Northamtponshire NHS Case Study

Northamptonshire NHS – Case Study

Contract Start Date: 1st April 2010

Northamptonshire NHS have appointed Pearl Linguistics as their sole provider of face-to-face interpreting, telephone interpreting and translation services via a regional Framework Agreement.

Background

Northamptonshire NHS serves a population of over 685,000 and has a requirement for over 50 different languages for interpretation. Whilst the Trust utilise written Translation services and Telephone Interpreting, over 90% of their requirement is for Face-to-face Interpreting. The primary language is Polish but others include Russian, Bengali, Romanian, Somali and Lithuanian. The Trust is made up of 81 GP surgeries, 81 Dental Surgeries, 121 Pharmacies and 62 Opticians, all in often rural locations.

Historical Usage

Previously the Trust had been using several suppliers for Interpreting and Translation services and had little information on the spend/usage across the Trust. Northamtonshire NHS wanted to promote one supplier for all services, have one point of contact and receive regular management information. They wanted to reduce expenditure without compromising the quality of service offered. It was also vitally important to access an offical contract.

Our Offering

Via the regional contract procured by NHS Re:Source for the East Midlands, Northamptonshire NHS were able to put a formal contract in place with Pearl Linguistics (Pearl) without having to go out to tender themselves which can often be a lengthy and costly exercise. Via this contract, they instantly benefitted from cost savings offered by Pearl in terms of the hourly charge for face-to-face interpreting and the per minute rate for telephone interpreting.

As Pearl offers a Managed Contract whereby they use not only their own freelancers, but local small agencies, they were able to offer continued access to a large pool of interpreters and service all the requests from the go-live date which meant no disruption to the service offered to the Northamptonshire, limited English speaking population.

Pearl worked with the Trust in promoting the service sending out welcome packs with FAQ’s, user guides and assistance posters. They also conducted calls to each GP surgery to ensure that they had everything they required and that they were comfortable accessing the service.

The Trust is provided with Management Information on a monthly basis and a more detailed quarterly report. Types of information provided include language requested, by surgery, individual etc. Number of hours/minutes of interpreting per booking and any cancellations. This has proved vital for the Trust to monitor expenditure and identify areas to make cost savings.

The Account Manager at Pearl has conducted regular review meetings with the appointed contact within the Trust to gain feedback and to ensure that the contract has been well received and is being accessed correctly.

If you would like to know more about how we can help with your complex language service requirements, or would like to learn how a Managed Contract can work for your organisation, please call us on +44 (0)20 7253 7700, or email us at info@pearllinguistics.com