 I should urge members that the following statement from me is intentional and is not a reflection of the microphone difficulties that we had earlier. I would ask members who wish to speak in this debate to press their request-to-speak buttons now, and I call on statements—sorry. I have no debate, please. I would ask the minister to speak to the statement. It is a privilege and an honour to introduce Scotland's first British Sign Language BSL national plan, which I launched this morning at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. This is the UK's first and only BSL national plan, and it was particularly symbolic to meet with students of the UK's first and only degree in performing arts run in BSL. It provides yet another example of the forward-thinking, progressive approach that we are taking to social policy in Scotland. The chamber debated the draft plan in April, and I am delighted to be able to share the final plan. It has been shaped by more than 1,000 individuals and dozens of organisations who participated in the consultation online in BSL or English or through one of nearly 100 events across the country. When we debated the draft plan and when we unanimously passed the BSL Scotland Act 2015, the public gallery was full of BSL users, as it is today. It is great to see so many of them here. In particular, I would like to welcome members of the BSL national advisory group, which we call the NAG, and to recognise their important role. The NAG is a collaboration of deaf and deaf-blind BSL users, which has worked alongside Scottish public bodies for the past 18 months to help to shape Scotland's first BSL national plan. It has been a truly co-productive approach, and I want to thank the NAG for its dedication and support. Our long-term aim is ambitious. We want to make Scotland the best place in the world for people whose first or preferred language is BSL to live, work and visit. That means that deaf and deaf-blind BSL users will be fully involved in daily and public life in Scotland as active, healthy citizens and will be able to make informed choices about every aspect of their lives. The BSL national plan sets out 10 long-term goals for BSL in Scotland, covering early years in education, training and work, health, mental health and wellbeing, transport, culture and the arts, justice and democracy. The legislation requires the plan to cover the next six years, but we are ambitious for change, so the plan sets out 70 actions that we will take in the next three years. In 2020, we will publish a progress report, including a further set of actions that we will deliver by 2023. Future plans that we will publish every six years will take us even closer to our 10 long-term goals. I want to say something more about those goals and some of the actions that we will take by 2020. We recognise the absolutely critical importance of language in the early years. We will ensure that families and carers with a deaf or deaf-blind child are given information about BSL and deaf culture and will be offered support to learn to sign with their child. We will also increase the provision of information, advice and support services in BSL for deaf parents and carers of babies, children and young people from birth and throughout childhood and adolescence. In education, the Scottish Government's goal is that all children and young people reach their full potential at school and beyond. The plan sets out more than a dozen actions that we will take to ensure that that applies equally to children and young people who use BSL. The actions in the plan will improve the experience of pupils and students who use BSL, enable teachers to provide them with a better service and encourage deaf parents to be more actively involved in their child's education. We also want more children to be able to learn BSL in schools, and my visit to Stonywood primary school in Aberdeenover recess showed me just how much children enjoy learning BSL. We will work with the Scottish Qualifications Authority to develop new qualifications in BSL, which will make it a more attractive subject choice as part of the Scottish curriculum. When pupils approach the end of their school days, we will provide a wide range of information, advice and guidance in BSL to support their career and learning choices and the transition from school to college, university or the workplace. When they move into the world of work, we want them to feel supported to develop the necessary skills to become and remain valued members of the Scottish workforce and to progress in their careers. I would like to turn my attention briefly to the range of actions in the plan to improve the health and wellbeing of BSL users in Scotland. For example, we will increase the availability of relevant health information in BSL. That will include making sure that information on national health screening and immunisation programmes is routinely translated into BSL and is easy to access. We will also develop a learning resource for NHS staff to raise awareness of BSL and deaf culture. There are 70 actions in the BSL national plan, and I have only been able to mention some of them. There are also actions to improve access to information and services in transport, in culture, leisure, sport and the arts, and in justice. There is also a range of actions on participation on democracy and public life. In particular, I want to highlight our commitment to provide funding to enable deaf BSL users and people with disability-related costs to put themselves forward for election to this Parliament in 2021 through our new access to elected office fund. Perhaps by the time we are discussing Scotland's second BSL national plan in 2023, we will have an MSP who uses BSL. The BSL national plan covers all national public bodies who are