Thousands of Deafblind people across the country will benefit from improved access to communication support.
The number of specialist interpreters will increase more than eightfold to support 12,000 Deafblind people with communication needs.
Backed by £15,000 in new funding, the government will help drive one of the largest increases in specialist interpretation capacity in recent years, improving access to essential communication support for Deafblind people nationwide.
The British Sign Language (BSL) Advisory Board identified the gap in support and collaborated with stakeholders to secure new funding for the competency assessment of interpreters serving Deafblind people.
Thousands of Deafblind people across the country will benefit from improved access to communication support as the government takes action to significantly increase the number of interpreters for Deafblind people through the funding of interpreter competency sessions.
These bespoke sessions, held over a series of weekends, will support the competency assessment of interpreters for Deafblind people. The grant funding is expected to deliver a more than eightfold increase in interpreter capacity, expanding the total number of specialists to 68. This substantial expansion of interpreter capacity will enable Deafblind people to access support more quickly and easily, reduce waiting times, and improve access to vital communication services.
The grant funding was designed in collaboration with the government's independent BSL Advisory Board , which set up a working group to address the lack of interpreters for Deafblind people.
The Board consulted with representatives from Signature, the UK's leading awarding body and provider of BSL and other Deaf and Deafblind qualifications, and the National Registers of Communication Professionals working with Deaf and Deafblind people (NRCPD), the national regulator of language service professionals, to develop the competency sessions.
Before the government introduced this funding, there were just 8 registered interpreters for Deafblind people serving a population of approximately 12,000 Deafblind people. Boosting the number of interpreters is expected to relieve supply pressures and deliver long-term benefits for Deafblind people and public services.
This grant funding is part of the government's broader commitment to breaking down barriers to opportunity and putting the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of everything it does. This extra investment will help ensure that more people can access the support they need to get on in life.
Rt Hon Sir Stephen Timms MP, Minister of State for Social Security and Disability, said:
This government recognises that too many Deafblind people have faced barriers simply because specialist support has not been available where it is needed most. This grant funding will start to address that. Effective communication should not be a privilege and by increasing the number of interpreters, we are delivering real change for the Deafblind Community.
We are grateful to the BSL Advisory Board's role in making this happen and for continued productive engagement with the government to keep breaking down barriers for Deaf and Deafblind people.
The funding for the competency sessions will also support the expansion of NRCPD's register of interpreters for Deafblind people.
Dr Joanna Atkinson, Co-Chair of the BSL Advisory Board, said:
Deafblind people communicate in different ways including tactile forms of British Sign Language. Expanding the number of sign language interpreters with expertise in working with Deafblind people represents a major step forward so Deafblind people can access information, take part and get on with their lives.
We are confident that the rollout of these sessions will help meet increasing demand for qualified BSL interpreters for Deafblind people, strengthen the quality and availability of services, and create better opportunities for the thousands of Deafblind people who depend on them.
We would like to thank Signature and NRCPD for their partnership and support in helping deliver this much-needed investment in the future of Deafblind interpreting.
Theresa Thomas-Morton, Chief Executive Officer of the NRCPD, said:
The assessment weekends present a real opportunity to increase the number of Registered Interpreters for Deafblind people. By assessing and endorsing the competence of candidates, we can add successful individuals to the register, making them directly accessible to Deafblind people who rely on these vital language services.
This is a significant milestone, but it is only the beginning. NRCPD looks forward to building on the expansion of the register and working with partners across education, research, and practice to develop language service professions that deliver what truly matters: real, effective access and inclusion for people living across the spectrum of Deafblindness.
Alongside this grant funding, the government is moving forward with its work to develop a UK Government Plan for Disability. This plan will outline current efforts to support disabled people and set out a vision that will show what this government is aiming to achieve for disabled people in the longer term.
It comes as the government is taking action to help thousands of disabled people move into or stay in work, by employing 500 additional staff to tackle backlogs in the Access to Work scheme - a 72% increase.
Having inherited a backlog in the programme, which can help fund specialist equipment and support workers, including BSL interpreters, the government has been working with disabled people and their organisations so people can get the support they need quicker.
Work also remains underway to build on the foundations set by the BSL Act 2022, which requires ministerial departments to report every 3 years on their promotion of BSL in communications.
The government plans to publish these reports annually for the first 5 years, going beyond the Act's legal requirement. Last year, each department was also asked to produce a 5-year BSL Plan , to improve BSL use within their departments. These plans were published by each department alongside the third BSL report , and departments will publish an update to their BSL action plans alongside the fourth BSL report in July 2026.
British Sign Language (BSL) version of this press release
Notes
The BSL Advisory Board is a non-statutory board of 19 people - mostly BSL users - including 2 co-chairs. It was established in December 2022 to advise the government on issues that are important to Deaf people, and on how to put the BSL Act into practice.
Some of the board's biggest achievements include shaping the subject content for the BSL GCSE qualification, working with government bodies to improve Access to Work, and publishing the landmark report on BSL users' experiences of UK health and care .
The NRCPD is the leading voluntary regulator for language service professionals, setting the benchmark for excellence in the UK and British Overseas Territories. It proudly oversees a wide range of professionals, including:
- BSL
- English interpreters and translators
- Irish Sign Language interpreters
- lipspeakers
- notetakers
- speech-to-text reporters
- interpreters for Deafblind people
Signature is the leading awarding body for deaf communication and language qualifications in the UK. Since Signature became an independent organisation in 1982 to promote and teach British Sign Language, it has supported more than 600,000 people to learn British Sign Language.
