This was our first in person AGM since March 2020. It was great to be in the room together, to connect, celebrate and learn from each other. From the feedback we have received we are so pleased to have achieved these aims – please see the voting tables and feedback below. A special thank you…
On Monday 26th June 2023 SIS welcomed 33 SIS Service Users in 6 languages (Arabic, Cantonese, Farsi, Italian, Pashto, Portuguese) to a specially organised lunch time event to help us get to know them better, hear their opinions about SIS, understand their needs and share knowledge about communities and culture. “We are grateful for having…
Earlier this year, SIS support one of our Service Users to share her views of maternity and post natal support with Healthwatch. This contribution was 1 of 20 interviews conducted by Healthwatch across the country and feedback was combined with results from a national survey completed by 2693 people. I was able to share my…
We are very proud to publish the SIS Annual Review 2022-2023 : More Than Interpreting We have been working hard to sustain and develop our suite of language support services (pages 8-10). Our vision is to provide integrated pathways for Service Users to easily access social care and health. We want to do this at the…
SIS works closely with many organisations and we store sensitive data on our computer systems, and as such we take our cyber-security very seriously. Cyber security is how individuals and organisations reduce the risk of cyber-attack. Cyber security’s core function is to protect the devices we all use (smartphones, laptops, tablets, and computers), and the…
A partnership of SIS and Together Co have been delivering services to support Ukrainian refugees living in the city, for over a year using a grant from BHCC. The service has been recommissioned for a further 15 months. “We would struggle without help from SIS and TCo. Lots of refugees and their sponsors would not be able…
SIS frequently receives unsolicited feedback from customers about the great service delivered by the Self-Employed Sessional Linguists we work with. It is very gratifying for our team to get this insight into the interpreter’s work and the impact they make on public service delivery. The scope of the feedback helps to illustrate the technicalities, boundaries…
The Commission on the Integration of Refugees is an independent Commission aiming to find out about what facilitates and hinders integration for refugees and asylum seekers within the UK. They have designed a survey https://www.surveyhero.com/c/tvhpa4us for people with lived experience of the system, to provide a powerful evidence base to inform its recommendations and support its work…
Last month the SIS Projects Team held a volunteer celebration event at Community Base. We tied this in with the national Volunteer Week which is held every year in June. It is a great opportunity to have an informal get together in person and to say a big THANK YOU to our volunteers. Some have…
The Cost of Living Crisis is affecting us all, but it is affecting the economically challenged and vulnerable the most. According to recent research, up to 3 million people in the UK who are behind with at least one bill have experienced a mental health problem in the last two years. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jul/18/uk-people-behind-on-bills-mental-health-problems-study There is an…
SIS continues to work to meet increasing interpreting need in Sussex by enrolling new Community Interpreters into our existing pool. On the 18th May 2023 we held what we hope will be the first of many enrolment events in Worthing at the Heene Community Centre. The aim of the event was to connect with people…
Last year our independent assessor for Customer Service Excellence spoke of our remarkable achievement in gaining 11 areas of Compliance Plus: “A remarkable achievement!” – Sussex Interpreting Services This year we have 12 areas of Compliance Plus. We retained 10 of the areas from last year (please see the link above for details) and added…
SIS Bilingual Community Researchers helped some of our Service Users to complete an online Survey. The Brighton and Hove City Council survey asked about experiences of Health Visiting services in the city in 2022. The council commissions the local health visiting service and the responses will help to shape this service in the future. The…
The core service SIS provides is the delivery of interpreting support for public services and the community and voluntary sector. In addition to that, we also provide our Service Users with extra support through the work of the Projects Team. For the SIS AGM in December 2022, we created a short video aimed at SIS…
Since August 2021, 137 Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) have been reported missing from one hotel in Brighton & Hove used by the Home Office to accommodate them. 76 of those reported missing have currently not been located. Many of these children will have been traumatised by their experiences before arriving in the UK and…
Through our Bilingual Telephone Befriending Project, we match people with a shared culture and language together to create friendships that make life better. SIS runs this project in partnership with another Brighton based charity, Together Co. In December, Together Co organised a festive get together for some of their Befriending project Volunteers and participants. SIS…
We are so proud to publish our Annual Review April 2021 to March 2022: growing back stronger, better and fairer SIS Annual Review 2021-2022 Annual Reviews – Sussex Interpreting Services Jen our outgoing Chair reflects on 11 years as a Trustee. The Directors` Report addresses challenges, responses, developments, achievements and learning. Matt gives us some…
We are happy to announce SIS was successful in our tender bid (NHS Sussex – Mini Comp – Joint Commissioned Interpreting Contract) for Face To Face Interpreting, Telephone Interpreting and Video Interpreting. The new Contract will start on 1st November 2022 and operate for at least 3 years. The Contract demonstrates NHS Sussex Integrated Care…
Each year the flu vaccine helps protect against the most common strains of flu likely to be circulating. SIS is raising awareness and supporting uptake by sharing a translated leaflet that highlights why it is important to get the flu vaccine. SIS can help people to make an appointment for their flu vaccine, please contact…
A partnership of SIS and Together Co have been awarded a grant from Brighton and Hove City Council to provide specialist services to better support Ukrainian refugees living in the city. The grant fund will enable SIS to provide interpreting and translation support for organisations and community groups who do not have allocated resources. It…
