There was a hearing by the Public Accounts Committee on Monday 15th October following the recent publication of a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) on the Ministry of Justice’s contract for interpreting and translation which was damning. Firstly comments on the NAO report dated 10th September.
Spoken language interpreters have done an impressive job in collecting a dossier of evidence to present to the NAO and the Justice Select Committee, whose hearing is due on 23rd October.
The NAO has done its own research into the contract and thought the failings in the contract were apparent. Those in the know from the reality on the ground, know it is much worse than the already awful picture portrayed by the NAO’s report.
Other have commented on the report already. Here are some more including links to other reports:
It is stated that on the 22nd Feb the MoJ threatened to rescind the contract (a mere 22 days into it). Why it was allowed to continue is a mystery. The mayhem continues and this includes BSL with no interpreters provided, bookings at short notice and a multitude of agencies now being used to fill the contract. ALS/Capita have continued to throw money at it including having to pay wasted cost orders issued by judges. Those fines do not include the obvious costs of having to haul your Barristers in front of a bench quite regularly. Do not think wasted costs have stopped. They continue.
The report quotes (section 3.8) that interpreters had a pay drop of 8%. This rather modest figure has been checked and recalculated. It’s not true. If it were 8% why would linguists have been travelling the country accepting assignments just to make a profit on the travel? Klasiena Slaney has worked out the figure is actually in the region of a 60-80% drop leaving interpreters earning below the minimum wage.
Stats of 98% fulfilled bookings had been quoted for ‘some days’. This begs the questions: filled with what kind of quality of interpreter when only 13%, some 300 NRPSIs are working for this contract (3.18). The MoJ say ALS are currently filling 95% of bookings. The overall 98% target seems to have been forgotten by the MoJ. It could be claiming service credits worth thousands but is not because it is not holding the contractors to account.
A particular favourite was section 3.12 – payments for linguists could be entered on the portal by the linguists themselves. Considering this was allowed by people employed without CRB checks, coupled with reports of ex-criminals working as interpreters to help get their partners-in-crime let off, it is a serious matter.
ALS/Capita now says it can not assess some languages as set out in the contract, section 3.16. The interpreting organisations did forewarn the MoJ.
Overall apart from these findings, the NAO report appears to still support the contract. It states (2.17) that Capita’s review in July of ALS shows that there is now less risk. That is a given. It could not be any worse than it was.
The report excuses the MoJ: they just were not aware of how interpreting was arranged and the true costs involved. Indeed. There should have been proper research done before awarding a national contract on the basis of guesstimates to a relatively small company.
At the end of the day the MoJ were given a report stating they should award a contract to ALS of no more than £1 million as this posed a risk. The MoJ wanted to award them a contract worth £42 million. The NAO criticises the MoJ for a lack of due diligence on this point. It is quite clearly outsourcing gone mad. Even thatcher wouldn’t have done that.
For further analysis of the NAO report see the excellent and often quoted LinguistLounge.org.
MoJ
There are 14 posts filed in MoJ (this is page 4 of 7).
Why I am Boycotting the Framework Agreement
I am boycotting all legal bookings connected to the Framework Agreement (FWA) as quite simply I believe the contract is wrong.
I do not agree that it is totally different for BSL interpreters. At the moment full rates of pay are being adhered to but cancellation fees are not. Indeed Clarion state there is now a three day cancellation period which is a huge drop to the majority of interpreters terms and conditions. I think it is scandalous to expect an interpreter to accept an assignment for a week or more with that time period in place, especially as there is no guarantee of filling those lost days with other bookings. I wonder how one is supposed to pay their mortgage, rent, bills and other expenses.
There are some excellent agencies in operation that respect the worth of interpreters and pay them accordingly. I think over the last few years many other companies have erroneously jumped on board the interpreting and translation bandwagon as they see it as an excellent way to make money on the backs of hardworking interpreters and translators. When tendering for contracts it appears they put in the lowest bid to win said contracts with little to no consultation with interpreters. If there is consultation it appears whatever interpreters say in regards to fees, additional costs and cancellations is ignored.
It appears in order for agencies to survive and make a profit they have systematically attempted and often succeeded in cutting rates of pay and ignoring interpreters own terms and conditions. Given comments from various sources in recent weeks it appears those interpreters willing to accept a lower rate of pay may have very little understanding of what they are actually worth. A colleague mentioned recently that when they were working as a Communication Support Worker (CSW) they were paid around £9.00 an hour and to be paid anything above this on a freelance basis seemed like a real coup. When some of these CSW’s then apply for Trainee status with the NRCPD (National Registers of Communication Professionals working with Deaf and Deafblind People) it is no wonder they are happy to accept a reduced rate of pay. In addition there is the risk that they do bookings which would be better suited to a qualified and more experienced interpreter.
I applaud those brilliant agencies that put D/deaf people and Non English Speakers (NES) at the forefront of their ethos by providing the right interpreter for the job at a fee that is commensurate with their skill. I worry that these agencies are being forever squeezed out of the market. I urge all interpreters to boycott this FWA and allow its demise. Signed and spoken language interpreters together can send out a clear message to agencies that supply interpreting provision to local government, health and more; that they need to respect an interpreter’s worth and put in tenders that reflect this.
It now appears Applied Language Solutions, now part of Capita, have in the past few months lost a number of their management team and according to Linkedin Applied Language Solutions founder and CEO Gavin Wheeldon has also left http://www.linkedin.com/pub/gavin-wheeldon/4/a69/230.
The daily reports on the Linguist Lounge website and the enormous amount of tweets being circulated continue to show the boycott is working. It is making a difference.
Paula Fye, Registered Sign Language Interpreter