Home Energy Scotland wins Happy to Translate Member of the Year Award

We are delighted to win the Happy to Translate (HTT) 2023 Member of the Year Award. We have been working hard to ensure Home Energy Scotland is accessible to everyone who would benefit from our services, including offering advice in alternative languages and formats and using the Happy to Translate logo on our leaflets so it’s clear we offer this.

 

An ethos of inclusivity

Announcing the award, Katrina McEntegart, Development and Marketing Officer at Happy to Translate said: ‘Home Energy Scotland – Energy Saving Trust have fully adopted the ethos of inclusivity and have designed their call centre to include the needs of callers when English is not their first language. They have been an enthusiastic champion and advocate for HTT and are the first member organisation to extend their HTT membership to cover the whole of the UK, thereby widening their reach to those in most need of energy advice and support.’

 

Services accessible to all

Energy Saving Trust in Scotland joined Happy to Translate in 2017. This committed us to becoming accessible and to deliver a high-quality service for people whose first language is not English.

Home Energy Scotland provides impartial advice via a network of regional advice centres covering all of Scotland. Most of our advice is delivered over the phone so we make use of bilingual advisors who can advise householders who aren’t able to conduct an advice call in English. This means there’s often no need for an interpreter, but semi-fluent advisors who can also support in a three-way call with an interpreter. We currently have 34 advisors throughout our network who speak 20 different languages between them. If it isn’t possible to connect someone with an advisor who speaks their language, we use language services to provide interpretation for three-way calls.

 

British Sign Language, braille and other inclusive formats

We’ve translated our ‘Save energy at home’ factsheet into 16 languages, produced videos with subtitles and signed in British Sign Language. We provide written materials in other languages and formats such as braille, large print and audio whenever somebody needs them.

If somebody needs a home visit, we deliver these jointly with community project energy advisors who speak the householder’s language. We also work with regional equality councils and community groups across Scotland, to help us reach people of all nationalities.

Receiving this award is a proud moment for us. We look forward to continuing to widen accessibility to our services so that no community or individual misses out on the benefits of warmer homes, lower bills and reduced emissions.

Want to find out more?

Contact Home Energy Scotland for free, impartial advice on how to heat your home, reduce your energy bills and lower your carbon footprint.

If your organisation works with people who use a language other than English, get in touch to find out how we can support. We’d love to hear your ideas on how we can help your clients.

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