#StressAwarenessMonth: Taking the stress out of finding and booking an interpreter
April is Stress Awareness Month, so we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight how The Language Shop (tls) aims to take the stress out of finding and booking an interpreter in settings like hospitals, GP surgeries and schools for our UK public sector clients including local authorities and NHS Trusts.
As a leading language services provider with more than 30 years’ experience and a social enterprise with social values, we are acutely aware of how stressful it can be to find an interpreter with the relevant language, qualifications and skills, in the right location at the right time. It is often critical that a vulnerable person has this language-based support to access vital public services, which can add to the urgency and stress.
Our market-leading, all-in-one booking and management system, TLS Vista, and our on-ward tablet hardware, TLS Prism, makes it easy to get instant access to our pool of over 1700 experienced UK-based interpreters with 250 languages and British Sign Language for face-to-face, video or telephone assignments.
Our recent NHS customer satisfaction survey found that:
- tls Interpreters are on time for 98% of appointments
- 99% of interpreter appointments booked with us were rated as ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’
- 5% of respondents believe that tls bookings are ‘easy to arrange’
The fact that everyone from our responsive helpdesk staff to the interpreters themselves have relevant experience in the field they’re dealing with also reassures our clients that we are a safe pair of hands.
But it’s not just those finding and booking language services that are under pressure, interpreters themselves are often under huge stress. That’s why we make interpreter wellbeing a top priority so that they can most effectively support vulnerable people. We offer a counselling hotline and other mental health support, as well as fair and flexible working practices and pay.
Find out more about us here.
