Dear Sofia,

Freedom of Information Request F21/0063

Thank you for your freedom of information request received on 05 May 2021.

Your request will now be considered in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You will receive a response within the statutory timescale of 20 working days after the date of receipt as defined by the Act, subject to the information not being exempt or containing a reference to a third party. In some circumstances we may be unable to achieve this deadline. If this is likely you will be informed and given a revised timescale at the earliest opportunity.

In some cases there may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of the information you request. If this is the case you will be informed and the 20 working day timescale will be suspended until we receive payment from you. If you choose not to make payment then your request will remain unanswered.

Some requests may also require either full or partial transference to another public authority in order to answer your query in the fullest possible way. Again, you will be informed if this is the case.
Your request for information may be delayed due to urgent operational responses to dealing with Public Health priorities.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, we do remain committed to responding to your request and will respond as soon as we are able.

Trust's across the country have refocused resources to assist frontline staff to combat Covid-19 during this difficult period. The Trust will not be in a position to respond to certain FOI requests due to the increasing operational pressures.

Please could you confirm whether you still wish to have this processed as an FOI request, in light of the already burdensome situation on the NHS?

Thank you in advance of your support.

Kind regards

Freedom of Information Office
: [Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust request email]
+ Trust Headquarters, Health and Wellbeing Centre, Sandwell General
+ Hospital, Lyndon, West Bromwich B71 4HJ

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Dear Sofia,

Freedom of Information Request F21/0063

Thank you for your freedom of information request received on 10 May 2021.

Request:

In regards to Interpreting and Translations services used by your
organisation,

1) Can you please provide details of your current provider(s) (company
name, date contract was awarded and date of renewal)

2) Please list your top ten most popular languages for the last 2 years.

3) What types of language services have you provided during the COVID-19
pandemic?

4) How many interpreting requests have not been filled during the COVID 19
pandemic and what languages were they?

Response:

1) Can you please provide details of your current provider(s) (company
name, date contract was awarded and date of renewal) The Trust has an
‘in-house Bank for ‘face to face’ interpreting we also use Word 360,
Communication +  for ‘face to face’ and Language Line for telephone
interpreting The new Framework is about to conclude the tendering process
we are awaiting information

2) Please list your top ten most popular languages for the last 2 years.
Punjabi, Polish, Bengali, Urdu, Romanian, Arabic, BSL, Somali, Slovakian –
this is the same for all types of interpreting

3) What types of language services have you provided during the COVID-19
pandemic? Face to Face, Telephone and some video

4) How many interpreting requests have not been filled during the COVID 19
pandemic and what languages were they? see above Can we specify whether
these are unfilled face to face requests or unfilled telephone requests? I
presume face to face and that the consultation could have included use of
a telephone interpreting service. If so, we should include eg:

“The Trust’s face to face unfilled requests are below. Where there is a
unfilled request, the telephone interpreting service is available for
use.”

Month Unfilled requests
Mar-20 39
Apr-20 75
May-20 20
Jun-20 9
Jul-20 8
Aug-20 7
Sep-20 26
Oct-20 26
Nov-20 13
Dec-20 19
Jan-21 21
Feb-21 14
Mar-21 14

Unfilled Mar 20 - Mar 21
Punjabi 92 Gujurati 2
Bengali 48 Hindi 2
Urdu 35 Amharic 2
Polish 21 Sylheti 2
Romanian 18 Pushto 2
Arabic 8 Shona 1
Mirpuri 7 Spanish 1
Somali 7 Tamil 1
Kurdish 5 Twi 1
BSL 6 Albanian 1
Farsi 5 French 1
Slovakian 4 Bulgarian 1
Russian 4 Czech 1
Vietnamese 4 Dari 1
Tigranian 3 Lingala 1
Mandarin 3 Portuguese 1

I hope that the information provided in this email answers your query.
However, if you are dissatisfied with the response please contact the
Trust in the first instance with the details of your complaint so the
Trust can conduct an internal review. Please address such requests to
[1][Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust request email] or in writing to Kam Dhami, Director
of Governance, Trust Headquarters, Sandwell Hospital, Lyndon, West
Bromwich, B71 4HJ. Alternatively, if you remain unhappy with the outcome
you can appeal directly to the Information  Commissioner at the following
address: [2]www.ico.gov.uk

Kind regards

Freedom of Information Office

: [Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust request email]

+    Trust Headquarters, Health and Wellbeing Centre, Sandwell General
Hospital, Lyndon, West Bromwich B71 4HJ

[3]cid:image001.png@01D5792F.B5A04120  

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