Policy and Public Affairs member update - January 2025

This month, we submitted our response to Scottish Labour's consultation on proposed themes for their manifesto for the Scottish Parliament elections, which will take place no later than May 2026. In England, we responded to the Health and Social Care Committee inquiry on community mental health services and submitted evidence to the Ministry of Justice to inform their Sentencing Review.  

We also contributed evidence to the Justice Committee on their inquiry on resettlement, rehabilitation and the cycle of reoffending. Furthermore, BPS evidence featured heavily in the Senedd's Children, Young People and Education Committee report into Children on the Margins. We welcome all the Committee's recommendations in this report. 

Workshops and events

The team attended a workshop held by NHS England to inform the development of the Department of Health and Social Care's upcoming 10-year plan for the NHS. We also contributed to a workshop held by the LGA which focused on what an effective and financially sustainable approach to SEND in England should look like. We will also be submitting evidence for the Education Committee's inquiry on the SEND crisis. 

To support our ongoing campaign centred around improving children and young people's mental health, wellbeing and educational outcomes, on 31 January 2025 we will be holding a roundtable with BPS members to discuss the key enablers and levers to overcoming barriers and addressing systemic challenges.  

Bills passing through parliament  

The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill is continuing its passage through parliament and is currently going through Committee Stage in the House of Commons. We're continuing to monitor developments of the Bill and will be submitting written evidence to the Public Bill Committee. 

As the Mental Health Bill continues its passage through parliament, we've been working closely with BPS members to develop our policy positions and push forward amendments to the Bill. A summary of the key policy positions we are calling for can be found here. 

Activity in Wales 

We recently joined the newly formed AHP Federation Cymru, a group of AHP membership bodies created to influence national policy and guidance at a strategic level. We're meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care at the end of the month to raise the profile of AHPs (including practitioner psychologists) to gain his support for developing an AHP workforce strategy for Wales. 

We also attended a roundtable held by the Senedd's Petitions Committee on banning smartphones in school, where we urged the Committee to consider recommending that national guidance is developed to help support schools create better ways of using smartphones. Additionally, we attended a Welsh Government roundtable on the effectiveness of current safeguarding arrangements in Wales across all sectors. We pressed the importance of taking a trauma informed approach to adult survivors of abuse, whose experiences often span years if not decades, and pressure to disclose could do serious harm. Consultation on this is ongoing and BPS forensic members have asked to be more involved.    

We also had a successful turnout for our Wales manifesto workshop where we discussed key themes and actions for the next Welsh Government, including workforce, a lifelong approach to care, and prevention and early intervention. We plan to publish our Wales manifesto in the Spring. In the meantime, you can take a look at our full 2024 annual activity report for the Welsh branch.

Working with Scottish members 

We will also be working with members across BPS Divisions in Scotland to write our own BPS manifesto for the Scottish Parliament elections. Our December 2024 Scottish public affairs update provides a snapshot of the policy and public affairs activity of the BPS in Scotland throughout 2024. 

Looking ahead

Looking ahead, we will be responding to the upcoming Scottish Government consultation on its new strategy for long-term conditions and submitting evidence to inform the UK government's Spending Review.  

As always, we will continue to highlight the valuable role psychologists play as part of our Psychology Matters campaign.