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BSL Advisory Board – achievements 2023 to 2025 (BSL and English)

Published 21 May 2026

© Crown copyright 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/british-sign-language-bsl-advisory-board-achievements-2023-to-2025/bsl-advisory-board-achievements-2023-to-2025-bsl-and-english

Overview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwLjTGvzNaA

Following the BSL Act 2022, a non-statutory board of 17 mainly BSL users was established in March 2023. Its role is to advise the government on:

  • matters of importance to Deaf and Deafblind people
  • the implementation of the BSL Act

From March 2023 to December 2025, the BSL Advisory Board was co-chaired by Craig Crowley MBE FRSA and a senior civil servant. 

Board members were: 

  • Vicki Ashmore
  • Jo Atkinson
  • Teri Devine
  • Catherine Drew
  • Zoe Fudge Ajadi
  • Abigail Gorman
  • Gaye Hampton
  • Richard MacQueen
  • Erin McCluskey
  • Ahmed Mudawi
  • Richard Platt
  • Kate Reed
  • Sylvia Simmonds
  • Sam Stocken
  • Mangai Sutharsan
  • Martin Thacker

In December 2025, the tenure of the first group of board members came to an end.  Following an accessible, open and transparent recruitment process, a new group was appointed to take forward the work of the previous board and identify new opportunities. 

From 2023 to 2025, the board established sub-groups to focus on specific issues. The areas of focus were:

  • health and social care
  • education
  • issues faced by Deafblind people
  • technology
  • employment
  • communication

Some of their achievements are listed below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G8NUkAohPw

Health and social care sub-group 

The sub-group’s report ‘Locked Out: Exclusion of deaf and deafblind BSL users from health and social care in the UK’ was published in November 2025. It was the result of 3 years’ work collating evidence and research from over 60 Deaf organisations, professionals, academics and frontline health and social care staff. The aim of the report was to better understand the community’s experiences and barriers in health and social care. 

The report was launched at an event in Parliament on 27 November 2025, attended by the Rt Hon Sir Stephen Timms MP (Minister for Social Security and Disability) and Dr Zubir Ahmed MP (Minister for Health Innovation and Safety).

The report outlines 12 recommendations that would lead to significant improvements in accessibility, patient satisfaction, overall health outcomes and benefits to the workforce, while reducing the state costs incurred from ongoing inequalities and unmet needs.

The sub-group also:

Education sub-group

The sub-group has been significantly involved in developing the new BSL GCSE qualification, working closely with the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofqual.  

The sub-group engaged with DfE before the BSL GCSE final subject content was published on GOV.UK in December 2023.

The sub-group also hosted a call for Ofqual with both Deaf education experts and the general public regarding the Ofqual consultation. Overall 200 people attended the call in June 2025.

In September 2024, the sub-group hosted an Early Years Education Summit at Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children. The summit was attended by the Minister for Social Security and Disability and brought together headteachers, Deaf school leaders, policy-makers, and sector experts. The aim of the summit was to identify and begin addressing barriers facing Deaf children in education. 

In April 2025, the sub-group gave feedback to the Ofsted Consultation Improving  the way Ofsted inspects education.  It recommended the inclusion of deaf education experts within Ofsted inspection teams, particularly when evaluating inclusion in provisions that serve deaf children and young people. It also  provided a response to the proposed report cards.  

In July 2025, the sub-group had a positive meeting with Stephen Morgan MP, then Minister for Early Education, discussing curriculum accreditation, funding for Teachers of the Deaf, and BSL for families. 

In November 2025, members of the sub-group visited Percy Shurmer, a mainstream primary school in Birmingham, to meet with staff, parents and pupils. They saw how the school’s Deaf Learning Base is integrated into the school to give Deaf children their deaf identity, space and support, alongside teaching BSL across all classes to promote inclusion. Parents are provided with BSL lessons to support family communication with their Deaf child.  

Deafblind working group

The Deafblind working group was set up in January 2025 to understand the issues faced by people who are both blind and Deaf. As a first step, the working group specifically focused on:

  • the lack of Deafblind interpreters
  • upskilling communicator guides
  • a Deafblind leadership programme

They worked to address the lack of Deafblind interpreters across the UK with:

  • NRCPD – the regulator for language service professionals
  • Signature – the awarding organisation for BSL qualifications

They are developing a plan to create more qualified Deafblind interpreters.

The working group also created a job description for communication support workers, and started to develop a Deafblind leadership programme. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elambBtEwcc

Technology working group

Due to the accelerating progress in BSL assistive technology and artificial intelligence (AI), the BSL Advisory Board set up a working group in 2025 to discuss the opportunity and issues arising from technology.  

In March 2025, the Minister for Social Security and Disability hosted a roundtable discussion at Tata Consulting. This brought together BSL Advisory Board members, sector experts and Deaf charities to discuss AI in relation to viability, responsibility, user experience and how to ensure inclusion of the Deaf Community.  

In June 2025, the working group co-chair, Ahmed Mudawi, took part in a panel discussion on  AI and Innovative Inclusive Communication alongside Minister Malhotra. The discussion took place at the 18th session of the Conference of State Parties to the UN CRPD (COSP18) at the UN headquarters in New York.  

In June 2025, the working group convened an AI Technology Forum. This brought together representatives from the Deaf community and experts in AI and technology to discuss the issues around BSL AI.

Employment sub-group

In 2025, with the government making a commitment to reduce unemployment, the BSL Advisory Board renewed its focus on employment, to remove barriers for Deaf people. 

During this period they responded to the DWP’s consultation Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper. They also engaged with DWP regarding Access to Work, highlighting some of the key concerns and priorities for the Deaf community. This work is ongoing with the new cohort of members.   

Communications sub-group

In 2023 and 2024, this sub-group worked with the Government Communication Service (GCS), the professional body for government communicators. Their aim was to build a better understanding of the needs of Deaf users of BSL and how government communications could be improved to better serve the needs of the Deaf community. This included hosting a Deaf awareness session for all GCS members and feeding into GCS guidance on BSL. 

The sub-group also worked with:

  • HM Passport Office to make passport services more accessible
  • the Met Office to make their weather resources more accessible to the deaf community

Women and Equalities Committee

On 10 September 2025, the Women and Equalities Committee held an evidence gathering session Access to British Sign Language. They heard evidence from a panel of witnesses including Craig Crowley MBE FRSA (then co-chair of the BSL Advisory Board) and Dr Jo Atkinson (member of the BSL Advisory Board) and Rebecca Mansell, CEO of the BDA.

.

The main focus was to gather evidence on the progress towards access to BSL since the BSL 2022 Act. The Committee explored the reported data on government BSL communications and where improvements could be made. They wanted to understand how the BSL Advisory Board operates, what its priorities were and where the witnesses saw the government’s progress compared to Scotland, 10 years on from its 2015 Act.    

The Committee also asked questions on broader issues of concern to the Deaf signing community, including:

  • access to BSL in Parliament
  • BSL in education, particularly early years, and the proposed GCSE
  • the potential impacts of AI on BSL interpretation
  • Deaf sport in the UK

You can read a transcript of the meeting.

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