directly answerable to Scottish ministers. That means that we have been able to take a strategic, co-ordinated approach at the national level. Other public bodies, including local authorities, regional NHS boards, colleges and universities and the Scottish Parliament, will have to publish their own plans next year. We are keen to share our learning and to support public bodies to develop their own plans. We will do that through a series of roadshows across Scotland and guidance, which will be uploaded on our new BSL Scotland Act website. Over the next three years, we will offer public bodies practical support through the BSL Scotland Act partnership. It is formerly known as the Deaf Sector Partnership. The partnership, which includes British Deaf Association, Deaf Action, Deaf Blind Scotland, National Deaf Children's Society and Scottish Council on Deafness, has been awarded funding of £1.3 million to continue their important work. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those organisations and others who work in the field of BSL for their contributions so far and for the work that they will do in the months and years ahead to help make sure that the BSL Scotland Act makes a difference to people across Scotland. Our approach to BSL has been warmly welcomed by the United Nations in Geneva and by our BSL communities and the organisations that represent them and by this chamber. I hope that today's statement will also gain the crucial cross-party support that the BSL legislation enjoyed so that we can work together across political parties, across Scotland and with deaf and deaf-blind BSL users to promote and support BSL and all those who use it. I commend the BSL national plan to the chamber and look forward to taking questions from members. We have around 20 minutes for questions. I urge those who wish to ask a question to press their request to speak button now and I call on Liz Smith. I thank the minister for prior sight of both the BSL plan and his statement. I warmly congratulate the Scottish Government and all those who have made such significant progress to ensure that all those people who are deaf and who have hearing impairment are very much better served both in terms of education and all the public bodies that they come into contact with. That is very good news indeed. As the minister himself acknowledges, those changes are substantial and will continue well into the future, so could I ask the minister three things? Firstly, what estimate has the Scottish Government made of the numbers of specialist staff who will be required across Scotland to implement those changes? Secondly, what efforts have been made to provide an accurate estimate of the on-going costs of training those staff? Thirdly, in light of some of the evidence that was originally presented to the education committee when young people expressed concerns about the experiences that they had encountered at colleges and universities, may I ask whether the action referred to in the BSL plan will mean that changes will become part of the outcome agreements for FE and HE institutions or whether the Scottish Funding Council will provide separate guidelines? In terms of Liz Smith's initial question about the relevant numbers, what we have attempted to do with the plan is not to put fixed numbers within the plan because we recognise that there will be varying needs depending on the different sectors across Scotland. We already accept and understand that there are variations in terms of interpretation services from within the pool of interpreters, which are already there. However, I can say that we will be ensuring that courses are available and that capacity is available across those colleges and universities that already provide BSL qualifications to ensure that we have that throughput of interpreters required to support the work that we are doing. Similarly, in terms of budget, all of the actions that are contained within the plan are fully taken forward and are fully budgeted for within the work that the Scottish Government will be doing over the coming three years, which I have identified in relation to the actions. In terms of the question that Liz Smith asks about colleges and universities, each college and university will be required to produce their own BSL plan under the guidance of the legislation. We will be working closely with colleges and universities in relation to that. We will also be looking carefully at the approach on widening access and the work that is highlighted in the action plan in relation to colleges and universities and improving the experience and access to universities that we are taking forward alongside that work, but also alongside the work for each college and university to produce their own BSL plan and for that to reflect the experience that BSL users should have when they attend university or college. Mark Griffin Thank you, Presiding Officer. I warmly welcome the publication of the strategy and the ambition shown within it. I would like to thank the minister for advancing the statement and the strategy and for the volume of work that he and his officials have clearly put in to produce the strategy. I would also like to thank the BSL national advisory group for the work that they have done on the strategy and everyone who responded to the consultation. Can I ask the minister to say what steps the Government will take through the strategy to increase the number of much-needed BSL interpreters? How can it ensure that BSL users will not have to rely on a family member to interpret sensitive information in a medical appointment? If the Government has given any consideration to how it could support deaf BSL users who would like to participate in a deaf Olympics? First of all, can I put on record again my thanks to Mark Griffin, who