The Interpreting Collective Ltd

The Interpreting Collective Ltd. is a co-operative society of experienced and qualified Language Service Practitioners (LSPs) which is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority as a mutual society. We are building an online platform to revolutionise the booking of LSPs to take back control from profit driven agencies/middlemen and to deliver long lasting, meaningful social change to diverse communities, the public sector and the private sector.

As a member of Co-operatives UK (https://www.uk.coop/), the main trade organisation for the UK co-op sector, our project has been supported by them through their HIVE programme for co-operative start-ups. We have also been accepted as a member of Social Enterprise UK, which is a national body for businesses with social and environmental missions.

The objective of the Co-operative is to provide, in a democratically governed manner, an ethical Digital Platform that facilitates the direct sale of language services to Public and Private Sector Clients, or non-English speakers.

Along with our sister digital platform co-operatives Signalise and Equal Care Co-op in the UK we are part of the growing platform of co-operativism: https://signalise.coop/ and https://www.equalcare.coop/

Our goal is to serve those members of diverse communities as well as the public sector and private clients. We are also aiming to make our platform user friendly for non-English speakers by having the booking system in many languages as well as English and with affordable prices.

As Language Service Practitioners (Interpreters and Translators) our work requires skills that build up with experience. Speaking another language fluently is not enough to be a good interpreter. Interpreting is not “knowing” two languages, it is “understanding” the two languages. Terminology expertise in specific areas is required and this skill, combined with experience, comes from training in handling sensitive situations. There are serious consequences on non-English speakers if the interpreting services are below professional standards. These include a wrong diagnosis, losing custody of children, financial loss, miscarriages of justice, homelessness, losing state benefits, and imprisonment as a few examples.