Provision of a Health and Social Care Communication Support Service in Northern Ireland, for People who are Deaf, deafblind and Hard of Hearing

The Department of Health, Northern Ireland, plan to appoint a single provider to deliver a Communication Support Services to allow communication between Deaf, deafblind and Hard of Hearing people and hearing people, in attendance, or via video conferencing settings. The Provider shall provide the following Services: • BSL/ISL Sign Language Interpreters (Face to Face) • BSL/ISL Sign Language Interpreters (Remote: Video Relay Interpreting and Video Interpretation) • BSL/ISL Deaf Intralingual Interpreters (Relay Interpreters) • BSL/ISL Translators • Interpreters for deafblind people • Lip speakers • Note takers • Speech to Text Reporting Given the growing presence of ethnic minorities with different language needs there is an expectation that the provider will provide a service that responds to the specific needs of all Service Users, including language provision for those for whom BSL or ISL is not a native language.