Incumbent Labour and Co-Operative mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has pledged to introduce British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation for all livestreamed meetings of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority if re-elected next week.
Speaking at the British Deaf Association’s annual conference in Manchester on Friday, in which he started by signing that BSL is a “wonderful” language which “every child needs to learn”, Burnham highlighted the UK Government’s failure to provide a BSL interpreter in Downing Street for its daily coronavirus briefing, and questioned if “councils are getting [it] right in this area”.
“No, actually, we’re not getting it right, and actually, what I’m proud of in Greater Manchester is that we are beginning to challenge ourselves more on disability.
“How can I stand here and say that I expect BSL to be common practice in the early years or in education settings, if at the Greater Manchester level, you turn on and watch a Manchester Combined Authority meeting and you find that there is no sign?
“So I’ll make an election pledge, that from the start of my next term, should I be lucky enough to have one, I will require that there is BSL sign on the live stream of all meetings of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority,” he said.
Burnham added he hopes the pledge will send “a clear signal” to other combined authorities, Parliament and councils that “we now need to see BSL as standard, particularly in the political arena where important issues are being discussed”.
In an interview with Liam O’Dell, Burnham was asked what pledge he would make around the adult education budget, the government funding available to help adults learn new skills which is devolved in Greater Manchester.
He replied: “The pledge I would make is that we’ve got to end the postcode lottery in BSL because it can’t be a postcode lottery. If something is essential for life for people’s inclusion in society, it can’t be provided on a sort of ad hoc basis – it’s got to be provided on a permanent basis and it be clear when it is there for people.
“So I think that’s the commitment I will make at this election: we’ve got to end the postcode lottery and BSL.”
Rebecca Mansell, chief executive of the BDA, commented: “We think the whole approach to [the adult education budget] has to change, which is that it has to be BSL in the home, because what about brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, the wider family, the dinner table environment? Those are the people that also need to have access to learning sign language for that deaf child so they can be a part of that family dynamic.
“If we send a mother or father to a course, that doesn’t help that family engage with that child, so our campaign is to have sign language in the home.
“As well, you think about a new mother, with a baby, having to go to a course. Let somebody come into the house and engage with the whole family.”
While Burnham committed to greater BSL access to combined authority sessions, the election candidate’s manifesto for the upcoming election remains without a BSL version for Deaf residents.
When asked if he would provide one as soon as possible, Burnham added: “Yeah, I think you know, I’m not going to claim that we’re where we should be at all, actually. But obviously, part of being here today, makes me think more as well and challenge myself and I am challenging myself.
“But I am going to start with that commitment on the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and then once that is there, it becomes a mainstream consideration and let’s be honest, because it hasn’t been, but it needs to be.”
The BDA conference, currently underway in Manchester, draws attention to the charity’s BSL In Our Hands campaign, which calls on the government to fund BSL courses for parents of deaf children and an end to the “postcode lottery” around supporting families.
The full list of candidates for the election of mayor of Greater Manchester is:
- Jake Austin (Liberal Democrats)
- Dan Barker (Reform UK)
- Nick Buckley (Independent)
- Andy Burnham (Labour and Co-Operative)
- Laura Evans (Conservative)
- Hannah Spencer (Green Party)
Manchester residents will head to the polls on Thursday.
All other mayoral candidates have been approached for comment.
Update – 29/04/24 – 14:30: In a statement to this website, Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer confirmed she too will commit to providing BSL interpretation for Greater Manchester Combined Authority meetings if elected this week.
She wrote: “I think far too many people are excluded from politics, and we all pay the price for that. Society is all the richer from ensuring everyone can have a seat at the table when it comes to decision making.
“BSL plays a big part in taking those first steps – I’ve also signed up to a BSL course starting next week so I can better engage with all of the residents I currently represent in Hale.”
Liam O'Dell 