2.2.2 Telephone interpreting

Objective

• Provide a national 24-hour, seven day a week telephone interpreting service to enable accessible, quality communication between English and community languages to individuals (migrants and others) and to government and non-government service providers.

Description

The Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS) provides facilities that allow for a three-way conversation between English-speaking and non-English-speaking parties and a TIS interpreter through the use of a national telephone number - 131 450. TIS also provides priority lines for emergency services and medical practitioners.

Performance

During 2006-07, the volume of telephone interpreting services delivered increased by 11 per cent to 556 136 compared with 501 000 in 2005-06. The number of telephone services was 21 per cent above the projected target (460 000). This result maintained the growth trend of recent years.

Factors contributing to the growth include new business and client recognition of the availability of a timely telephone interpreting service that is both cost effective and suitable to their needs.

Despite the surge in demand for telephone interpreting services, the number of calls answered within 30 seconds by a TIS operator remained at 84 per cent. Factors contributing to the delays in response times included periods of significant staff turnover in the contact centre, intermittent systems problems, and regular call volume spikes in demand for services. Ninety-two per cent of calls were connected to an interpreter in a major community language within three minutes, exceeding the measure of 90 per cent.

Interpreters accredited or recognised by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) undertook 90 per cent of interpreting tasks. This supports the department's focus on quality assurance in the provision of interpreting services, which also includes a complaints handling process, annual client satisfaction survey and an annual programme of client liaison and engagement.

The high-demand languages were Mandarin, Vietnamese, Arabic, Cantonese, Korean, Spanish, Turkish, Persian, Russian, Greek, Serbian and Dinka.

Table 65: Telephone interpreting - performance information

Measures	Results
	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
Quantity
Estimated demand for telephone interpreting calls 460 000.1	441 952	501 000	556 136
Quality
90 per cent of calls will be answered by a TIS operator within 30 seconds.	90	84	84
90 per cent of calls will result in a telephone interpreter in a major community language will be provided within 3 minutes.	93	91	92
90 per cent of interpreter jobs will be done by a NAATI accredited/recognised interpreter.	92	91	90