Following the decision by CACDP (Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People), to withdraw an Agency Registration system in April 2004, several Agencies, decided to get together to develop a new system. 

A steering group was convened, their remit was agreed as follows:

·         To create ‘Agency Good Practice Guidelines’ utilising existing research, knowledge and resources on the subject.

·         To collate a UK wide list of agencies.

·         To circulate draft guidelines to all identified agencies for feedback.

·         To collate feedback received and produce a second draft.

·         To explain the work of the group and present the second draft to a wider audience at the UKCOD Conference on 6^th July 2004 (deaf organisations, service purchasers, relevant professional bodies, and other interested parties etc).

·         To collate feedback for a third and final document.

The overall aim of this work was to ensure that the agency registration system, which commits agencies to a minimum set of standards would result in improved communication support services for deaf, hard of hearing and hearing people.  Agencies signing up to the standards ensure that any person employed as staff or as a freelancer, possess the appropriate qualifications and skills to deliver a LSP communication support service professionally. In addition, it was resolved to put a monitoring system in place to ensure that persons not fully qualified would be supported and supervised appropriately and to encourage those agencies, who had not previously registered, to do so.

Current ASG Members:

The steering group currently comprises members from the following categories:

1. Agencies providing Language Service Professionals

- National Charity

- Private Agency

- Voluntary Agency

- Statutory Agency

2. Professional Bodies representing LSP’s

- Association of Sign Language Interpreters

- Association of Lipspeakers

- Association of Verbatim Speech-to-Text-Reporters

- Association of Notetaking Professionals

3. Consumers

- Deaf Representation.

Current Status:

After a period of consultation the standards have now been finalised. Following on from agency discussions the ASG recommended IRP/CACDP registration only, (ie LASLI on its own would not meet the criteria).  However, after the ASG conference in Walsall (2005) it became clear that due to issues around the independence of the IRP and the reluctance of some ASLI members to sign up to the register this was not practically possible.

The requirement has now been altered to IRP/CACDP and LASLI initially for a period of 12 months.  The ASG hope that the field will work together to resolve issues by April 2007, when the aim is for IRP/CACDP registration to be the sole criteria for interpreters.  

The group is at a very exciting stage, as the standards came into effect on 1^st April 2006.  There were several press releases and a BSL DVD targeted at deaf consumers to raise awareness of the initiative.

Future:

The ASG aims to secure Government approval of its work with the objective of securing national recognition and regulation of the LSP profession.