obviously took this forward as a member's bill in Parliament and worked in a very collaborative nature with my colleague Alasdraall and also the wider BSL community. I said in my speech that this was an example of the kind of progressive approach that we are taking in Scotland's social policy. I think that it was also a fine example of the kind of cross-party approach that we can take on those issues to achieve positive outcomes. Of the points that Mark Griffin raises around interpreters, I mentioned to Liz Smith that we will be taking forward work to increase the number of interpreters out there. Over the next two years, we are going to sponsor two new training programmes, one at Herriot-Watt and one at Queen Margaret University, designed to support BSL interpreters to work in the specialist fields of health, mental health and justice. That perhaps addresses the second part of his question about increasing the availability of interpreters to work in the field of health, but the requirement for local plans rests with health boards as well. Health boards themselves will have to give consideration to the point that Mark Griffin raises about ensuring that it is not just left to family members to undertake interpreting for BSL users within health appointments, whereas he rightly identifies that there may be sensitive information that they do not wish family members to be present while they disclose. In terms of his third point about support for participation in the deaf Olympics, that is maybe a point that I can take away and discuss with my colleague the Minister for Sport and see how we can perhaps encourage and promote participation in the deaf Olympics, and I will get back to him in writing in relation to that. To tackle the interpreter shortfall in the long term, in my view, we need to ensure that BSL interpreters are promoted as a career choice among young people, so I therefore welcome the new qualification noted in the minister's statement. However, sitting alongside that and perhaps considering the short to medium term, can the minister advise if steps might also be taken to restore pathways for deaf people to become tutors? Yes, absolutely, and not just in terms of tutors, but I think throughout the education system and one of the things that we've committed to doing is, for example, exploring with the General Teaching Council for Scotland how we can remove some of the barriers that exist to deaf people entering the teaching profession. As well as that, we will look at how we can remove those barriers where they exist to enable deaf people to access the opportunities that we believe they should be entitled to access. I can give Graham Day that commitment, that that is a line of work that the Government will be exploring. Michelle Ballantyne to be filled by Ian Gray. Thank you, Deputy Prime Minister. I've just demoted you. That was great. I too welcome the content and sentiment of today's statement, but last year the National Deaf Children's Society reported that 90 per cent of deaf children have hearing parents with limited knowledge of deafness and are unlikely to be using any form of BSL. Can the minister comment on how the Scottish Government will ensure that parents are given the resources to help their deaf children to ensure that they are able to get the best start in a family home setting? I can point to action 10 for example about improving access to earlier services for parents whose child is diagnosed as deaf or deafblind by developing information about BSL and deaf culture for service providers who support parents such as health visitors? Action 11 about assisting families of deaf and deafblind children ensuring that they have access to BSL resources as early as possible in their child's life. That will include consulting with BSL users and other stakeholders to assess the most appropriate platforms for signposting and disseminating information. Working with partners to determine the best way of enabling families and carers to learn BSL so that they can communicate effectively with their deaf or deafblind child in the crucial early years. I should point out that we are coming back in 2020 with further actions to develop towards 2023. Some of those are about determining the best vehicle for delivering the outcomes that we want to see. Where we have determined that, we will take that work forward either in advance of reporting back to Parliament in 2020 or at the point at which we report back to Parliament and set out our further actions in relation to that. There is a range of actions contained within that plan, which I think will address the very points that the National Deaf Children's Society and Michelle Ballantyne have raised in relation to ensuring that that support is available for parents when they need it. Action 17 of the strategy commits the Government to undertake additional investigations into the level of BSL that is held by teachers and support staff working with deaf and deafblind pupils in schools. Can the minister assure us that he intends us to be a precursor towards moving to a minimum required level of BSL for such teachers? I think in terms of what we heard in the consultation about the variable nature of qualification and level of BSL in terms of both teachers but also communication support workers. What this is about is about us undertaking a more comprehensive analysis of what the actual picture is out there. However, I give the commitment to Ingrid that I want to see people being supported to the most appropriate level. If that requires us to set a minimum standard, that is what the Government will do. However, I want to ensure that, if we establish a minimum standard, we are able to put in place the necessary support for those individuals who do not yet meet that minimum standard to