Translation and Interpreting Services

We welcome your views and experiences of translation and interpreting services.

In 2023 NHS England undertook a scoping exercise to understand what the most appropriate national interventions are to enable equitable and improved experience for patients needing access to translation and interpreting (CLT&I) services.

A number of themes emerged from that work. They include:

  • A variation across systems in pricing costs and models.
  • A variation in the way that different health and care organisations capture patients’ language needs.
  • A lack of consistency in the training needs required by interpreters and translators working in health and care organisations.
  • There is not a consistent approach to monitoring the quality and performance of translation and interpreting suppliers.

NHS South, Central and West CSU (SCW) is leading on the engagement to develop an Improvement Framework following this scoping exercise. We are keen for your views and experiences of translation and interpreting services to support us towards this improvement journey and to enable stronger partnership working and the development of system-based approaches. Please note that British Sign Language is not within scope of this piece of work. For more information on services for those requiring BSL please see the Accessible Information Standard.

Survey

We invite you to take part in a survey in order for us to understand your views and experiences (which you can access under the 'SURVEY' tab by clicking the 'Take Survey' button).

The survey is aimed towards organisational and professional stakeholders in translation and interpreting services working in healthcare (for example, in Trusts, Primary Care or ICBs). Note that we have a separate process for engaging with patients and service users and bringing in lived experience, including suppliers of translation and interpreting services. We are also linking in with the Royal Colleges for a clinical insight into this work.

The survey should take no longer than 20 minutes to complete and the deadline for submissions is Friday 6 September 2024.

Please note that the survey is best viewed in Google chrome or Microsoft Edge.

Case studies

We are also looking for examples of where provision of translation and interpreting services is working well and have created a case study template for this purpose on Microsoft Forms. We would be grateful for any examples you have to share. If you would rather send an attachment or link to an existing case study, please email it to: scwcsu.healthimpandineq@nhs.net.

If you would like to contact us about further discussions on this work, please do get in touch with us via scwcsu.healthimpandineq@nhs.net.

Thank-you in advance for sharing your experience.


We welcome your views and experiences of translation and interpreting services.

In 2023 NHS England undertook a scoping exercise to understand what the most appropriate national interventions are to enable equitable and improved experience for patients needing access to translation and interpreting (CLT&I) services.

A number of themes emerged from that work. They include:

  • A variation across systems in pricing costs and models.
  • A variation in the way that different health and care organisations capture patients’ language needs.
  • A lack of consistency in the training needs required by interpreters and translators working in health and care organisations.
  • There is not a consistent approach to monitoring the quality and performance of translation and interpreting suppliers.

NHS South, Central and West CSU (SCW) is leading on the engagement to develop an Improvement Framework following this scoping exercise. We are keen for your views and experiences of translation and interpreting services to support us towards this improvement journey and to enable stronger partnership working and the development of system-based approaches. Please note that British Sign Language is not within scope of this piece of work. For more information on services for those requiring BSL please see the Accessible Information Standard.

Survey

We invite you to take part in a survey in order for us to understand your views and experiences (which you can access under the 'SURVEY' tab by clicking the 'Take Survey' button).

The survey is aimed towards organisational and professional stakeholders in translation and interpreting services working in healthcare (for example, in Trusts, Primary Care or ICBs). Note that we have a separate process for engaging with patients and service users and bringing in lived experience, including suppliers of translation and interpreting services. We are also linking in with the Royal Colleges for a clinical insight into this work.

The survey should take no longer than 20 minutes to complete and the deadline for submissions is Friday 6 September 2024.

Please note that the survey is best viewed in Google chrome or Microsoft Edge.

Case studies

We are also looking for examples of where provision of translation and interpreting services is working well and have created a case study template for this purpose on Microsoft Forms. We would be grateful for any examples you have to share. If you would rather send an attachment or link to an existing case study, please email it to: scwcsu.healthimpandineq@nhs.net.

If you would like to contact us about further discussions on this work, please do get in touch with us via scwcsu.healthimpandineq@nhs.net.

Thank-you in advance for sharing your experience.


Page last updated: 09 Sep 2024, 12:00 AM