British Sign Language (BSL) services for the NHS in Leeds

Lead: NHS Leeds CCG

Period: 3rd Sep 2019 - 20th Oct 2019

We have reviewed our contract to provide British Sign Language Interpreting Services (BSL) and Deafblind Communicator Guide services to GP practices in Leeds.

Brief description of the project

NHS Leeds CCG pays for a BSL and Deafblind Communicator Guide service to support people who are deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind to access primary care services in Leeds. The existing contract will be coming to an end in 2020 and we want to review the current service. To achieve this, we will use feedback from the deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind community to improve the service.

Who did we speak to?

Around 100 people contributed to the engagement. We received feedback from:

Children who are D/deaf or hard of hearing
Disabled people who are D/deaf or hard of hearing
BAME people who are disabled and D/deaf or hard of hearing
Adults who are D/deaf or hard of hearing
Advocates of D/deaf or hard of hearing people

What and how did we ask?

We hosted an event to help us improve service provision throughout the region. The event took place at Munro House in Leeds city centre.

Interpreters were available at the event and the information gathered was collected as part of an evaluation piece that will help inform our next steps.

We took existing feedback about our services and shared this with people from the deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind community. We asked if our understanding of the needs and preferences of this community were correct and asked people to identify any gaps in our knowledge.

For people who were unable to attend the event and wanted to give us their feedback, an online survey was available provided as well as several focus groups that people were able to attend.

What did people tell us?

There is a lack of awareness about people’s needs.
There are delays to care due to interpreters being unavailable.
It can be difficult to provide feedback about the interpreting service.
The service should be available for same day appointments.
Double appointments should be available when an interpreter is required.
People were unable to use the NHS App due to the voice recognition element.

You can read our full engagement report below:

Engagement report (2MB)

In order to view PDF documents you will need Adobe PDF Reader

You can watch a summary of our engagement in the below video:

What did we do?

The provider will deliver education and awareness sessions for GP practices.
The provider will use simpler booking systems and better use of technology.
The provider will implement a system to enable people to give feedback more easily.
Interpreters will be available for routine/same day/urgent/out of hours appointments.
Double appointments can be made for patients who use interpreters
We have contacted NHS England and the App is now no longer reliant on voice recognition.

If you have any questions about this engagement please email us at leedsccg.comms@nhs.net or call on 0113 843 5470.