NHS Sheffield CCG: Primary Care Interpreting Services

An accessible, flexible and responsive Face-to-Face Interpreting Service to be provided to a small number of GP practices in Sheffield where demand for interpreting services in specific languages is high. The service is for a series of planned block bookings within each practice on a weekly basis.

The block booking face-to-face service currently covers 7 GP practices ONLY where demand for an individual language is high. These practices can choose whether to block book sessions or use the separate on-demand service (provided by a different Provider) and so the volume of activity is not guaranteed.

The CCG commissions up to 242 hours of a face-to-face interpreting service per week across 7 practices for 52 weeks of the year.

The service is primarily for direct verbal communication between a patient / carer and the health care professional they are seeing. This may include helping the patient prioritise their issues prior to entering the consultation but the interpreter should not influence the patient in what they do or say and should therefore be a direct word-for-word interpretation.

The commissioners intend for the successful provider to work closely with each GP Practice to develop a collaborative approach to service delivery. The provider must proactively flex and support changing patterns of demand across the named practice network as and when required.