ASLI North-West Regional Meeting Minutes

Date: 01.08.2026 10-12

F2F Manchester Deaf Centre

Attendees:

Laura Wainwright (chair)

Heather Breen

Craig Brown

Craig Dixon

Mark Hetherington

Alexandra McDonald

Michael Payne

Angharad Roberts

Leanne Sneddon

Suzanne Truelove

By invitation:

Laura Sandall

Disclaimer – to be read out before each meeting

Everything discussed at these meetings is done so in confidence, and we ask that you respectfully keep all information as confidential. Should we need to discuss something that may be a possible conflict of interest to you, we would advise that you remove yourself from the discussion for the duration of that topic. We will advise when the topic in question has concluded and will invite you back into the meeting to avoid any potential issues around conflicts of interest.

1. Check in and welcome.

The declaration of confidentiality was read at the start of the meeting.

Welcome to members. Introductions inc. name, region and work domain.

2. Minutes of previous meeting.

Read and checked by HB and LSn.

3. Action responses

None due to current committee stepping down but previous topics raised have/will be passed to board if applicable.

4. TSLIs

Early career experiences as a TSLI can impact their entire career and attitude towards more experienced interpreters.

What image are we projecting when we, as RSLI, cowork?

Consider contacting your coworker in advance/who is responsible for this…it can be daunting for a TSLI to make contact with an RSLI. A TSLI's experience will inform how you work together. What's their background? Are they undertaking their first few jobs or due to qualify next week? Have this conversation in advance and consider how we can support the next generation of interpreters taking their next steps.

Discussion around TSLIs incoming vs retiring interpreters…any statistics available?

Consider feedback after coworking. Is it really possible to assess someone's linguistic skill when you are working yourself? Maybe the odd comment on dynamics or one particular segment that was obvious but expectations and limitations around feedback should be clearly outlined. Is feedback wanted or being provided unsolicited? Discuss beforehand. 

Preparation and introductions: 

Let us try and make sure that conversations/requests around preparation materials and ways of coworking are taking place before the assignment as standard practice. It's easy to let these things slide the longer you have been doing the job. But standard practice conversations with agencies/deaf and hearing participants/coworkers benefit everybody and support the next interpreter going in who may not know the job as well as you. Even if you don't look at the preparation materials (Not advocating this, you are responsible for your own practice!!), request them anyway so it's seen as the norm rather than the exception when the next interpreter requests prep.

Consider how you are asking for prep. Just a PowerPoint? Or more detailed? Aims of the assignment, how many participants, type of assignment, are there presentations, group discussions, what are the modes of communication in the room, dress code, parking…and everything else!

The above will normalise these conversations within wider society when an interpreter is present and have a positive impact on everybody!

5. Training

If the region goes dormant, the regional budget will be absorbed into the national budget. Requests for training regionally can be made to the membership officer or the training officer.

membership@asli.org.uk

training@asli.org.uk

6. Membership

New membership officer, Laura Sandall in attendance, to ascertain what members want from their membership.

Discussions around: 

- Insurance 

- Regional meetings – f2f changed to online

- Benefit of f2f meetings – informal/organic discussions between like-minded people 

- Access to webinars 

- Regional meetings

- Training – regional and national 

- Newsli 

- Conferences 

- Wellbeing fund – offers 2 sessions of support for anything significant going on in life if you need – can extend beyond this 

- Do ASLI link with any sort of campaigning or policy change? For example A2W changes etc. 

- Can ASLI be the representation for interpreters? Deaf community are represented and the government have representation but what about interpreters

- Directory for assistance? A2W, DBS, etc etc 

- FASLI – how do you vote, what are the credentials etc 

- Will there be an app? 

Post meeting response (18.08.2026) from Laura Sandall:

“Firstly a big thank you to Laura and the attendees for making me feel so welcome at your regional meeting. It was a valuable experience for me and gave me an insight into the members' priorities and current concerns. I don't have all the follow up points as yet but as I'm aware the committee will be finishing soon, I just wanted to clarify what this may mean for your region.  

I will be the contact person for ANY queries. My email is membership@asli.org.uk This could be an idea for regional training which I can support with by working with the wider ASLI team, or anything else. I am keen for members to know that I welcome them to reach out. 

The website work is ongoing, we have a website focus day next week where we plan on 'tidying up' many of the categories. I'm not going to send any links as yet to things discussed (such as the wellbeing fund, webinars for CPD etc) until we've done this, as they may change. 

There was lots of points I have taken from the day which isn't necessarily region focused, I am currently working on : 

- safeguarding training - I have already discussed this with the training officer Ruth who is on it

- Guidelines when asked for 'verbal permission' from DP (ie call centres) - we are looking at creating a piece for the website to offer a standard process for interpreters

- details of campaign work, research and terminology working groups

- pension information

I look forward to being able to update you on my further work.”

7. What next?

The current North-West Committee (Laura, Leanne and Iesha) will be stepping down this month. If no one comes forward to take on this role the region will go dormant. This means there will be no regional meetings and training will need to be requested from the main office. See agenda point 5. 

Anyone interested can enquire about the roles and responsibilities by emailing the current committee: northwest@asli.org.uk

If you register interest and receive information about the role, please follow up to state if you are still interested or not. 

8. AOB

There is a discussion taking place online (Facebook) around having two registering bodies and what happens if an interpreter is removed from one register for breaching standards. Is it possible to join the other register? Information is shared between registers behind the scenes – so it does potentially mean that someone might not be accepted onto the other one. 

Paul Belmonte has instigated this discussion and has created a letter to send to the relevant interpreting bodies and organisations in the UK. Many interpreters have added their names to this. Post available in the Facebook group “British Sign Language Interpreters & Communication Support Workers Group”.

We are not a protected profession and we don't technically need to be registered to work, however is it expected practice within the profession. 

Dates for the diary:

ASLI AGM (2026): Online and Frank Barnes School 4 Wollstonecraft St, London N1C 4BT, Saturday 7th November 2026, 10-4pm.

ASLI 40th Birthday Celebration (2027): Glasgow. 5-7th November 2027.

Unaffiliated: Manchester Deaf Centre 180 year anniversary celebration: Saturday 7th November 2026, 7:00pm – 2:00am

Massive thank you to the committee for their contribution, hard work and dedication, because the region would have been dormant a long time ago!!!

Thank you to Leanne Sneddon for contributing notes to help formulate these minutes, (and for taking minutes for so many previous meetings recently!)

Finally, thank you to all the north-west members for your participation in events over the last few years. It sounds a bit cheesy, but without all of you, it just doesn't work and we couldn't have run the sessions, meetings and events that we did. So thanks again and see you around!