Counselling: Sign Language

(asked on 3rd June 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the availability of deaf-focused NHS counselling using British sign language as the first language in England; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Caroline Dinenage Portrait
Caroline Dinenage
This question was answered on 6th June 2019

The National Health Service Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme is available to all adults. If an individual is deaf and requires British Sign Language (BSL) to be used, services can either use a BSL interpreter or refer them to Sign Health, an IAPT service which delivers therapy using BSL trained therapists. Sign Health is available nationally but is funded via individual funding requests, so clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for funding decisions. In 2018/19 Sign Health received £1 million from 116 CCGs for the treatment of around 250 people. Other alternatives that may be suitable for deaf people include therapy delivered via a digital route, for example text messaging.

The NHS England IAPT manual, published in June 2018, specifies that commissioners, managers, primary and secondary care clinicians should develop local IAPT care pathways in consultation with patient groups and community leaders, including under-represented groups. The IAPT manual recommends that commissioners and providers consider commissioning services that have bilingual clinicians who speak the language of local minority groups, including clinicians who are fluent in BSL for deaf people.

Local commissioners have to pay due regard to the equality legislation when commissioning IAPT services. They are able to decide whether they meet their responsibilities through services who provide BSL trained therapists or through interpreters in their locality.

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