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BJSW Advance Access originally published online on August 15, 2005
British Journal of Social Work 2005 35(6):807-821; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bch205
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

Do You Speak English? Language Barriers in Child Protection Social Work with Minority Ethnic Families

Ashok Chand

Ashok Chand is a social work lecturer at the University of Nottingham, Centre for Social Work. His previous publications and research interests have focused on the impact of the child welfare system in the UK for minority ethnic families. He has recently completed a review of research on child welfare services for children of minority ethnic origin and their families, with colleagues from the University of East Anglia, funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

Correspondence to Ashok Chand, University of Nottingham, Centre for Social Work, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD.

This paper critically evaluates research and literature on child protection social work practice with minority ethnic families who speak little or no English. Though the focus is on child protection, many of the themes raised should be transferable across to other areas and disciplines. Specifically, the paper focuses on the limitations and difficulties of using professional interpreters in child protection work and covers themes like the availability of interpreters, the role of interpreters, suitability of interpreters, the interpretation of particular words and phrases, and manipulating the interpreting process. The paper then moves on to address the important but often neglected area of using children as interpreters, and ends by considering the broader issue of how language barriers can exacerbate discrimination against minority ethnic families.

Keywords: Interpreters, child protection, minority ethnic families, language, interpretation services


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