Scottish Parliament and NDCS

The National Deaf Children's Society invited Peter Rogers (MD of Sustainable Acoustics, and Parliamentary Liaison contact for the Institute of Acoustics) to provide acoustic technical support to them during their event at the Scottish Parliament on the 7th September 2016, where they wanted to raise the need for Members of the Scottish Parliament to commit to Getting it Right from the Start for children with hearing impairments.

They issued a report which lists a number of recommendations , including the call for "Effective listening conditions in early years settings". He was able to speak with a number of MSP's and other professionals to explain how strong the evidence base was for regulation to require minimum standards for acoustics in learning spaces from the time children are forming their language to avoid a gap beginning to develop, which research shows will be likely to ultimately harm their attainment outcomes and life prospects.

This is the case for all children but is particularly pronounced for those with special hearing needs. MSP's he spoke to included Jenny Marra, who sponsored the event, and the Cabinet Secretary for Education & Skills, John Swinney, MSP who, in his speech, committed to the event that the Scottish Government would not be satisfied with the recent passing of the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015, but would act to make sure that they were getting it right from the start for all children in Scotland.