Article Details

Article Details

British Sign Language National Plan

Author: Susan Waugh, Scottish Government

Launched on 24 October 2017, the first British Sign Language (BSL) National Plan sets out ten long-term goals for BSL in Scotland and 70 actions that Scottish Ministers will take by 2020 to make progress towards these goals.

This is the first BSL National Plan, a commitment in the BSL (Scotland) Act 2015, and it covers the Scottish Government and over 50 public bodies that Scottish Ministers have responsibility for. Included within the 70 actions there are two which specifically relate to the 1+2 Approach.

School education long-term goal:

Children and young people who use BSL will get the support they need at all stages of their learning, so that they can reach their full potential; parents who use BSL will have the same opportunities as other parents to be fully involved in their child’s education; and more pupils will be able to learn BSL at school.

By 2020, Scottish Ministers will instruct Scotland’s National Centre for Languages (SCILT) to lead a programme of work to support BSL learning for hearing pupils. This will include, but will not be limited to:

  • making sure that education authorities and schools know that BSL can be part of the language offer in schools under the 1+2 Approach
  • gathering detailed information on where and how BSL is being offered in schools as part of the 1+2 Approach, and update this information regularly
  • gathering and sharing examples of good practice in teaching BSL to hearing pupils as part of the 1+2 Approach, and make sure there is guidance to support this

The full plan can be found on the Scottish Government website.

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