Legal Working Group
Chair: Karen Green
NEC Liaison: Karen Newby
Quarterly Reports to NEC
June 2008
Author: Karen Green
Membership: Karen Green – Chair, Mo Bergson, Tricia Mitchell, Ilan Dwek, Brenda Millington, Mike Ballinger, Adam Redfern.
I would like to welcome two new members to the Legal Working Group, Mike Ballinger and Adam Redfern, who have agreed to come on board to help with the creation of the Information/guidance for interpreters working in the legal field.
Progress of this project continues to be frustratingly painfully slow with little or no response from group members when requesting updates or volunteers to work on sections. Due to this lack of progress little has been done other than having a list of topics we think need to be covered within the guidance.
I have created a draft letter to be sent to all constabularies in the UK under the Freedom of Information Act requesting information on what level of interpreter/person they are using and have on their books at present. I have tried to ensure the information requested is clear, concise and easy to collate so that we are not charged for the request. Once approved by the NEC, this letter will be sent out via email to reduce postage and office costs.
I attended workshop run by the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) on 23rd May as I had been asked by some ASLI members if the scheme would encompass us. It was a very interesting information giving workshop, which unfortunately didn’t answer the question of if we would be included or not. When I posed the question at the Q&A session at the end they admitted they hadn’t even thought of us and would go away and consider us being covered. I am concerned that in the IRP’s fact sheet that recently went out there were some errors in relation to the ISA scheme. The ISA do not deem if someone is safe to work within the regulated or controlled activities, what they say is ‘there is no reason for them not to work within the regulated or controlled activities’. The decision to employ or not employ someone is still up to the employer and the ISA will not absolve employers of their responsibility for safe recruitment and employment.
The ISA scheme goes ‘live’ on 12th October 2009 and will be phased in over a 5 year period. It will cost £64 when applying for registration and this covers a one off application fee of £28 to find the administering of the scheme and £36 for CRB administration and, in most cases an Enhanced Disclosure will be included. Those involved in voluntary activity only will not have to pay a fee.
Their definition of activities falls into two domains:
Regulated activity is any activity which involves contact with children or vulnerable adults. This could be paid or voluntary work.
Such activities include:
Any activity of a specified nature (e.g. teaching, training, care, supervision, advice, treatment or transport) which involves contact with children or vulnerable adults frequently, intensively and/or overnight.
Any activity allowing contact with children or vulnerable adults that is in a specified place (e.g. school, care homes etc) frequently or intensively.
Fostering and childcare.
A defined ‘office holder’ (includes: LA Director of Children’s Services, Trustees of certain charities; school governors)
Anyone who is working within a regulated activity must be registered with the ISA and it is a criminal offence not to register or to work/apply to work in this area if you have been barred from the register.
No distinction made between paid and voluntary work.
Frequently – once a month or more
Intensively – where an activity takes place on 3 or more days in any 30 day period.
Controlled activities include:
Ancillary support workers in FE, NHS and Adult Social Care (e.g. cleaner, caretaker, catering staff, receptionist) with frequent or intensive contact with children or vulnerable adults..
People working for specified organisations (e.g. Local Authorities) with frequent access to sensitive records about children and vulnerable adults.
Barred people can be employed in controlled activity, providing appropriate safeguards can be put in place.
It may look like we are to be included at first glance, but they go on to list the professions that fall within the Controlled and Regulated activities and we as a profession are not listed.
The ISA does not replace the CRB checks so if we are to be included in the ISA scheme we would still need to have CRB checks done on a regular basis. The ISA scheme is to run along side most safeguards already in place and it is to be a central point of information collation and is in direct response to recommendations made from various child abuse and murder cases where various pieces of information was held about the perpetrator, but not centrally so various professions did not know about the other pieces of information held.
More information can be found at www.isa-gov.org
Mo Bergson attends two meetings on ASLI’s behalf, the Interpreters Working Group (IWG) and the Safeguarding Deaf Children Interagency Development Group, and has submitted this report:
“I attended the 'Safeguarding Deaf Children Interagency Development Group' at the
NSPCC on April 30th. It is a group co chaired by NSPCC and NDCS and includes reps from Health, Social Services, police, and voluntary agencies concerned with Deaf young people. They were keen to have ASLI involvement as a chunk of the meeting was looking at Deaf children within the legal system., including how they could be supported through the ABE process..including use of interpreters/intermediaries/advocates and also the issue of therapy during this
process. Other issues discussed were the NSPCC helpline and the new link with
Significant, Social workers with the Deaf (the group has re formed after a period of
years), and Deaf sex offenders. The NSPCC has produced a DVD aimed at Deaf parents explaining issues of abuse. This is at a pilot stage and they are hoping to get
feedback.
