Who is Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council?

Since 1974, Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council has overseen the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the more than 250,000 residents of the area.

This formally heavily industrial and increasingly diverse region of the West Midlands borders on Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Sandwell.

Word360’s fully managed service provision has allowed the Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council to provide accessible services to 100% of its service users between 2016 and 2020.

The challenge

Walsall Council required a language services partner that was able to deliver:

A fully managed service capable of handling their extensive requirements
Guidance on maintaining best practice and accessibility across communities
Drive cost efficiencies through technology
Provide greater data insight and transparency of how the service is run
Support with and transcription of PACE interviews

The Council is responsible, as all public bodies in the UK are, for the provision of accessible services including the provision of translation and interpreting.

They provide a wide range of services to a diverse population, including adult social care, children’s services, economy and environment, and resources and transformation.

Benefits at a glance

Exceeded every KPI by at least 4.9%

Delivery rates of 99.9-100%

More than 550 bookings per month in over 70 different community languages

Fully managed service covering every accessibility need

Delivered via advanced, integrated Wordskii software

Expert support and transcription for PACE interviews

Advanced DBS checked linguists

Provision for rare languages

How Word360 helped

Beginning in 2016, Word360 became the single provider for the provision of a fully managed service to Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council. We won a tender again in 2020 to continue providing our services.

Under this agreement, we have provided:

Face-to-face interpreting
Telephone interpreting (pre-booked and on-demand)
Video interpreting (pre-booked and on-demand)
Non-spoken communication (BSL)
Document translation and transcription
Ancillary services such as braille, large print and moon type

Under their fully managed service, Walsall Council has round the clock access to our bank of linguists, all of whom are advanced DBS checked as standard, bound by NDAs, and receive regular training and support for the sectors they operate in.

We facilitate approximately 550 bookings per month with over 70 different languages requested. Additionally, we managed the transcription and support of PACE interviews.

All of this was achieved and integrated through the use of our Wordskii service platform, that allows for the quick and seamless access of all of the necessary services which can then be hosted via any platform desired, such as Teams or Zoom in the case of remote video interpreting.

The Results

Throughout our first completed contract with Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council, we were able to achieve success rates on all of the KPIs of 99.9-100%, exceeding every one of our contractual requirements to deliver outstanding service.

These results demonstrate a fantastic return on investment for the client and come in tandem with our bespoke software offering that makes the entire service provision transparent and manageable.

Through the use of Word360’s solutions, the Council was able to exceed legal accessibility standards and provide services to all of its constituents, regardless of language or ability.

Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council Case Study