meet it unless we end up in a position where we create a shortage as a result of lifting that up. That is what that work is about. It is about undertaking that analysis to find out what the general picture is and then for us to consider how best we can support those individuals who are not maybe at the level that we would like them to be at to get to that level so that they can benefit professionally and the people who they are supporting can benefit as a result of that as well. Christina McKelvie to be followed by John Finnie. Thank you very much. Like everyone else across the chamber, I greatly welcome this national plan. The minister will be aware of the work of the equality human rights committee recently on the budget, where we looked at widening access to university for those who use BSL as a first language. One issue that we discovered was the limited options for potential students to access suitable application process. Can the minister tell us what the national plan will do to ensure that those who want to access higher and further education are able to do so with a contextualised application process? Obviously, there are a number of actions in the action plan that relate to further and higher education and improving access to and support within. In terms of the point around applications processes, those are obviously matters for the individual institutions and might be better taken forward as part of their local plans, which we will be working to support them both as a Government but also through Scottish funding council. Those are matters that I am sure we will take forward with those individual institutions to ensure that the application process is as open and accessible as it can be as well as that being part of the wider considerations that we have around our approach to widening access. John Finnie to be followed by Richard Lockhead. I thank the minister for early sight of the statement and commend all the good work that has taken place. I want to return to an issue that has already been touched on minister, and that is the one of capacity and the implications. Young people quite often have to rely on family and friends for support. There can be issues around confidentiality and indeed privacy, particularly with regard to medical appointments. What priority are you able to give that? I appreciate what you say about the Government's role and the health board's role, but clearly that is a key issue for young people. I accept that entirely. I think that that is an area that we need to look at very carefully in terms of the prioritisation of the actions that we are taking forward. As I said, we have recognised that there are gaps in relation to both the capacity of interpreting but in specific areas within Scottish public life, where there are not the level of interpreters that we would want to see to be able to support the kind of work that John Finnie highlights. That is why we are sponsoring new training programmes, but before we get to the stage where people will be coming through those programmes, we need to look at how we address that in the here and now. We will give that some careful consideration, but I cannot give him a firm commitment of what would happen immediately, but certainly we have set out the actions. We have recognised the issue that has been raised as part of the consultation that we have undertaken and we have put in place work to try and increase that capacity, which would hopefully address the very point that he raises. Richard Lochhead will by Mike Rumbles. In warmly welcoming the minister's statement about the national plan, can I support the point raised by Graham Day in relation to the desire expressed by many people of the deaf community in Murray and elsewhere that tutors from the deaf community should be employed to teach BSL in local colleges and given his reference to local plans, does he feel that that would be a good practice and is that something that could be included in those local plans that he referred to? I certainly think that it is something that could be included in local plans. Obviously, I have to be very careful that it should not be for me to dictate or determine what goes into the local plans, but the Government will be seeking to support where required the development of those local plans because we recognise that they will be being produced a year from now. What we want to do, as Richard Lochhead highlighted in Graham Day as well, is ensure that opportunities are available for BSL users. We also want to ensure that BSL users or those involved in the teaching of BSL reach the required qualifications that we want to see and have access to the qualifications that would require them or enable them to take up the posts that we want them to be able to take up. Across the whole of the action plan, there are different actions in place that will remove some of those barriers, but local plans also provide a vehicle for those barriers to be removed at that local level. Mike Rumbles will be followed by Marie Todd. The Liberal Democrats welcome and support the commitment from the minister to ensure that more information will be made available in British Sign Language for treatment in the NHS. Can he be more specific about the information that will be made available in BSL specifically for those suffering or seeking advice on mental health grounds? Action 45 states that we will ensure that, in line with Scotland's mental health strategy, BSL users should get the right help at the right time, expect recovery and fully enjoy their rights free from discrimination and stigma. It commits us by 2020 that NHS boards and integration authorities should take actions so that psychological therapies can be offered on a fair and equal basis to BSL users, develop information about mental health