Scottish charity Deaf Action has made redundancies due to a recent cut in funding and warned of the wider impact service cuts are having.
Deaf Action criticised a decision taken last year by the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership (EHSCP) to withdraw specialist social work funding.
As a result, the charity has cut back its community care assistant (CCA) service, which provided Deaf-led, British Sign Language-first support and was funded at £114,000 for the 2024-25 financial year and then £87,000 from April to October 2025.
It has also scaled back its specialist equipment service, which had a contract valued at almost £82,000 for the 2024-25 financial year.
The charity told Civil Society that one deaf social worker; two roles within the specialist equipment service, and one CCA role had been lost as a result.
According to its most recent accounts for the financial year ending 31 March 2025, the charity recorded an annual income of £3.6m and an annual expenditure of £3.9m. It employed 94 people.
The charity, which has supported deaf people for more than 185 years, this week called for the removed specialist provision in Edinburgh to be reinstated.
Philip Gerrard, chief executive of Deaf Action, said of the funding withdrawal: “Edinburgh once had specialist, deaf-led BSL-first services that helped people navigate daily life in their own language.
“Those services have been dismantled, one after another, and the result is that deaf people are now being pushed into generic systems that are not designed for BSL users. When you take away that language provision, you take away accessibility.
“It increases the risk of people being misunderstood, left isolated or falling through safeguarding gaps.”
Christine Laverty, chief officer, Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership, told Civil Society: “Deaf Action formerly provided two services on our behalf, for people who have hearing loss, which includes people who use British sign language (BSL).
“Our review showed that Deaf Action had not been able to consistently provide a BSL using social worker and relied on BSL fluent staff to carry out this service. It determined access to social work could be delivered in a more consistent and efficient way within the services we already provide, supported by translators.
“Similarly, the provision of equipment for people with hearing loss is now provided from within our existing teams. This is carried out on our behalf by Contact Scotland - who also work with partner organisations including NHS 24 and Police Scotland.
“We understand that this may worry some people who had used services at Deaf Action but want to reassure them that other forms of support are available.”