I haven't yet received the minutes so am not sure when the group will meet next.”
Nothing has been reported on the IWG
Tricia Mitchell attends meetings in her area and has submitted this report:
“Initial discussions were had with an Inspector from South Yorkshire Police's Equality & Diversity Department,
These were followed up a few months later; certain developments were the function of other departments and therefore progress was not as quick as desired. The force had been looking at examples of good practice around the country, e.g. looking at Lancashire constabulary's website with info in BSL, which apparently isn't too expensive; issues had been raised regarding the sms number for deaf people (sometimes it's working, sometimes it isn't or there is uncertainty as to whether it's a reliable service or not). I understand (from a deaf person, not from the force directly) that the force has accepted a request from a deaf person to perform mystery shopper style periodic texts to the emergency sms number. However, when I saw this person recently to ask how this was going, the response was that there was some dispute over who would fund the interpreter for the disability reference group meetings and therefore involvement/attendance had ceased (I don't know what the current position is). I was informed that some of the communication issues could be progressed / addressed to the newly appointed 'head' (?) of Communications.
In previous discussions we've spoken about once the sms system is sorted, publicising this amongst members of the deaf community and with those people who do not use the deaf club.
In March I did a trawl of various police websites for content relevant to services for deaf people (sms schemes - most advocates pre-registration) and sites with info in BSL on & forwarded this in an email to the Inspector. When I followed this up, it was left that the Inspector would discuss issues with the disability reference group and get back to me if need be.
I've not heard anything since, so I don't know whether to try to get invited along to the disability reference group, or suggest that they reinstate the interpreters' meetings (for all languages, that used to take place periodically, but the person who facilitated that has since either left the force or left the department & this function - of overseeing/coordinating interpreting has become an admin function). I do not wish to imply that there is a lack of co-operation, it's just that the existing reference group is being used for consultation - rightly so, but I'm unaware of the membership, but doubt whether it includes interpreters.”
There have been no recent meetings with the London Met Police to report on.
Kent Police have just launched an SMS emergency number 60066 which can call out 3 of the 4 emergency services. By starting the text with ‘medic’ for ambulance ‘rescue’ for fire service and ‘police’ for the police diverts the text to the correct emergency service. The text should then be responded to so the Deaf person knows it has been received, but I have heard this element of it may not be working as well as it should be. To increase the number of interpreters on the Kent Police approved list there will be a familiarisation session sometime hopefully in September for freelance interpreters in Kent. Contact continues to be regular and positive with the officer in charge of interpreting services in Kent Police.
No future LWG meetings planned.
Working Group : Legal
February 2008
Chair – Karen Green
Mo Bergson
Ilan Dwek
Brenda Millington
Tricia Mitchell
John Walker
We have started to work on the legal leaflet/information pack for interpreters. Ilan Dwek
is taking the lead but it is difficult to get other members of the LWG to volunteer to assist
him, so progress is slow.
A draft Freedom of Information letter had been drafted and will be sent out to all police
constabularies in the UK to request information on what level of interpreter they are
using. FOI requests are usually free, unless it is expected to take up a large amount of
time to gather the information requested. For this reason we have kept the questions
simple so that it shouldn’t require over the amount of time they would charge for.
Attempts have been made to hold on line meetings with the LWG members but 2 out of
the 3 have failed to happen as members are not logging onto MSN at the agreed time.
Commitment to do work once someone has volunteered to be on the LWG continues to
be a problem. It is a problem I am running out ideas to solve.
Karen Green
October 2007
Chair – Karen Green
Mo Bergson
Ilan Dwek
Brenda Millington
Tricia Mitchell
John Walker
The summer has been a quiet time for us all and we are only just getting into the swing of things again as people return from their holidays.
We held a very productive on-line meeting on Saturday 20th October using MSN.
We will be starting to work on a project this autumn and this will be either information packs/leaflets for Legal Professionals in the Criminal Justice Service or Guidance for Interpreters working in the Criminal Justice Service. This project will take up most of our time in 2008 along with the other work that LWG members undertake.
As it is important that this document reflects what ASLI members think and need and to achieve this we will be asking for members views on certain aspects of the packs, so please do respond with ideas and answers.
At the same time as developing the information pack/leaflet we will also be contacting every police force in the UK under the Freedom of Information Act requesting information about what level of interpreter they have on their lists. This will enable us to have a clear, accurate picture of the standard of interpreter different Police forces are using. This will give us a bench mark standard so that we can measure future improvements and tackle problem areas.
