Quality standards

Cintra is committed to the provision of high quality services. Our service operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year round. Our call centre is staffed by trained and experienced bookings coordinators with knowledge of public service requirements and interpreter needs, able to respond to requests quickly and effectively and provide best-practice advice.

Cintra complies with the Data Protection Act and is registered with the Data Commissioner. All our employees and interpreters must abide by our Data Protection and Computer Security Policy, and interpreters must agree to abide by our Code of Conduct.

As well as our own database of qualified, trained and vetted interpreters, Cintra has subscribed to the National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI) since 1996, enabling us to have immediate access to the daily updated register of registered interpreters who work with agencies. The NRPSI was set up to provide public service organisations with details of qualified and vetted interpreters, and is recognised as an authoritative source by government. For our police clients, we supply interpreters in conformance with the Office for Criminal Justice Reform�s National agreement for the use of interpreters.

Since its inception, Cintra has adopted the Diploma in Public Service Interpreting (DPSI) and its equivalents as the key standard for effective service provision. The DPSI is the national public service interpreting qualification, set and administered annually by the Chartered Institute of Linguists, the national language assessment and qualifications awarding body. Cintra is a registered DPSI examination centre, running our own DPSI courses each year and DPSI examinations for our own and other learners in the region.

We have also developed our own Introduction to Interpreting short course to enable our new interpreters to become 'Safe to Practice' while continuing training for national qualifications. This enables us to ensure supply of high-quality interpreting in areas with few registered or nationally qualified interpreters in the short term, while building qualified / registered capacity in the longer term.

Our training is complemented by an ongoing programme of Continuing Professional Development, aiming to reinforce skills, update interpreters on changes in professional practice and provide higher level knowledge and skills in areas of particular complexity.

The role of interpreters is very demanding and Cintra strongly believes that they deserve access to appropriate support as and when they need it. All our interpreters are vetted to police standards, including enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks and counter-terrorism checks where necessary. All have the legal right to work in the UK.

We have regular feedback mechanisms with our contracted clients to ensure that service providers have a formal opportunity to let us know how we are performing. We also have a complaints policy, backed by disciplinary procedures. The few complaints we receive constitute about 0.01% of our total assignments.

Code of Conduct

Cintra has developed its own Code of Conduct for interpreters, set out below, covering the professional and ethical requirements of interpreters when working for Cintra and its clients. This is backed by our Continuing Professional Development training and our disciplinary procedures. All interpreters must agree to abide by the Code of Conduct upon recruitment, and must sign a confidentiality clause.

The NRPSI / CACDP registers also have codes of practice � all interpreters we supply will therefore abide by a professional code.

Interpreters will:

1. Interpret in the first person truly and faithfully what is said, without anything being added, omitted or changed.
   
   
2. Disclose any difficulties encountered with dialects or technical terms, and if these cannot be satisfactorily remedied, withdraw from the assignment.
   
   
3. Not interpret in a language or dialect they have not been assessed in.
   
   
4. Not enter into the discussion, give advice or express opinions or reactions to any of the parties.
   
   
5. Intervene only
   • to ask for clarification
   • to point out that a party may not have understood something
   • to alert the parties to a possible missed cultural inference
   • to ask for accommodation for the interpreting process.
   
   
6. Not delegate work, nor accept delegated work, without the consent of Cintra Ltd.
   
   
7. Be reliable and punctual at all times; contact Cintra, if, for any reason, they are late for an assignment.
   
   
8. Respect confidentiality at all times and not seek to take advantage of any information disclosed during their work.
   
   
9. Act in an impartial and professional manner.
   
   
10. Not discriminate against parties, either directly or indirectly, on the grounds of race, colour, ethnic origin, age, nationality, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation or HIV status.
    
    
11. Disclose any information, including any criminal record, which may make them unsuitable in any particular case.
    
    
12. Disclose immediately if the interviewee or immediate family is known or related to them.
    
    
13. Disclose any business, financial, family or other interest which they might have in the matter being handled.
    
    
14. Not accept any form of reward, whether in cash or otherwise, for interpreting work other than payment by Cintra Ltd.
    
    
15. Have all claim forms signed by the customer to verify the actual hours of interpreting carried out.
    
    
16. Fill in claim forms completely and accurately (including totals).
    
    
17. Send in all completed claim forms to reach Cintra within one week of the date of the assignment.
    
    

National agreement for the use of interpreters

This agreement was developed by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform for the guidance of organisations working in the criminal justice system on sourcing interpreters.

The standard requirement of the National Agreement is that every interpreter working in courts and police stations should be registered with the NRPSI (see above) at full or interim status (with Law option), or the CACDP, for interpreters working with Deaf people. It notes that registration 'provides a number of important safeguards as to interpreters' competence, reliability and security vetting'. The National Agreement also recognises that there are shortages of fully qualified, registered interpreters and lists possible alternatives, in its Annexes B and C, where a fully law-registered interpreter is not available within a fixed deadline.

Cintra's contracts with the East Midlands and Norfolk constabularies require us to supply interpreters under the National Agreement within 2 hours, to meet police deadlines. The time required both to make the arrangement with the interpreter and for the interpreter to travel to the assignment must therefore be kept to a minimum.

We have consistently met both the deadline and the requirement to supply interpreters according to the National Agreement, by first contacting NRPSI-registered interpreters, then DPSI-qualified interpreters and only then a Cintra-trained and assessed 'safe to practice' interpreter (see above). Specific individual authorisation from an Inspector is sought and obtained for the use of the 'safe to practice' interpreters, as required by the National Agreement.

For each assignment, as far as possible, the best-qualified and most appropriate interpreter is selected, to reflect the nature and complexity of the assignment. Registered interpreters, especially in languages in high demand, are likely to be very busy and frequently unavailable for immediate assignments, which is why we have adopted the process above, in full compliance with the National Agreement and in consultation with, and to the satisfaction of, our current police clients.

One of the reasons the National Agreement requires registered interpreters is to ensure that interpreters are vetted and reliable. In accordance with the Police Act 1997, all of Cintra's interpreters must undergo an enhanced CRB check (NRPSI interpreters may have either standard or enhanced CRB clearance). Cintra is a registered body for carrying out CRB checks. Checks are also carried out in accordance with the amendment to section 8 of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 to ensure that interpreters have the legal right to work in the UK.