- SCoD continued to provide the secretariat for the Cross Party Group on Deafness at the Scottish Parliament. In July the Convenor of the CPGD, Cathie Craigie launched the BSL Bill and with encouragement and support from SCoD, over 850 individuals and organisations submitted their responses to the Bill to the Scottish Parliament.
- We were advised in May that £200,000 per year had been allocated by the Scottish Government to fund a specialist mental health service for deaf people. The new service will involve a specialist team who will work with inpatients in Health Boards throughout Scotland. This is in response to our Petition PE808 which was submitted to the Scottish Parliament in 2005.
- The three new sub-committees: Communication and Access; Health & Wellbeing and Education began their work to improve services for deaf people in these areas.
- With the Census coming up in 2011 we wanted a question included which would provide statistics on deafness in Scotland and the Director and Policy and Research officer had several meetings and discussions with General Registers of Scotland. It is unfortunate that the question which will be included will not in fact provide these much-needed statistics.
- We continued to work with NHS, NHS 24 and the police in Scotland as well as providing input to Independent Living in Scotland.
- The Big Lottery Recession Fund awarded further funding to the Counselling Awareness Project, extending this from September 2010 to January 2011.
- A total of 57 Deaf people from every part of Scotland were interviewed for the Deaf Heritage Project. Their early experiences, for example at school and in their first jobs, were captured on film for future generations to see. Further funding has been obtained to film Deaf people’s sporting experiences.
- Our AGM was held in Perth in October at which Dr Murray Earle of The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) gave a most informative presentation on making a law in Scotland.
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