Are Statutory Regulation and CPD cure-alls for the ills in interpreting?

photoRoger Beeson NRCPD Registered BSL/English Interpreter (since 1988)
Roger Beeson is a self-employed interpreter based in London. He was a founding member of ASLI and has held various offices, including Chair. He is a regular attendee at its London & South-East Region meetings. He was made a Fellow of ASLI (FASLI) in 2008. He is co-founder and still one of the co-owners of the long-lived independent online interpreting discussion forum “e-newsli”. He is chair of trustees of 3 Deaf organisations, drawing on the experiences of a lifetime spent living and working with Deaf people. He is scaling down his interpreting work, aiming to work a maximum of 3 days a week.
So NRCPD surveyed views on Statutory Regulation and CPD, and will no doubt come up with the expected results. What about the unasked questions?

  • What are Deaf people’s experiences of using NRCPD yellow badge holders?
  • Does the NRCPD yellow badge assure competence and quality?
  • What do interpreters see that’s not right in interpreting?
  • How many more would complain if it was as easy as pressing a button?
  • Is the NVQ system fit for purpose?
  • How do NRCPD’s CPD requirements address interpreting shortcomings?
  • Do we need a more rigorous test of interpreting, post qualification?
  • Is NRCPD really policing interpreting?
  • Does NRCPD have the personnel to understand what is happening on the ground in the interpreting world, or to find imaginative and sustainable solutions?

What would address shortcomings?

  • Statutory regulation? I don’t think so.
  • CPD in its current form? I don’t think so.

In recent months there have been two high profile court cases in London, involving Deaf defendants on serious charges, where registered interpreters have been told to stand down by a judge, following complaints by Deaf defendants and other interpreters. This is serious stuff. But nobody complained to NRCPD (as far as I know).
We could go on and on with anecdotes about sub-par performance, but we know why only a tiny number complain. Interpreting is a transient event, usually in a private space and rarely recorded.  This makes it difficult to gather evidence for a formal complaint.  However, it is clear when talking to Deaf consumers and interpreters, that there are worrying registered interpreters out there. Why can’t NRCPD proactively monitor interpreters when concerns are raised which are difficult to turn into formal complaints? Why isn’t there an interpreters’ MoT to identify weaknesses?
Before NRCPD points the finger at “cowboys” outside the fold, what is it doing to sort out what is under its control?
I’ve been a long-time supporter of the principle of registration. Even if the rhetoric rarely matched the reality, I paid my annual fee. I’d imagined that once the majority of people being paid to interpret were registered, that standards would be cranked-up. But far from that, NRCPD has become a pointless encumbrance, driving people away from registration. NRCPD is now part of the problem, not the solution.
What’s the connection between doing a CPD activity, writing about it, and high interpreting performance? Is there really any realistic prospect of Statutory Regulation in the next decade?
NRCPD needs to urgently reform itself if the whole registration system is not to go into melt-down (and I’m conscious that this contribution could precipitate that). Where is the credibility and leadership to address the real concerns of Deaf people and interpreters?

Communication Support Crisis in Scotland

Submitted Anonymously
Much has been said about the national shortage of British Sign Language/English Interpreters compared to countries such as Finland. Over the years, there have been various initiatives to increase their numbers and improve professional regulation. In Scotland, there are around 80 BSL/English interpreters registered with either NRCPD or SASLI, covering approximately 13,000 BSL users.
Action on Hearing Loss (AoHL) estimates that there around 850,000 people with a hearing loss in Scotland. The majority of these communicate using English. They rely upon communication support provided by speech to text reporters (STTRs), electronic or manual notetakers, and lipspeakers.
Collectively, this group is known as Access to Communication in English (ACE) professionals. NRCPD is the only body which holds a register for all of the ACE professions.
So there are lots of registered ACE professionals, aren’t there? In fact, there are only three registered ACE professionals for the whole of Scotland. That is equivalent to one registered electronic notetaker or lipspeaker for every 283,000 D/deaf people.
A further eight are eligible, but not registered with NRCPD. The figures are similar for Northern Ireland and Wales, with only a moderate improvement for England. Deaf English users are unable to access registered communication professionals when and how they need to.
Signature withdrew its entire portfolio of ACE qualifications in 2011. Since then, there has been no training pathway towards NRCPD registration for notetakers or lipspeakers anywhere in the UK.   To compound the problem, NRCPD no longer recognises the old Level 2 lipspeaking or electronic/manual notetaking awards for the purposes of registration. There is a new Signature lipspeaking course due to be launched soon.
For electronic notetaking however, the only formal qualification available is an Open College Network Award. This is run by training centres in London (City Lit) and Manchester. This award has still not been accredited by NRCPD and does not lead to registration status.
Why is registration important?   NRCPD registration ensures that you have met the national occupational standards (NOS). Registrants agree to adhere to a code of conduct and abide by a formal complaints procedure. This protects service users and ensures that confidentiality will be maintained. Registrants must also hold professional indemnity insurance, have undergone criminal records checks and commit to at least 30 hours of continuous professional development each year.
In Scotland, there are no registered verbatim speech to text reporters. Therefore, electronic notetakers provide a non-verbatim communication service. They work in the same domains as BSL/English interpreters. This includes all levels of court, tribunals, police interviews and medical settings.
The Scottish legal system largely recognises the importance of using qualified, registered BSL interpreters. However, this is not the case with electronic notetakers. The emergence of “Remote Respeakers” is set to complicate matters further still.
Remote respeakers use voice recognition technology to produce live captions at meetings and events. Currently there is no recognised respeaker training programme that leads to NRCPD registration.
For BSL interpreters, there is a risk of co-working with unqualified, unregistered electronic notetakers or respeakers. Each of these produce a permanent record of the interpreter’s English interpretation. Most of these people are not registered so if there is any dubiety over what appears in the transcript, then it’s the SLI who is more likely to be sanctioned since only the interpreter will be registered.  Many interpreters do not seem to realise that the Electronic Notetakers are unregistered, or in some cases, unqualified. Increasingly, they are expected to provide a transcript of the discussion not just to clients but event organisers. The transcript might then be shared with a wider audience or even published online.
If a complaint is made to a registration panel about the accuracy of an interpreter’s words in a transcript, only the registered communication professional can be disciplined. How would this affect the interpreter’s insurance cover? This has yet to be tested.
What can be done to address this situation? Deaf people should be able to access communication in their own language. Whenever, and however they need it. If booking an electronic notetaker or lipspeaker, ask if they are qualified. Ask if the communication professional is registered with NRCPD. Ask if they hold any qualifications. And if not, why not.