The work that has been continuing throughout 2007 is mainly ensuring ASLI has a presence at meetings with various organisations. Mo Bergson continues to represent us at the Interpreter Working Group meetings, Karen Green and John Walker attend the London Metropolitan Meetings and Brenda Millington is involved in the West Midlands Legal Steering Committee and the Deaf Community Police Liaison Group. Karen Green has now managed to set up a meeting with Kent Police and is working to improve the situation within the force.
The new National Agreement on the use of Interpreters is now up and running and can be found at http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/news-and-publications/publication/operational-policing/national-agreement-interpret.pdf
The ASLI reps at the meetings fought long and hard to ensure LSP’s working with Deaf people were NOT included in the agreements fees and terms and conditions. This, we hope, means that payment of Sign Language Interpreters can be negotiated on an individual basis and the courts cannot impose the National Agreement fees on us by saying we are included within the agreed fees.
The LWG submitted the ASLI response to the PACE review and have had acknowledgement from the department dealing with the review thanking us for our submission. We now have to wait and see if any of our suggestions were implemented.
For the PACE submission we approached the new Chair and Vice Chair of the BDA to see if they would be interested in doing joint work. I am delighted to report that the BDA agreed to joint working and fully endorsed the PACE review submission. The LWG looks forward to future joint working with the BDA on issues in the Legal arena.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Diana Smith and Pauline Ridgeway for their support and work in the LWG, unfortunately they have decided to step down from the group. This means we have vacancies for interested parties. If you would like to join the Legal Working Group please do contact me on legalworkinggroup@asli.org.uk
Date of next meeting – 8th December 2007 @ 9am
May 2007
On the 14th April I took over from Pauline Ridgeway and became the new Chair of the Legal Working Group. Since then I have been finding out what the members of the group are doing and trying to encourage more active participation.
The active members of the Legal Working Group are:
Ilan Dwek
Brenda Millington
Mo Bergson
Diana Smith
John Walker
I am still trying to find out from 2 other present members if they wish to still be involved in the group.
During the first few weeks I am concentrating on getting communication right within the group and finding out what each member is doing.
This report consists of the information and activities I have discovered so far.
Mo Bergson is now the ASLI rep for the IWG (Interpreter Working Group) meetings. She reports that the meeting she attended last on the 16th April seemed to be wrapping up work that had just been completed. They did discuss the use of videophone interpreters within the legal setting, but this seemed to be mainly for spoken language interpreters. During the discussions she emphasised the point that SLI’s need a quality picture and not just good sound when interpreting via a video link. The Good Practice Guidance was also mentioned in the meeting, although not discussed and she has requested a copy to be emailed to her so that the LWG can comment on it’s content. She fears that due to the growing size of the meeting they will try to put ASLI into the second tier of meetings, which someone has suggested to try to reduce the amount of people that attend the IWG meetings as they stand. We will oppose such a move and will do our utmost to stay in the membership of the main group.
Brenda Millington attends two forums in her area. The first is the West Midlands Legal Interpreter Steering Committee which meets roughly every 3 months and looks at issues that face spoken and SL interpreters working in the Judicial System. The second meeting that is more recently established is with the West Midlands Constabulary and the Deaf Community and looks at issues specifically related to the community and interpreters. This newer meeting meets roughly every 2 months.
Diana Smith is currently very active as a rep for the Lip Speakers Association and attends the Met Police Meetings representing the LSA and has also attended the workshops the IWG ran when they were consulting on the new National Agreement. At present she does not represent ASLI at any meetings or forums.
Karen Green is the new Chair of the LWG and attends the London Met Police meetings on behalf of ASLI. Unfortunately at the last meeting it was announced that the Met Police will not install an SMS emergency system into their new FCC (Force Control Centre) and they will not be installing any minicoms in the FCC either. The meeting will be expressing our utter dismay and disappointment at this decision in writing to the FCC management committee. We did however have a very positive side to the meeting as the Met Police decided to recognise Deaf Interpreters and are drawing up criteria to be tabled at the next meeting. This meant that John Walker will now be attending the meeting as a Deaf rep from the LWG. Karen is also in communication with Kent Police and as a result has been invited to join the Buildings Access Group. Within this group she will be pushing for a Deaf person to be invited and will be bringing up the issue of Access to Justice for Deaf people via interpreters and the need to improve their provision.
John Walker is attending the London Met Police meetings as a Deaf ASLI rep from the LWG.
Over the next few months I am aiming that we will have started planning the workload of the LWG so will have more details in my next report.
To contact the chair of the Legal Working Group email legalworkinggroup@asli.org.uk