Valerie is a French native speaker with considerable experience and expertise in the field of public service interpreting and translation. She has been leading INTRAN* since its inception over 20 years ago, supporting her partners in their objective to deliver equitable access to services to people with no or limited English proficiency.
INTRAN was founded in Norfolk, a county where there were no local interpreters, no awareness of language needs, no budget set apart, in short no language access. INTRAN has since grown to become the largest multi-agency public sector interpreting and translation partnership in the East of England.
In the early stages of her career, she developed, project managed and delivered interpreter course programmes including the Diploma in Public Interpreting (DPSI)**, enabling hundreds of bilingual people to qualify and work as interpreters. Her experience at training and communicating with interpreters from different cultures and speaking different languages was extremely enriching, and helped develop the perspectives which she brings to her professional inputs.
Valerie believes that effective communication saves lives, reduces errors, enables efficiencies and helps deliver better outcomes for all parties involved: your organisation, your staff, your service users and your local communities. By giving your staff access to training, you will give them the tools to deliver their duty of care in confidence and overcome the multiple challenges they may face.
Whether in health, safeguarding, education, housing, criminal justice or voluntary sector contexts, enabling people to access services in a language they understand will give them a voice and independence, and promote their safety.
Professional Experience, Highlights and Distinctions:
- Key Training Theme – Working effectively with interpreters in your context of work
- Valerie is known as an engaging speaker, a knowledgeable resource and a strong advocate for language access. As part of her journey promoting the advancement of public service interpreting in the public sector.
- Valerie has run multiple training workshops and events in the East of England, Lincolnshire and London for participants working in all areas of the public sector. She has also taken an active part at national and international conferences as a keynote speaker and on plenary panels and workshops, as well as lectures.
- Valerie has also contributed to national research initiatives leading to the development of commissioning guidelines, principles and standards for the use of interpreting and translation services.
*INTRAN: multi-agency public sector partnership operating in the East of England specialised in language access.
**DPSI: Chartered Institute of Linguists nationally recognised Level 6 qualification.