Silent Sounds Communications Ltd. is the ATC’s Member of the Month

The ATC’s Member of the Month in December 2025 is Silent Sounds, a specialist provider of British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken-language interpreting services with deep roots in the Deaf community, a strong public-sector footprint, and a growing focus on technology-enabled solutions for healthcare and beyond.

We caught up with Deaf Services Manager and qualified BSL Interpreter Sarah Hobbs and Sales & Marketing Manager Michelle Martin, to talk about Silent Sounds’ evolution, its community-first ethos, and how the company is helping to shape the future of language support across the UK.

From a room and a fax machine to a multi-site operation

Silent Sounds’ story begins more than 25 years ago with two separate agencies; one serving the Deaf community and one providing spoken-language services. The companies later merged, adopting Silent Sounds as its name, and began to grow into the established, multi-office operation they are today.

Silent Sounds’ Deaf Services Manager Sarah Hobbs, who first joined the company 15 years ago as a young Level 3 BSL Communication Support Worker (CSW), has witnessed every stage of that journey.

“Back when I started, bookings still came through on a fax machine,” she recalls. “We wrote them out by hand. Now we’re a dynamic team of booking coordinators, two offices, and technology that supports and enhances our work. It’s been an incredible evolution.”

That growth has been driven largely by reputation. Silent Sounds delivers a bespoke, community-centred service that interpreters and clients value,

For their interpreters, Silent Sounds emphasises a personal connection: regular coffee mornings, training sessions, and the simple human familiarity of staff knowing interpreters by name, not by ID number. “Interpreting isn’t a commodity, and we pride ourselves in knowing our interpreters,” Sarah explains. “They know they can call us about anything, and that relationship really matters.”

Technology that bridges gaps

With demand rising across the NHS and local authority services, Silent Sounds is investing in technology that supports access while protecting interpreter roles. The company is preparing to roll out a new video-interpreting platform with a controlled AI-to-human handover: the system defaults to automation for simple queries, but escalates instantly to a qualified interpreter the moment nuance, sensitivity, or complexity appears.

Silent Sounds’ Sales & Marketing Manager Michelle Martin describes it as “trailblazing technology, years in development, created to enhance communication, not to displace professionals.”

The solution includes built-in safeguards around confidentiality, using encryption and data-handling processes that prevent full conversation reconstruction.

Silent Sounds is also part of the rollout of ‘InterpretCart’ across NHS London – mobile video-interpreting stations clinicians can wheel between wards. “For hospitals it’s game-changing,” explains Michelle. “These carts reduce device-sharing issues, support infection control with antimicrobial properties, and connect patients instantly to interpreters across more than 150 languages.”

For NHS Trusts, remote interpreting has become a vital tool in managing budgets, reducing travel requirements, and supporting sustainability. It is not a replacement for face-to-face BSL or spoken language interpreting, but it plays a key role in improving access for low-resource spoken languages and out-of-hours demand.

Championing Deaf services, education, and the future of the profession

As a Deaf-services provider deeply connected to its community, Silent Sounds continues to advocate for awareness, education, and proper standards. The BSL Act has helped, Sarah says, but there is still a huge knowledge gap.

“We still have GP surgeries phoning profoundly Deaf people and not understanding why they don’t pick up. We use the BSL Act in conversations with clients, but unless frontline staff understand it, Deaf people will continue facing barriers.”

Education is a recurring theme. They regularly train NHS teams on appropriate use of interpreting, the risks of using family members, and the importance of matching qualifications to communication needs. A favourite analogy Sarah uses in presentations compares an unqualified communicator attempting to interpret to “an audiologist performing heart surgery”. It lands every time.

Silent Sounds also advocates for broader structural challenges, including workforce sustainability. The interpreting profession is ageing, and attracting younger interpreters is increasingly difficult. Michelle believes this is an urgent area for industry-wide action.

“If we want longevity for this profession, we need to make it an attractive, sustainable career path. We’d love to see more outreach, more careers events, and more support for the next generation.”

Looking ahead, Silent Sounds sees a future where high-quality interpreting and intelligent technology work in partnership to deliver equitable access. As the NHS continues to face budget pressures, the company remains committed to fair interpreter pay, ethical delivery models, and solutions driven by genuine community needs.

Sarah Hobbs and Michelle Martin were in conversation with ATC CEO Raisa McNab.