Policy and Public Affairs Update: May 2025

It's been another busy and productive month for the BPS Policy and Public Affairs team, so let's dive straight in. 

Consultation responses and calls for evidence have been flying in. We responded to the Professional Standard Authority's (PSA) consultation on the Standards of Good Regulation and Standards of Accredited Registers, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellent (NICE) consultation on guidelines for rehabilitation for chronic neurological disorders. 

We also responded to the Scottish Government's Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission call for evidence.

View our submitted responses. 

Submit your evidence

We wouldn't be able to respond to consultations without your insight and evidence to help shape our positions.  

There are lots of opportunities for members to submit evidence for open consultations, including for: 

• The Department for Work and Pensions Pathways to Work Green Paper
• The Office for Equality and Opportunity call for evidence on Equality Law
• The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) consultation on the Code of practice for services, public functions, and associations, regarding changes made following the UK Supreme Court ruling on 16 April 2025 in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers (For Women Scotland).
• The Home Office consultation on requests for third-party material and the definition of counselling services
• The Department of Health & Social Care's Men's Health Strategy for England
• The Scottish Government's Long-Term Health Conditions Framework.
• The Northern Ireland Department of Health's New Disability Action Plan – submit a response.

Find out more about the consultations and how you can submit evidence.

Briefings and parliamentarian engagement 

In Wales, we had a successful visit with Mental Health and Wellbeing Minister to St Cadocs hospital, supported by Aneurin Bevan Health Board, where we showcased seven psychologically-led services. 

With the second reading of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools bill taking place in the House of Lords, we briefed parliamentarians, and continue to monitor the Bill as it progresses.

Stakeholder engagement and influencing 

We joined a roundtable hosted by NHS Providers, on the topic of delivering sustainable high quality mental health services over the next decade. 

We also attended a meeting hosted by the Department of Health and Social Care on updates to the Mental Health Bill. In Wales, we met with Welsh Government's Head of Safeguarding and Advocacy who is developing a health and wellbeing framework for care, nursing, and EMI homes across Wales, and attended the Welsh Conservative Party Conference.

Wales

We welcomed the Welsh Government's long-awaited mental health strategy; a 10-year strategy that focuses more on prevention, empowerment, and providing services when and where people need them, but warned that it must be backed by sufficient staff and resources and supported by better training. 

Scotland

We responded to the Scottish Government's programme for Government, where we cautioned against losing momentum on crucial areas missing from Scotland's policy priorities. 

We also provided feedback to Scotland's Mental Health Partnership (SMHP) on its draft manifesto. 

Northern Ireland

We are attending the Psychology, Health and Medicine Annual Conference 2025 | BPS on 27 May, at Queen's University Belfast, on Health Psychology and how it can bridge the gap to wellbeing. 

Psychology Matters

This month, we published inspiring member interviews with Dr Liz Gregory, about her role in developing the NEST framework in Wales, and with postgraduate psychology student and former Royal Marine and police officer Paul Mullins. 

We also published a careers interview with graduate member Gethin Nadin, who shares his experience and advice on how a psychology degree can be a springboard for success.

We are planning the June launches of the BPS manifestos for the Senedd and Scottish Government elections, as well as our Policy Pillars document, which will be published in response to the Northern Ireland Programme for Government.

Tell us why you think Psychology Matters

We would love to hear from more members about why you think Psychology Matters – simply complete our short questionnaire to share your insights and impact stories or share your careers story. 

Campaigns 

Educational Psychologist shortage 

To support our policy calls for the campaign, we have commissioned the Education Policy Institute (EPI) to conduct research into the estimated costs of providing good quality educational psychology services in England. We are also partnering with EPI at the Labour Party Conference in September, to discuss the research findings, and promote our policy calls. 

To support our stakeholder engagement activity, we also met with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists to discuss our work on reform of the SEND and education systems.

NHS Staff Wellbeing 

We are carefully monitoring developments around the commissioning of staff mental health and wellbeing services, meeting with NHS Practitioner Health to discuss the proposed contract opportunity offered by NHS England to deliver staff mental health support to NHS staff. 

We also met with the remaining NHS Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub leads, to understand their status and challenges.