchers! Closing date is midnight 13 August 2017.

This is a genuinely good opportunity to help bring about improvement for those with hearing loss. My thanks in advance for any support you can offer.”

ScotRail blue badge survey 2017

ScotRail is looking to improve its car parking offering to all customers and as such we would like to invite you and your organisation to contribute to this process.

ScotRail want to ensure that its car parks play a positive role in people’s lives providing access to places of employment, education, health and leisure facilities.

Citizenship and civic engagement:

Share your views

What doescitizenship in the UK mean to you?Whatbarriers are preventing people from being more involved,locally and nationally?Join in with our inquiry and let us know what you think.

The big issue

British society is changing.Technological, economic and culturalchangesare leading to shifts in howpeoplelive and work together.

TheScottish independence and Brexitreferendums,low levelsof confidence inthe political system,andconcernfrompeople who feel left behindare all signs ofa need to findnew ways of building bridges within and between communities.

How you can help

What doesbeing anactivecitizen meanto you? Can you tell us about what will help you play a more active role in in public life?

TheHouse of Lords Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Engagementwould like to hear your thoughts on these areas:

• The meaning of citizenship and civic engagement in the 21st Century
• The rights and responsibilities attached to citizenship
• The state of citizenship education and the role that it plays in creating active citizens

• The role of voluntary citizenship schemes such as the National Citizen Service
• The ways society can support civic engagement and the role of Government and Parliament in supporting that
• The values that all of us who live in Britain should share and support
• The relationship between civicengagement and social cohesion

Your answersdon’t have to be long,and theydon’t have to cover all these points.

Send a written submissiononthe inquirywebpage

Letus know your thoughtsby Thursday8September 2017.

Informal submissions

If you'dliketo send a more informal submission,you can emailvideos, blog posts, poems, posters, postcards, cartoons or even 30 November 2017.

What are select committees?

Find out more about select committees, how they affect government policy and how you can get involved.

Learn more about select committees

Queen Margaret University – BSL / English Interpreting modules

Queen Margaret University is delighted to announce that, in recognition of the need to continually enhance the skills of registered interpreters, the Scottish Government has agreed to contribute financially to the development of the specialist modules that will form the key component of our planned MSc/PGDiploma/PGCert in Advanced BSL/English Interpreting. Some of this funding will be directed specifically towards Scotland-based interpreters, and will be used to offer discounts to some module fees.

The first cohort of students will be starting their Masters-level study in Advanced BSL/English interpreting in September 2017. The students come from diverse areas within the UK and from a range of previous training backgrounds. Students will initially study the general theory and practice of interpreting before progressing to focus on areas of specialism such as working in healthcare, mental health, justice and education. The first of these specialist modules will come online in September 2018.

Theory and practice modules will start in September each year. Theory and Practice of Interpreting 1 (Semester 1) includes topic areas on theories and concepts of interpreting, an introduction to Demand Control-Schema, linguistic and contextual challenges, and consideration of how quality in interpreting is evaluated. Theory and Practice of Interpreting 2 (Semester 2) includes topic areas on co-working, ethical practice, rapport management, professionalism and self care. Applicants who have already studied interpreting at graduate level may be able to join Theory and Practice of Interpreting 2 which will take place in Semester 2 (January to April). The deadline for applications for January 2018 is Friday 10th November 2017.

Each module (worth 15 credits at SCQF Level 11/QCF Level 7) is delivered entirely online, and no attendance on campus is required. The full fee per module for the 2017/2018 academic year is £475.

For more information about how you could participate in this professional development opportunity please contact

Children and Young People (Information Sharing) (Scotland) Bill

The Scottish Parliament has issued a call for evidence in relation to the Bill. It has also issued a call for views on the illustrative draft Code of Practice using a short survey.

The call for evidence and survey on the illustrative draft Code of Practice can be found on the Scottish Parliament’s website. See link here under ‘Evidence’ We would encourage you to engage with the call for evidence and survey and to encourage others to do so.

The call for evidence closes at 5pm on25 August 2017.The Parliament have indicated that it appreciates that this consultation is taking place over the summer holidays and so it is amenable to accepting requests for comments to be submitted after the deadline. Further information can be found on the Parliament’s website.

The Getting it right of every child Policy Team and the Bill Team will continue to engage widely as the Bill progresses through parliament. If you have any questions about the Bill or would welcome a conversation with us please get in touch via the Bill Team mail box

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Scotland’s national Conservatoire is delighted to announce that applications will be opening shortly for its 2018/19 intake of students on its innovative programme, BA Performance in British Sign Language and English.

The BA Performance undergraduate degree teaches students to be both actors and makers of work, exploring the most innovative ways of creating performance through British Sign Language and English. During your three years here, students benefit from the distinctive environment of RCS and study a rich blend of performance modules.

This course is designed around the learning and teaching needs of deaf performers and is the only course of its kind in Europe. The programme has been developed in association withSolar Bear Theatre Companywith input from a range of theatre, education and deaf professionals. We aim to enrich the talent pool within the UK, whilst making training available to deaf artists.

The working languages of the programme are British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English. You will have fully-qualified BSL interpreters in class, on stage and in rehearsal.

The small class size ensures you will have the opportunity to work closely with our teaching staff and visiting professionals. You will also benefit from our many collaborative and professional partnerships including Solar Bear, National Theatre of Scotland and Scottish Opera. You will develop skills in acting, movement, dance, signing on stage, improvisation and puppetry as well as explore highly visual and physical performance styles. We will teach you the skills you need to prepare you for a career in film, television, theatre and more.

We are looking for students who are enthusiastic, dedicated and who display potential and commitment to a career in the performance industry. We have an Open Day on Friday 20th October where you can find out more about the programme, or we have various free workshops happening in Edinburgh throughout the Fringe. Please contact for more information on these events.

For more information about the application process, or to be added to our mailing list for an application form once we open, please contact our Admissions team at or on 0141 270 265. We look forward to hearing from you!