Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure equality of access to mental health services for blind and partially-sighted people.

The Accessible Information Standard published by NHS England in 2016 sets out a specific, consistent approach to identifying, recording, flagging, sharing and meeting the information and communication support needs of patients, service users, carers and parents with a disability, impairment or sensory loss, including blind and partially-sighted people. NHS England is currently reviewing the Accessible Information Standard and will publish the updated standard in Summer 2023.

The advancing mental health equalities strategy was published by NHS England in 2020 to identify and drive opportunities for improving that way that NHS mental health services meet the needs of groups at risk of, or already experiencing, inequalities.