Elisa Pruvost - head of education policy and research at the National Deaf Children's Society

Question: The NDCS recently conducted research among groups of parents into education provision for deaf children. What was the main reason for this?

Elisa Pruvost:The Department for Education and Skills is currently drawing up its Action Programme on Special Educational Needs that will set up its priorities and actions for the next 10 years for all children with SEN. We, along with other charities and organisations, consulted our members about what they thought should be in this Action Programme.Question: What were the main findings from this consultation on the SEN action programme?

Elisa Pruvost: We interviewed two different focus groups of parents and they said that the main barrier for their children to have a good education was the fact that they couldn't get the appropriate support that they need. The parents often thought that budgetary constraints were to blame.

Question: Following on from this consultation with parents, how would you like the system to be improved in the next 12 months?

Elisa Pruvost: Well we would like every teacher who is working with a deaf child, every classroom assistant and all staff members who work with deaf children to actually be deaf aware and not to be afraid of communicating with a deaf child or not knowing how to do it.

We want a system where everyone is aware of the needs of deaf children, responsive to these needs and where deaf children receive consistently high quality education wherever they live.

Question: What does the NDCS want the DfES to do to improve deaf children's education?

Elisa Pruvost: Easy access to appropriate support is the priority for parents. Support could be arranged improved in a range of ways.

About 80 per cent of deaf children are in mainstream schools, I think it is very important that there is more and better training in deaf awareness for mainstream staff.

Parents also said that there are some areas where they need more professionals working with deaf children. The picture is difficult for us to grasp without statistical evidence but it seems as if in some local areas there aren't enough specialist teachers for the deaf or speech and language therapists.

Parents also want to be more involved in decisions affecting their children - so that's really something we'd like to see improved. They also want clear, balanced information -- that will help them make their own choices.

Some equal funding for national standards so that the quality of education is guaranteed wherever you live is also a priority. We were thinking that one way of doing that would be having benchmarks and monitoring the quality and levels of support given to deaf children in schools per local education authority.

And finally, it would be so much easier for parents if all the professionals working with their child were working together - this means more training and closer relationships between different services.

Question: What does the NDCS do on a day to day basis?

Elisa Pruvost: We provide practical support to families and we do that in a range of ways.

We have a helpline for instance, which gives information to everyone who calls.

We also have a network of regional offices which help parents with any practical problems they are experiencing. We have networks of local representatives who work with families to help give them support and advice.

We have a range of resources for parents and professionals on childhood deafness, education, health, social benefits and technology.

Our technology department lends equipment and tours schools to demonstrate equipment deaf children could use.

We also have specific projects, such as helping families in some areas who want to use sign language with their deaf child.

Question: Should deaf children be educated in a mainstream school? Or should they attend a specialist school for the deaf?

Elisa Pruvost: We think it is up to parents and the children themselves. All deaf children are different and all families are different so some of them will want to be in their local mainstream schools and some of them will think that's not for them and would rather go to special schools for instance. It is very important to have a choice and not to assume that 'one size fits all'.