On 29 April 2025, the Welsh Government confirmed its backing for the – a Private Member’s Bill brought forward by , Chair of the Senedd’s Cross-Party Group on Deaf Issues and leading advocate for people with disabilities.
The purpose of the Bill is threefold:
- to make provision to promote and facilitate the use of BSL and its tactile forms in Wales;
- to improve access to education, health and public services in BSL; and
- to support the removal of barriers that exist for deaf people and their families in education, health, public services, support services and in the workplace.
RCPsych Wales is pleased to support this legislative effort to enshrine the promotion and facilitation of BSL. Whilst not an end in itself, the Bill will provide the means to right long-standing inequalities faced by Deaf people in Wales. One such inequality relates to mental health as deaf people are twice as likely to experience mental health problems compared with the general population.
Following a recent period of consultation (read RCPsych Wales’ response ), work is now underway to develop and introduce the Bill ahead of the Senedd breaking for summer recess in July.
Alongside the Bill, the Welsh Government’s new 10-year contains a specific action to enable mental health services to better support deaf people.
As part of this, RCPsych Wales has been requested to review mental health services for deaf people, in collaboration with the NHS Wales Joint Commissioning Committee and the All Wales Deaf Mental Health and Wellbeing Group. We are delighted that our review will support the Welsh Government in developing an implementation plan to improve support for people with sensory loss across all health services.
Chair of RCPsych Wales, Professor Alka Ahuja MBE, said:
"We are pleased to support Mark Isherwood MS’s proposal for a BSL Bill for Wales and are committed to working with partners to deliver equitable and high-quality mental health services for deaf individuals in Wales."
For further information, please contact:
- Email: dafydd.huw@rcpsych.ac.uk
- Web: /wales
- Contact Name: Dafydd Huw
- Twitter:
- Out-of-hours contact number: 02922 33 1080