Children ‘interpreting for parents’

Children have acted as interpreters to help parents understand meetings with social workers because of a shortage of official staff.

The situation arose in the Carlow/Kilkenny local health area where a number of children and families from different ethnic backgrounds are engaged with the HSE’s Child Protection and Welfare Service.

Hiqa Inspectors found the “overall system was weak” when it came to facilitating children with communication difficulties. These weaknesses included:

* A “dearth of available interpreters”. Inspectors said social workers “made concerted efforts to ensure children were not asked to interpret for their parents”;

* Use of a number of different interpreters for one family. Hiqa said this “was not conducive to the continuity of service provision and families experienced several people being privy to their personal information”;

* Some social workers accessed alternative therapies such as play and equine therapy to facilitate children to communicate. However, budget constraints meant these were limited;

* The service did not have access to braille or a loop system (hearing aid system) to facilitate the participation of children and families with visual or hearing difficulties.

The inspectors said that while efforts were made by individual social workers to ensure children with communication difficulties or those of different nationality were facilitated to express their views and report abuse, the overall system was “weak in this regard”.

In its response, the HSE said the area manager and the principal social worker would meet with the National Interpreting Service, review the services, and “agree a robust service that meets the needs of children and their families”.

The HSE said children and family members/ friends “will not be asked to interpret for those referred to or using services”, and that all communication methods, “including use of interpreters”, will be reviewed through case file audits and supervision.

The area manager, principal social worker, and team leader are responsible for implementing the promised action with an end-of-June deadline for completion.

The HSE said Children and Family Services would “like to clarify children were never used by the social workers as interpreters”.