NRPSI's Board
The National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI Ltd) was established on 1st April 2011 as a registered company limited by guarantee focusing on public service interpreting.
Our work is governed by a Board, which sets policy, strategic direction and financial priorities for the organisation's work in public service interpreting. The NRPSI Board consists of seven Non-Executive Directors of whom four, including the chair, are lay members and three are registered interpreters. All seven Directors were selected through a competitive process by an independent appointments panel. The Directors duties are owed to the company only.
While it is important that within its membership the Board contains a range of skills and experience, including that of acting as a professional interpreter, and no Director represents or acts on behalf of any third party or interest in conducting the affairs of NRPSI. Procedures are in place that require a Director to make a declaration of actual or potential conflicts of interest on an issue and if necessary to be excluded from any decisions on that issue.
Board members at all times are responsible for promoting and maintaining the public's trust and confidence in the integrity of NRPSI, the interpreting profession and public service interpreters.
NRPSI Board Members
Helen Watts is a freelance researcher with more than 20 years’ experience of working alongside Public Service Interpreters. Her most recent research project in the field of public service interpreting (PSI) includes training for professionals working with interpreters; an analysis of interpreters’ views and experiences of the interpreter’s declaration/introduction and the impact of culture and context on interpreters’ practice. While working at Praxis Community Projects, Helen developed and co-ordinated a university accredited undergraduate training programme in PSI and its subsequent continuing professional development modules in collaboration with City University. From 2006 to 2009, she established and managed an interpreter service for GP practices and social services in East London for Praxis. She also co-designed, implemented and piloted a selection and assessment process for this service. Helen co-wrote a journal article with Jane Straker in the Critical Link series on training interpreters and is a founder member of the Consortium for Public Service Interpreting (CfPSI, 2010 to 2020), which promotes both spoken and signed language interpreters. With a particular interest in languages of the wider world, quality assurance mechanisms and the training of the users of interpreters, Helen gained a PhD in linguistics from the University of the West of England in the UK in 2020
