BSL Health Access: Finance

(asked on 22nd March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to renew funding for BSL Health Access.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 22nd April 2021

There are no current plans to extend funding for the British Sign Language (BSL) Health Access service. It was established independently of the National Health Service by SignHealth in April 2020 as part of the charity’s response to COVID-19. NHS England and NHS Improvement provided a one-off grant so this service could continue until the end of March 2021 to provide additional BSL interpretation in health services during the second wave of COVID-19.

All NHS providers must comply with the public sector equality duty set out in the Equality Act 2010 and the Accessible Information Standard to ensure that deaf people who wish to communicate using BSL can do so. NHS England and NHS Improvement have extended access to BSL interpretation of their 111 service via Interpreter Now. They have also commissioned a rapid review into access to BSL interpretation in NHS services, which is near completion.

Reticulating Splines