In May and June 2022 Sussex NHS to help with a piece of work which aimed to get a quick idea of how people are doing after the worst of the pandemic, understand experiences and gather some views about priorities. SIS shared the link to an on-line survey with our contacts and brought together a…
In April and May 2022 SIS created a Digital Inclusion and Literacy Survey for SIS Service Users to investigate barriers, technology access and usage, identify priority support needs and encourage use of the SIS website to access fully translated information and make self-referrals to SIS services. 63 surveys in 10 languages were completed with the…
In May 2021 SIS was awarded £10,000 by Sussex Community Foundation to provide additional bilingual casework support for housing related issues. SIS delivered 18 Bilingual Social Prescribing and Advocacy cases to support Service Users (SU) to receive housing information, advice and guidance then access Housing and Homelessness services at Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC).…
This Refugee Week, people are being inviting to explore the theme of ‘Healing’. Through creativity and conversations, Refugee Week 2022 will be a celebration of community, mutual care, and the human ability to start again. There is more information on the official website https://refugeeweek.org.uk/theme-of-refugee-week-2022-healing/ And an amazing schedule of events across the county Brighton…
In the past year, thanks to funding from Sussex Health and Care Partnership and Brighton and Hove City Council, SIS has become more actively involved in Community Research which has enabled our Service Users to be involved and have a voice in public service consultations. This work has taken a variety of forms; 5 bilingual…
Volunteers’ Week is an annual celebration, which takes place in the first week of June, of the contribution millions of people make across the UK through volunteering. SIS works with nearly 60 individuals who volunteer their time for our organisation as trustees, social prescribers and telephone befrienders. Without their support we would not be…
SIS, along with the other organisations in Social Prescribing Plus Partnership, are proud to announce that we have won this prestigious National Association of Linkworkers award. This award recognises an outstanding collaborative social prescribing partnership that promotes health and reduces inequalities. The judges said The Social Prescribing Plus Partnership is a strong example…
This is the 12th continuous year of our Customer Service Excellence (CSE) journey – www.customerserviceexcellence.uk.com SIS was one of the first charities to engage in this rigorous independent quality assessment. We have built up momentum and provided compelling evidence of continuous improvement. This year we secured 11 areas of Compliance Plus! We retained all of…
We recently launched a new Virtual Switchboard to make it easier for people to book interpreters. People call us on 01273 702005. They hear a brief message asking them to chose a voice mailbox. The message is in Arabic, Cantonese, Farsi, Hungarian, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese and Russian with an option to select other. Messages left…
We have created short videos for people with language needs in Sussex. There are seven language versions: English Arabic Bengali Farsi Polish Romanian Spanish with more to follow. The videos explain: People’s rights to free interpreting at public service appointments How to contact SIS to book an interpreter for an appointment How to contact SIS to make a GP appointment, register…
Interpreting across the maternity care pathway is one of our biggest areas of work. Over the last 3 years we have provided interpreters in over 50+ languages. SIS Linguists are also routinely accessed by midwives, who ring our emergency line, seeking interpreting support during labour and post-natal discharge. Recently, we were happy to partner up…
Key to our response is understanding language need and people. Ukrainians will arrive traumatised, escaping from shocking situations. We have experience of supporting people and communities who have arrived at short notice; Sudanese Copts & Muslims (1991), A8 European Succession Countries (2004), Oromo – Gateway Protection Programme (2006), and Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme (2016-21). …
SIS Bilingual Community Researchers helped people to complete an online Survey. The Healthwatch Survey asked about patient experiences of accessing G.P Services in Sussex – of what is and isn`t working. Here are the stories and voices of some of our Service Users. “It is difficult to call my GP to book an appointment because…
In December 2021, SIS completed the recruitment and induction of a new cohort of 11 Volunteer Linguist. The group who speak 14 different languages between them, are joining our team to support the delivery of Social Prescribing and Community Outreach. The backgrounds of the volunteers were very varied and interesting, some of the new cohort…
We’re currently looking to expand out Community Interpreting pool of linguists. If you know someone, who is interested in Community Interpreting, who has accredited training or voluntary experience you can encourage them to find out more and send us a CV. We often received general enquiries from across Sussex, the UK and internationally about how…
Last Tuesday at least 27 men, women and children who were seeking safety in the UK, perished in the cold, unforgiving seas of the Channel. This is dreadful news. The tragedy is that these terrible deaths were preventable. Charities who have been supporting asylum seekers and refugees on both sides of the Channel predicted such…
We asked staff members, a trustee and a linguist about 2020 and the impact of the pandemic on their work with SIS. Here is an edited version of their interesting responses. With thanks to Nadine, Vikki, Sue, Matt, Aidan and Shahreen. What was your biggest challenge in the last year? Nadine Zeytoun (Community…
SIS co-hosted a Vigil for the 39 migrants who tragically died in the back of a refrigerated lorry in the early hours of Wednesday morning. We wanted to show our concern and express our solidarity with our beneficiaries, many of whom are Migrants and some of whom have undertaken perilous journeys to reach the UK.…
Net Promoter Scores (NPS) are a useful way of measuring customer and stakeholder experience. https://www.netpromoter.com/know/ In the last 15 months we have collected our NPS using 5 Surveys that asked people: `How likely is it that you would recommend SIS to a colleague, friend or family member?” We received 306 responses: Of the responses, 179…
