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 2 more:
- 1.1.1 We have an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of our current and potential customer groups based on recent and reliable information.
- 2.2.4 We can demonstrate how customer facing staff insights, and experiences are incorporated into internal processes, policy development and service planning.
This is year one of a rolling review and it is challenging to retain areas of Compliance Plus – and in no way automatic – as we are effectively assessed `from scratch`. The level of evidence and detail that we provide to support this external assessment is significant. It is great to have the opportunity to `tell the story of SIS`.
It is hard to find a fitting superlative. What comes after remarkable? We are deeply proud of our collective achievement in delivering language services at the heart of our communities.
Congratulations to everyone involved in SIS who works so hard to deliver our services! We can all be very proud of our contribution – whether as a Linguist, Coordinator, Trustee, Manager, Administrator, Project Worker, Digital Support Worker or Director. We hope to find a time to celebrate our achievement together this summer.
We have been working in an environment with multiple risks and challenges; NHS appointment backlogs, NHS strikes, increased staff sickness, the dispersal of greater numbers of asylum seekers to unsuitable accommodation, the displacement of people from Ukraine, Afghanistan and many other countries, demographic shifts, a cost of living crisis, a mental health crisis, a change in SIS Chair after 10 years, a competitive re-tender, increasing interpreting activity, significant increases in our wider service offer, re-balancing hybrid working … to name a few major factors.
It is very clear that we have emerged from the pandemic stronger, better and fairer – https://sussexinterpreting.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/SIS-Annual-Review-2021-2022.pdf
We can now invest to grow!
We are actively planning to win back Compliance Plus for the one area downgraded to compliance: We consult and involve customers, citizens, partners and staff on the setting, reviewing and raising of our local standards.
We are confident we can make gains in this important area. We are planning a Service User Day in late June 2023. This will be an opportunity to ask people what they would like to be included in a Service User Survey that we will circulate in September.
We will use a Net Promoter Score at the Service User Day and again at the in-person AGM in November 2023, as we have done previously – https://sussexinterpreting.org.uk/news/sis-net-promoter-score-is-world-class
We are delighted that our CSE Assessor will attend and present on the SIS 12-year Journey of Excellence at our in-person AGM on Thursday 9th November 2023 (15.30-17.30/18.00).
We hope you can join us!
Thank you
We welcome feedback. You can give us your feedback by visiting our
Contact web page https://sussexinterpreting.org.uk/feedback/
Vikki Gimson – Quality Assurance Manager vikki@sussexinterpreting.org.uk
Arran Evans – SIS Director arran@sussexinterpreting.org.uk