INTRAN Celebrates 25 Years of Inclusive Communication
Norfolk is celebrating the anniversary of INTRAN, the county's homegrown interpretation and translation service.
Founded in December of 2000 to offer interpretation and translation services in 54 languages to public sector organisations in Norfolk, INTRAN has grown to provide over 300 organisations with translation and interpretation support across 174 languages, including British Sign Language and braille.
Cllr Robert Savage, Vice-Chairman of Norfolk County Council, said: "It's wonderful to celebrate a quarter century of INTRAN's work: this is a clear example of what can be achieved when organisations collaborate, bringing together 6 original partners to create a service that helps save public resources by avoiding duplication and now helps hundreds of organisations communicate clearly and swiftly with their service users. The work of INTRAN has helped improve lives, deliver better outcomes and ensure access to services for thousands of people who might otherwise have struggled. Here's to another 25 years of such success!"
Before INTRAN was established those who needed translation and interpretation support often had to arrange for specialist help to be brought in from far afield, with Interpreters as far away as Glasgow travelling to Norfolk to support face to face events. INTRAN's creation changed all that, allowing a range of organisations in Norfolk to access swift and local translation services. Today INTRAN offers telephone and video interpreters as well as face to face options, with written translation services and staff training also available.
Julie Dwyer, member of the Norwich Deaf Club, explained that "Without an interpreter, I often feel invisible — INTRAN helps me being heard and understood clearly".
In 2024-25, interpretation and translation services were requested in over 82,000 individual bookings, covering 111 different languages for Norfolk and 126 in the region (data shows that 174 different languages are spoken in Norfolk and over 200 in the East of England). Today, languages such as Lithuanian, Arabic and Polish are the most in demand, a sharp contrast to the early 2000s when Portuguese, Russian and British Sign Language were the most requested languages.
Valerie Gidney, INTRAN Partnership Manager, said: "The risks of non-effective communication are now widely recognised and regulated by law. By putting themselves together to deliver a common goal, members of our partnership have been able to reduce delays for service users, and help staff deliver their duty of care in confidence, helping avoid service delays, clearly communicate processes and consent, improve diagnoses and speed up accurate interventions.
With the continuous evolution of technology, over the past 25 years we've introduced new solutions, such as video interpreting on demand, which staff use to respond to emergency needs, access languages that are harder to source locally (such asOromo, Rohingya or Nuer), and bridge gaps. New opportunities are currently sought which we are confident will further improve accessibility for members of our local deaf communities. Watch this space!"
Top 10 Languages in Norfolk 2024-25
In 2024-25, interpretation and translation services were requested in 111 different languages for Norfolk and 126 in the region, of which 30 had not been requested during 2023-24. Between 2023-24 and 2024-25, Norfolk has seen some changes to the Top 10 most requested languages, which account for 69.94% of all bookings:
- Lithuanian
- Arabic
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Romanian
- Pashto
- Kurdish-Sorani
- Bulgarian
- Dari
Ukrainian was number 14 on the Norfolk list of top languages that year.
