“There should be different timescales set for different information formats and for different communication types.” [Facilitators’ prompt, what do people think about remote BSL interpreting?] “I have seen it but not used it myself. People I know do not like it as it is not you do not know the person doing the interpreting and there could be problems with different BSL dialects leading to misunderstandings.” “I agree, I would not want to use remote BSL.” “I have seen some academic research which shows that there are more interpreting errors when BSL is interpreted remotely versus face-to-face BSL interpretation.” Group 3 – facilitated by Sue Haddock and Kerry Uttley “We agree in principle, especially with regard to letters and other regular correspondence.” “It could be difficult to avoid a delay when booking professionals, as they might not be available.” “It is really important that a person’s confidentiality is respected. It might not be appropriate to send a detailed letter to an outside agency for transcription or reformatting into alternate formats.” “The timescale might not be realistic for some formats; there will need to be procedures for staff to follow.” “I am concerned that it might be completely unlikely to get the right communication in urgent care situations. We might be setting organisations up to fail.” “Who will ask the questions, who will respond to the needs?” “Are finance and resources being considered for organisations?” Do you agree with the quality considerations? 1 – facilitated by Joanna Ingham “Who is going to make sure that people are producing good information?” “Will people have training in how to produce ‘easy read’ information? Will people be consulted before ‘easy read’ information is sent out to make sure it is fit for purpose?” Some d/Deaf people in the group did not understand the BSL video on the NHS England website about the accessible information standard. 2 – facilitated by Sarah Marsay
“I think that if the implementation period is any longer than 12 months organisations will forget about it until it is too close to the deadline to make a difference.” “Organisations report to Healthwatch and other organisations, so I think that a question should be built into these reports. Perhaps the standard could be included in local Healthwatch “enter and view” reports.” “Organisations should be required to report on the standard in any quality reporting that they have to submit.” “It is important to be ambitious with the standard. Organisations might not get there within the first year, but we want to describe the ideal situation.” “I that you need to strengthen the sentence, ‘it would be good if they worked with patient groups to do this’ and also it needs to be clear that this covers all organisations and not just hospitals and GPs. Could the standard say something like ‘evidence of working with the public on producing information will be expected’?” “I understand the difficulties associated with monitoring compliance with the standard. My suggestion would be that you try to influence / add to questions to existing surveys and quality assessments, for example CQC, Adult Social Care Survey, Carers Surveys, and guidelines for performance-monitoring of commissioned services. It is important to join things up. I also think that there may need to be ‘guide’ questions to support assessment of compliance with the standard – these need to be accessible and surveys should evidence they have reached a diverse population including those with access needs (I recognise the challenges associated with this). Consideration also needs to be given to the role of different groups and organisations in monitoring, for example local Healthwatch could include the standard as part of their ‘enter and view’ visits and there could be a role for Local Health and Wellbeing Boards (LHWBBs). My suggestion would be for an item tabled yearly at meeting of the LHWBB indicating how well both health and social care were performing against the standards and highlighting the gaps and difficulties. Is there something included in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 about compliance?” Sarah Marsay thanked all of the participants for their contributions and thanked Bradford Talking Media and Bradford Strategic Disability Partnership for hosting the event. The consultation closes on 9th November, and those present were invited to encourage others they knew to have their say by completing a survey online at or in an alternative format.