15 May 2012
We are pleased to announce the following updates.
The numbers of registered communication professionals at 30 April 2011 and 30 April 2012 are:
| 30/04/11 | 30/04/12 | |
| Registered Sign Language Interpreters | 641 | 734 |
| Trainee Sign Language Interpreters | N/A | 79 |
| Trainee Interpreters | 98 | 59 |
| Junior Trainee Interpreters | 129 | 104 |
| Registered Sign Language Translators | N/A | 1 |
| Registered Lipspeakers | 36 | 37 |
| Registered Speech to Text Reporters | 22 | 27 |
| Registered Level 3 Electronic Notetakers | 4 | 7 |
| Level 2 Manual Notetakers | 12 | 10 |
| Level 2 Electronic Notetakers | 8 | 5 |
| Registered Interpreters for Deafblind People | 17 | 19 |
| Total | 967 | 1,082 |
The total number has risen by 115 compared to this time last year. Thanks to you all once again for your support and recognition of the importance of professional registration.
At the beginning of 2012 we informed you of the changes to the registration categories resulting from the findings of the Setting the Standard Consultation.
Further details and frequently asked questions
From 1 April 2012 professional indemnity insurance is compulsory for all registered communication professionals.
As part of the coalition agreement, the government committed to revising its vetting and barring arrangements so it can make sure it is regulating people who want to work with vulnerable people in a fair and proportionate way. That review has now ended and the government has announced it will scale back the Vetting and Barring Scheme to 'common-sense levels'. The changes will mean that the services of the Criminal Records Bureau and Independent Safeguarding Authority will be merged to create a single, new body. The new organisation will be called the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The planned operational date for the DBS is November 2012. We are watching developments in this area closely and have decided to suspend the review of our policy on criminal record checks until the requirements to be laid down by the Disclosure and Barring Service are finalised later this year. In the meantime we will continue with our established criminal record check procedure.
If you are a Registered communication professional you will be required to submit details of your ongoing development activities when you apply to renew your registration in 2013. Further information can be found on the website. We are phasing this in over three years. For the 2012-13 renewal year you will need to record 12 hours of CPD, in 2013-14 this will be increased to 24 hours and from 2014 onwards it will amount to 30 hours (5 days x 6 hours a day).
Annual revalidation is an important move in raising the profile and status of the professions we regulate. Evidence of post-qualification continuing education is one of the criteria we must meet if we are to achieve formal recognition for your professions. Only with that formal recognition will we move closer to our aim of securing protected title status for terms like Sign Language Interpreter and Lipspeaker.
We are making the recording system as simple as possible. A Revalidation page will become live on your online registration application when you are required to undertake this. This will guide you through the process and will keep a running total of the hours you have completed and the hours remaining.
An example of the page is shown below:
A register for Sign Language Translators was opened at the beginning of 2012. The first professional registered in this category in March 2012.
The new NRCPD website was launched on 2 March 2012. Thank you to everyone who gave us feedback over the past year and who completed the website survey we issued last year.
New features include:
The Board has set out the fees we will charge individual professionals for the year starting 1 September 2012. This is as part of a four-year plan to achieve greater consistency in our fees policy across all the professions we regulate.
Over the past two years we have kept fees the same, mindful of the pressures on communication professionals across the country, and this despite making considerable improvements to the service we offer. Our plan for the next few years is to further strengthen our regulatory functions and take a much more co-ordinated approach to promoting the benefits of registration to the public, service users and decision makers.
We continue to receive generous financial support from Signature Trustees, for which we are very grateful. This means we can resource our plans and keep increases in fees to a minimum while pursuing our ultimate aim of protecting the titles of the professions we regulate by legally reserving use of terms like Sign Language Interpreter for only those who are appropriately trained and regulated.
Fees for the period 1 September 2012 - 31 August 2013 will be:
| Registered Sign Language Interpreter | £185 |
| Trainee Sign Language Interpreter | £125 |
| Registered Sign Language Translator | £185 |
| Trainee Sign Language Translator | £125 |
| Registered Lipspeaker | £135 |
| Trainee Lipspeaker | £75 |
| Registered Speech to Text Reporter | £135 |
| Trainee Speech to Text Reporter | £75 |
| Registered Interpreter for Deafblind People | £135 |
| Trainee Interpreter for Deafblind People | £75 |
| Registered Electronic Notetaker | £135 |
| Registered Manual Notetaker | £135 |
On approval of your registration our finance department will send you an invoice for payment of the required fee. We expect you to pay your fee in line with the terms set out on the invoice. If you do not receive an invoice within a couple of weeks of your registration approval, please contact us at enquiries@nrcpd.org.uk and we will follow this up for you. Non-payment of fees could result in your registration status being revoked.
A new complaints procedure came into effect on 1 March 2012. It is clearer and in plainer English. It's also available in BSL on the new website. Corrective sanctions are also clearer.
We will be reviewing the Code of Conduct later in the year. Keep an eye on the website for the opportunity to give us your comments during the review.
We are pleased to let you know that UKCES approved the NOS for Speech to Text Reporters in April. The NOS will be uploaded to the UK Directory for NOS in the near future from where they can be downloaded freely.
Many thanks to Arqueros Consulting and all those who helped in developing the NOS.
The information recorded in the 'My Information' section of your online registration application is for internal use only. We need you to keep these details up to date as we use these to send you your official confirmation letter, photo ID card and invoice. You can change your address or contact details by logging into your online application, going to the My Information section, making and saving the required changes. If you wish to change your surname or login email address you need to request this via enquiries@nrcpd.org.uk.
Don't forget you can now follow us on Twitter.
If you would like to comment on any item in this update or raise any other matters relevant to NRCPD, please contact enquiries@nrcpd.org.uk.
