The Department of Health championed multilingualism among civil servants to help reach “diverse communities”, a leaked document obtained by this Substack reveals.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) ran sessions on “multilingual understanding” and “language learning programmes” for officials as part of a Whitehall diversity drive.
Professor Kevin Fenton, London’s regional director at the government’s Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, was announced last year as DHSC’s “Champion for Languages”.
In a leaked DHSC memo dated 17 February 2025, Fenton said he would lead the department’s approach to a cross-government “languages agenda”, promoting language skills to improve communication with “diverse communities” and address health inequalities.
He described languages as “underpinning cohesive communities” and added: “Whether in international health negotiations, communicating and building trust with diverse communities, or designing inclusive policies, languages empower us to connect, empathise, and innovate.”
Fenton said languages could help tackle health inequalities, citing COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on groups “including those whose first language was not English”.
The memo outlined panels on “multilingual understanding”, a workshop linking languages to health priorities, pilot language-learning programmes for officials and work with HR to track staff skills.
Translation and interpretation services cost the NHS £64 million in 2024/25, more than double the £31 million recorded in 2020/21, according to a Telegraph freedom of information investigation.