accessible for BSL users through NHS Inform. NHS 24 will explore how telemedicine initiatives such as breathing space can provide counselling in BSL as an easy-to-access mental health support. Those are three of the specific measures that we highlight in relation to the plan to 2020. Obviously, there will be a progress report in 2020 with further actions from there to 2023, but we will continue to look at what we can do to improve access to all levels of support, whether that is in terms of mental health or general health and wellbeing for BSL users. Marie Todd will be followed by Annie Wells. I would like to put on record that I really welcome that the BSL national plan includes developing SQA awards in BSL and its long-term goals for BSL in Scotland. Dingwall academy, in my constituency, is really keen that BSL becomes an accredited school qualification and has the same status as other languages, and I am too. To follow on from Mr Rumble's question, partly because of social isolation, BSL users are disproportionately affected by poor mental health. How will the plan address that? I look forward to visiting Dingwall academy next month, who Marie Todd has assiduously highlighted at every opportunity in relation to BSL, and I look forward to seeing the work that they are doing. I had the opportunity to see the work that was done at Stonywood school in my constituency, and it was fantastic to watch in a primary four-class children acting as teachers to other children in relation to BSL, which I thought was quite inspirational. In terms of her point about the issues of poor mental health, I think that as well as the access to support in relation to mental health, we also have to remember what the root causes are of those mental health problems, and Marie Todd highlights those. The action plan as a whole should be viewed as a vehicle to improving mental health for BSL users on the basis that many of the barriers and challenges that they face are contributory factors to those issues around poor mental health, which Marie Todd highlights. If the plan then tackles and addresses those barriers and challenges, as a consequence of that, we should hopefully then see improvement in relation to mental health for BSL users. I too warmly welcome the launch of the British Sign Language national plan and applaud the effort that has been made in trying to improve the lives of deaf people in Scotland. I know that the BSL is a language choice that will be offered in schools. Can the minister give details on how the Scottish Government will counter any issues that may arise from lack of qualified teaching staff, as well as the exact discussions that are taking place with the general teaching council for Scotland to progress matters? First of all, I do not think that I could give a blow-by-blow account of the discussions that are being had, but we are committed to ensuring that the barriers that exist to deaf BSL users in particular, but BSL users more generally, becoming teachers, are addressed as part of our approach to widening the number of people who are able to access the teaching profession. That will hopefully go some way to addressing the point that Annie Wells highlights, of ensuring that where we want to create an accredited qualification in BSL, we will have the capacity in terms of teachers to be able to teach that. I think that the creation of that accredited qualification will also make it perhaps easier for people to gain access to teaching routes as a result of the fact that they will be teaching a subject that will have an accredited qualification attached to it. Those are discussions that we will continue to take forward with the Scottish Qualifications Authority and the General Teaching Council for Scotland, so while I cannot give her a blow-by-blow account of those discussions, she can rest assured that those discussions are on-going, and when we have more to update members on that, we will seek to do so. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Like everyone else, I welcome this announcement today, but I would also like to take this opportunity to put on record the praise of Holy Canceler, a young woman from my constituency who campaigned for this through the NDCS Scotland Society. I did invite her to come along with me, but she could not make it because she is at university. How will the plan address the unemployment and underemployment issues for BSL users, and will the plan also help to tackle those issues that are faced by those in employment? First of all, I commend Fulton MacGregor for highlighting the work that Holy Canceler has done. I know that she was taken to Parliament by Mr MacGregor as his local champion on the basis of the work that she has done in relation to raising awareness of and campaigning for improvements in relation to BSL. The plan sets out a wide range of actions in relation to employment and underemployment. We will be looking to work with, for example, Skills Development Scotland, developing young workforce. We will be looking at awarding the highest level of modern apprenticeship funding for BSL users within their chosen framework and promoting foundation apprenticeships for schoolchildren who use BSL to address the issues that Fulton MacGregor has highlighted around underemployment, unemployment and, perhaps, lack of access. We also want to ensure that we get the message out there to employers. Working alongside others to raise awareness of things such as access to work schemes that can help to ensure that, once access has been achieved in the workforce, there is parity of esteem that so often BSL users in the workforce perhaps do not feel they have achieved. That concludes our debate. We will now move on to the next item of business. I will just take a few moments for members to change seats.