From 10th October Islington’s bigger and better Sign Language Interpreting Service will be providing interpreters for services across the Council and the Primary Care Trust. <br><br>The service will be the largest in-house per capita unit across the country with a full-time Senior Sign Language Interpreter and three part-time interpreters as well as full-time admin support. Staff are highly qualified with three out of the four being members of the Register of Sign Language Interpreters.<br><br>Currently the service provides interpreting to all council services but from October any deaf person in Islington who needs to go to a doctor, a health center, an NHS optician, an NHS dentist or any council department can come to the Sign Language Interpreting Service for an interpreter. <br><br>Cllr Laura Willoughby, executive member for communities said:<br><br>"We've already lead London with our innovative signing call centre facilities. The extra resources for interpreting are very welcome and mean we can give deaf and hearing impaired customers the same level of service that hearing customers expect." <br><br>Local deaf people who need to use interpreters to access council and health services are thrilled at the prospect of having a better and more flexible service. <br><br>John Savva, 28, who is looking forward to using the service to meet with housing officers, his GP and local councillors, said: ‘It’s great that the new sign language interpreting service will be more reliable and flexible with more skilled staff.’<br><br>Betty Trujillo, 37, added: ‘Deaf people will feel greatly relieved that they can now access information fully which is very important. It’s a big relief for Deaf people to be able to access the sign language interpreting service directly.’<br><br>And 61-year-old David Moller who uses the service at least once a month and spoke at the launch on Tuesday night, said: ‘Being a more direct service it’s bound to save on costly mistakes.’ <br><br>The service will not be able to interpret hospital appointments, the hospital must book the interpreter. <br><br>Islington’s sign language interpreting service is funded by the London Borough of Islington and the Primary Care Trust.<br><br>ENDS
Page Last Updated: 17 December 2009