Danni Darrah discusses shifts towards the wider utilisation of face to face Sign Language interpreting service and what stage decision makers are currently deliberating.
Since last year, the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) and Business Services Organisation (BSO) have been working alongside one another to produce a new service, Regional Face to Face Sign Language Interpreting Service, which will provide interpreting services across multiple regions 24 hours, 7 days a week. The service will utilise and provide access to both British and Irish Sign Language and will predominantly be rolled out across the health and social care sector when it launches.
The aim of these organisation was to redesign and plan easily accessible forms of interpreting and standardise this across regions. This came as a result of the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing community receiving different experiences of interpreting services that varied based on location. To prevent this variation from continuing and provide all members of the community with the same access to these high quality services, the organisations redesigned this service, which is a part of the Regional Communication Support Services Programme. An article written by the HSCB states the reasoning for this urgent production of service. They wrote, "people’s experience of the service differs regionally in, for example, the availability of the service, how interpreters are booked, the quality of service provided and the distances interpreters can travel", therefore identifying the need for the regional approach.
"people’s experience of the service differs regionally in, for example, the availability of the service, how interpreters are booked, the quality of service provided and the distances interpreters can travel"
However, just three days ago, (15th February 2021) the HSCB released an update to the process of the launch of this urgently required service. They came forward to underline the lack of applications for the managerial role of the Regional Face to Face Sign Language Interpreting Service and thus, are "keen to understand why the recruitment exercise was unsuccessful" to continue the process with increase in success. The Health and Social Care Board have made their commitment to this cause clear. However further plans to continue with the Regional Communication Support Services Programme, including plans for Regional Advisory Group, have currently been placed on pause until these recruitment issues are resolved. They will post their next announcement in mid-March to keep the community and businesses updated.
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