Update on the Register, December 2019

It has been a busy period for SLIS and the Quality Development Officer. As many of you will remember, we held a National Forum consultation meeting in DVI on 8 June, where we presented three draft papers to the public.

We have been attentive to the feedback received at the Forum. You can see our initial reaction in the National Forum Response Paper that we publicized in August.

Since then, we have been working to make amendments to the three initial documents presented to attendees, and made additions in such areas as

• assessments
• mentoring
• CPD
• the working of the Registration Panel.

We have added to those papers, adding draft versions of three more. (Links to these papers are below.) Some of these have undergone a process of receiving legal advice, as with the first three papers. We are also working on drafts of several other important papers and documents.

We have also continued our consultation with the Deaf community and interpreters, carrying out (to date) three more Open meetings with the Deaf community in Cork, Limerick and Galway, where we described the plans for the Register. We also held a meeting in Limerick specifically for interpreters. The feedback from these meetings was extremely positive.

We have been working alongside a Working Group on the Register, where representatives of stakeholders, including

• Irish Deaf Society
• Chime,
• Council of Irish Sign Language Interpreters,
• Citizens Information Board,
• Bridge Interpreting,
• Irish Sign Language Interpreting,
• and others.

This group met 3 times in the early part of 2019. Since the National Forum, we have held two more meetings of the Working Group on the Register – on 31 July and 27 August – where the National Forum feedback was discussed; additional and amended sections of the Register documents were discussed and approved.

We have also been working extensively with our Deaf Interpreter Working Group, on how the new Register will affect Deaf interpreters in terms of training, CPD requirements, and much more.

The three new documents, along with revised versions of the three papers presented at the National Forum, were adopted by the SLIS Board on 30 October. While still in development, these six core documents represent a vision of how SLIS, after the various consultation measures we have outlined, feels the Register should function:

1. Registration Scheme Process (Approved by SLIS Board) 11.09.2019
2. Complaints and Mediation Process (Approved by SLIS Board) 11.09.2019
3. Code of Conduct 
4. Registration Panel – Membership and Operation (Approved by SLIS Board) 11.09.2019
5. Specialisation Panels Paper (Approved by SLIS Board) 11.09.2019
6. Skills Checks Paper (Approved by SLIS Board) 11.09.2019

In SLIS’ view, the next step is to set up a Registration Panel, to advance the process of establishing a Register. However, when we met with CIB on 12 November and the papers were discussed, CIB felt that while much work had gone into the project so far, more information and clarification was needed from SLIS about the content before the next steps could be taken.

At the moment we are adding and clarifying detail, and making amendments to the documents we have adopted, as well as working on further documents. This is to ensure that from governance, legal, financial, and administrative perspectives, the operation of the Register will be solid, clear, fair and transparent. We are currently working with CIB to ensure this, and will update the Deaf community and the ISL interpreting profession on any new developments.

We are, as ever, eager for your feedback and welcome any comments on the six papers. You can contact us at register@slis.ie.

Have a happy and safe Christmas.

Regards

Cormac Leonard

Quality Development Officer

Email register@slis.ie     Tel 076 107 8447

See https://slisie.wpengine.com/interpreters/#national-register-of-SLI