Fund free BSL Courses for parents or guardians of deaf children

I would like the Government allow the parents of deaf children to have free and easy access to learn BSL to be able to communicate effectively with their child.

It is vital that deaf children are not left behind because their families cannot afford to learn to communicate with them. Hearing Aids are amazing, but they are not always effective.

My baby boy, Alvie, is moderately deaf. We have chosen to learn BSL. It is amazing that BSL is now a recognised language, but it isn’t enough if people don’t have the money to learn it.

Please sign this to help parents to get free and easy access to learn BSL.

The government recognises how important it is for parents and guardians of deaf children to be able to access a British Sign Language (BSL) course if their own child is learning BSL to communicate with others. Although there are no plans to introduce a universal free BSL course for this cohort, funding is available through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) for qualifications in or focussing on British Sign Language (BSL) up to and including Level 2. About 60% of the AEB has been devolved to Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority who determine which provision to fund for learnersresident in their areas. The Education and Skills Funding Agency provides the remaining funding for learners resident in non devolved areas. Some providers of Community Learning offer BSL courses, and those providers determine the course fees, including levels of fee remission. For qualifications at Level 3 and above Advanced Learner Loans are available for certain BSL qualifications. BSL qualifications and the appropriate further education funding offer can be found here - https://www.qualifications.education.gov.uk/Search.

Department for Education

This is a revised response. The Petitions Committee requested a response which more directly addressed the request of the petition. You can find the original response towards the bottom of the petition page (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623900)