DIMIA Annual Report 2002-03
2.1.5 Fee-free Translating and Interpreting Services
Performance Information
| OUTPUT COMPONENT | MEASURES | RESULTS |
| 2.1.5 - Fee-free Translating and Interpreting Services | Quantity: 11,000 document translations purchased. |
6,426 |
| 61,000 telephone interpreting services purchased. | 78,475 | |
| 24,000 on-site interpreting visits purchased. | 23,869 | |
| Quality: Level of satisfaction of eligible clients with fee-free language services delivered. |
High level of satisfaction of eligible clients measured by increased usage of the service, positive oral and written feedback, and the lack of formal complaints. |
Objective
To facilitate full participation of migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds in Australia's social and economic life through the provision of effective communication means.
Description
This output delivers fee-free translating and interpreting services to eligible individuals and organisations.
Fee-free translations into English of extracts from settlement-related personal documents are provided to permanent residents and Australian citizens within their first two years of arrival or grant of permanent residence.
Documents may include birth or marriage certificates, driver's licences and educational and employment documents.
Fee-free telephone and on-site interpreting services are provided to approved individuals and organisations to assist them to communicate with non-English speaking migrants and refugees who are Australian citizens or permanent residents.
Analysis of Performance
In 2002-03 the fee-free interpreting service achieved, through the introduction of a series of administrative enhancements, a more equitable distribution of the available services.
The challenge for 2003-04 will be to continue working collaboratively with service users to allow them to deliver their services while DIMIA delivers interpreting services within allocated funds.
The fee-free translation service, via a change in the arrangements for the collection of and reporting on document translations, achieved a wider network of facilities for access to this service for clients.
Revised policy and relevant procedures were developed.
The key results in 2002-03 were:
- 108,770 fee-free interpreting and translating services were provided
(compared with 99,418 services in 2001-02) - an increase of 10 per cent.
The increase was mainly due to the systematic, progressive promotion
of the use of fee-free telephone interpreting - a less costly, equally
high quality means of communication - instead of on-site interpreting
amongst high users of fee-free interpreting service, particularly medical
practitioners. The successful result improved equity in the distribution
of services within allocated funds. A breakdown of the services provided
is as follows:
- The number of fee-free document translation services for 2002-03 was 6,426, compared with 5,223 in 2001-02.
- 78,475 fee-free telephone interpreting services were provided to non-English speaking residents as well as to the organisations and individuals who needed to communicate with migrants and humanitarian entrants with insufficient English (compared with 67,522 fee-free telephone services in 2001-02) - an increase of 16 per cent.
- The number of fee-free on-site interpreting services provided decreased by 10 per cent from 26,673 in 2001-02 to 23,869 in 2002-03.
The 10 highest demand languages for fee-free translating and interpreting in 2002-03 were Vietnamese, Arabic, Serbian, Mandarin, Bosnian, Cantonese, Turkish, Persian, Spanish and Russian.
The languages in greatest demand were the same as those of last financial year with a slightly different ranking.
OUTPUT 2.2 - TRANSLATING AND INTERPRETING SERVICES
2.2.1 Document Translating
Performance Information
| OUTPUT COMPONENT | MEASURES | RESULTS |
| 2.2.1 - Document Translating | Quantity: 11,000 documents translated. |
6,426 |
| Quality: 90% of fee-free translations will be processed within 20 working days of request. |
93% | |
| 95% of translating jobs will be done by a NAATI accredited/recognised translator. | 99% |
Objective
To assist eligible newly arrived migrants/humanitarian entrants to settle more quickly in Australia through providing them with translation of their settlement-related personal documents free of charge.
Description
Eligible documents for translation include identity and relationship (eg birth and marriage certificates), facilitation (eg driver's licences) and educational and employment documents.
Arrangements were put in place in 2002-03 whereby clients lodge their documents for translation with AMEP delivery sites, and Victorian Interpreting and Translating Service LanguageLink provides the translation service under contract to the department.
Analysis of Performance
A contributing factor for the number of translations falling short of the target for 2002-03 of 11,000 documents related to a significant proportion of humanitarian entrants coming from Africa.
These entrants, generally, do not have the range of documents requiring translation that was experienced with, for example, entrants from the Former Republic of Yugoslavia.