NUBSLI attended the TUC conference to share our recently authored report WHO OWNS OUR ACCESS? Private Equity, Multinational Corporations and the Commercialisation of BSL Interpreting. The report can be viewed here.

We met with union representatives, commissioners of services, and allies from within the social justice movement who were extremely interested in our work. Many were not aware that we existed and we were referred to as “Unite’s best kept secret” – we may  use this as our new tag line!

We shared copies of the ‘Stop Changes to Access to Work’ research on Access to Work commissioned by NUBSLI and the Movement Research Unit. We spoke to members of the PCS Union who are campaigning on behalf of DWP staff working in Access to Work. Workers report huge pressure to meet targets  –  this is an area we would like to understand more about and offer our support. We will be inviting them to speak at a branch meeting in the near future.

We met many health professionals, service commissioners and Ofcom to discuss some of the issues we are experiencing with VRS provision. We explained the barrier that VRS is creating for deaf people who have additional access needs and cannot use  this service successfully and are being refused face-to-face interpreters. We managed to raise awareness on unintended consequences that had not been considered. We have been asked to speak at several meetings and will be arranging this soon.

We shared information about Signalise Co-op, and it was helpful to provide an example of an ethical business who was used as an illustration of good practice in the the Government’s “Locked Out” report: Locked out: Exclusion of deaf and deafblind BSL users from health and social care in the UK There is a long history between trade unions and cooperatives, both being part of the social justice movement.

We also spoke about using smaller community-based services wherever possible, and how large predominantly spoken language companies are accelerating the erosion of regional dialects and minority community languages.

We had a game for delegates to play called ‘Spot the Ethical Provider’ which emphasised the acquisition of small community-led businesses by large multinational/private equity owned entities. Many delegates were able to recognise providers that their services had previously used but had no idea who owned them or where public money was going.

We also made contact with the Labour Research Group and are hoping to work with Unite’s research unit to take a deeper look into this.

We were delighted to be joined on the final day by our Regional Officer, Ailsa Levvy. It was amazing to have her support and we really appreciated her joining us on the stand.

Whilst attending the TUC was expensive for such a small branch, it provided us with access to important contacts, many of whom we can now consider supporters. We would love to go again next year but this will be dependent on branch funds and whether we can lobby the TUC to offer reduced rates to smaller branches such as ours.

A huge thank you to all the committee for working on the resources, organising stand display logistics and giving up their time to attend.