Workforce Language Services

Having limited English proficient populations can have a real effect on how public agencies provide services. Agencies need to adapt to the populations they serve. In this case in the UK, increased immigrant populations is making their police force start to spend more resources on translation and interpretation services. That’s good news. Maybe the next step will be to provide occupational language training - or even begin to hire more officers who are proficient in the community language. Read more.

“The force makes every effort to consider the needs of the people we serve and is working hard to adapt where necessary.” One of the measures has been offering Polish lessons to a number of officers in Slough, which has enabled them to communicate with the growing population.

Due to the rising migrant populations, the force has increased spending on translation from £76,000 in 1997 to more than £1m in the last financial year. Cambridgeshire had an £800,000 translation bill.

Ch Con Thornton added: “These costs are not an optional extra but an integral part of policing our communities. These costs are for face-to-face and telephone interpretations for both victims and offenders.”