Equal Opportunities Committee, 27 Nov 2001

Meeting date: Tuesday, November 27, 2001

Official Report 86KB pdf

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Petition

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Deaf and Hard of Hearing People<br />(Social Work Services) (PE400)

Item 2 is consideration of petition PE400, which has been passed to us from the Public Petitions Committee. Do members have comments to make on the petition?

I was a social worker in my previous existence. It is common practice for each social work area to have a social worker with special responsibility for the deaf. From my reading of petition PE400, it would appear that such a post became vacant in South Lanarkshire Council and the council has not replaced the social worker.

At first I thought that the subject of the petition was health, but it is a social work issue. I can see why the Public Petitions Committee passed the petition to us, as equal opportunities issues are involved. The petition could go to the Social Justice Committee, but I suggest that we handle the petition, as there are equality issues involved.

Although equality issues are involved, the petition is about a local government issue. In a number of local authorities, someone in the social work department deals with the deaf. The cover can be patchy and can rely on one person, which can lead to difficulties in ensuring coverage, support and understanding of the issues.

Perhaps we should ask one of the Equal Opportunities Committee reporters to look at the issues that are raised in the petition. We may also want to talk to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, as the issues raised concern people who work in local government social work departments.

I must admit that it occurred to me that the Local Government Committee could deal with the petition, because of its contacts with COSLA. We could pass petition PE400 to the Local Government Committee but say that, because of the equality perspective, we will take an interest in it.

From an equal opportunities point of view, an amount of tokenism is involved in saying that one person should take responsibility for the deaf. Services for the deaf should be integral to all social work services.

It seems that we should refer the petition to the Local Government Committee.

There may well be an amount of tokenism involved, but the person who deals with the issue in most local authorities has a genuine interest in and experience of the subject. There is also the issue of education and the deaf and how young people get access to appropriate education. That includes the argument about whether they should go to special schools.

Petition PE400 should go to the Local Government Committee, as that committee covers a wide spectrum. In this case, we are talking about social work, but it could be education.

Petition PE400 calls on the Parliament to ensure that

"local authorities throughout Scotland provide adequate provision of Social Work Services".

We will ask the reporter to look at consultation with the deaf community to see whether we need to take that further.

That would be helpful.

We should pass petition PE400 to the Local Government Committee and ask Gil Paterson, the disability reporter, to keep an eye on what happens. In his meetings with outside organisations, he can find out whether the Equal Opportunities Committee should consider the wider aspects of local authority services, in particular education, social work and housing.

What has to be remembered is that a great number of deaf people are elderly.

Are we agreed that we should pass petition PE400 to the Local Government Committee and ask Gil Paterson to take an interest in what happens to the petition?

Members indicated agreement.

We have heard that one of the reporters is still stuck in traffic and that he will not arrive for another 10 minutes. We will have to move on to the private part of the meeting. When the reporters arrive, we will come back into public session to take item 3. I apologise to the press and public.

Meeting continued in private.

Meeting continued in public.