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Trial and error: attending to language barriers in child welfare service provision from the perspective of frontline workers
Author(s) -
Maiter Sarah,
Alaggia Ramona,
Chan Adrienne S.,
Leslie Bruce
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
child and family social work
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1365-2206
pISSN - 1356-7500
DOI - 10.1111/cfs.12214
Subject(s) - interpreter , focus group , confidentiality , workload , perspective (graphical) , psychology , rigour , welfare , language barrier , service (business) , public relations , applied psychology , medical education , social psychology , medicine , business , computer science , political science , computer security , marketing , geometry , mathematics , artificial intelligence , law , programming language , operating system
This paper reports on a qualitative study that used focus groups to gather data from the perspective of child protection workers on their experiences in providing services to clients with limited English proficiency ( LEP ). The goals of the study were to understand processes of relationship building and service provision that could contribute to improved practice. Focus groups are ideal in obtaining data on how a group deals with particular situations and for understanding their decision‐making processes. Measures to ensure rigour and trustworthiness were taken throughout the study. Findings provide rich and multilayered insights into the complexity of providing services for families with LEP showing that agencies use bilingual workers as well as interpreters for services. Participants noted, however, that services continued to be inconsistent with unclear guidelines and training about how and when to access interpreters. Lack of training for bilingual workers was also identified. Confidentiality issues, barriers to engaging with clients, problems with the quality of interpretation and role confusion together with benefits including interpreters being cultural and language ‘conduits’ and links to culturally specific services; enhanced communication decreasing the possibility of inaccurate assessments and lessening power differentials; and help with workload were noted.