Using interpreters and bilingual staff in safeguarding disclosures

Never use a child, sibling, classmate, parent or unvetted family friend to interpret a safeguarding worry or a sensitive family meeting. Keep this rule even when a pupil offers to help or when a parent brings a friend to the front desk and asks them to translate.

Asking a classmate or sibling to translate exposes another child to upsetting details and breaks the pupil's privacy. Asking a parent, relative or family friend to translate is even less safe. That adult may be part of the harm or may push the child to stay quiet.

If a student starts to tell you about abuse in a language you do not speak, listen calmly and let them speak or write in their own words. Do not call another pupil over. Tell your DSL the same day so the school can bring in a vetted adult: see how to respond when a child discloses abuse.

International schools have two safe choices: an outside professional interpreter or a vetted bilingual member of staff who has done your safeguarding training. Which one you pick depends on urgency, the stage of the case and who knows the family.

When a child wants to talk right now, a trained bilingual teacher, EAL teacher or assistant on campus can help straight away. That way the child does not have to wait. Every staff member on your single central record is already vetted and trained in your policy.

For planned parent meetings, agency referrals or serious allegations, an outside interpreter is often the safer pick. A trained interpreter is used to translating hard terms word for word and has no personal tie to your school.

• Use a trained, vetted bilingual colleague when a child wants to speak straight away.
• Use an outside interpreter for planned parent meetings and complex cases.
• Check that any outside interpreter has background checks and a signed privacy form.
• Match the exact dialect and ask whether the child prefers a man or a woman.
• Keep a vetted list of interpreters and bilingual staff in the DSL folder ready to use.

International schools often sit inside small expat or local circles. In many cities, families who share a home language go to the same clubs, places of worship or embassy events. A bilingual staff member or local interpreter may know the child's parents well.

If a student sees that the adult translating for them is their mother's friend or neighbour, the student will often shut down or take back what they said. Even when the staff member is strict about privacy, the fear of talk in a small town can silence a child or parent.

Before bringing a bilingual colleague or local interpreter into a room, the DSL must share the family names in private and check for any conflict of interest. If the adult knows the family socially or has a child in the same year group, pick someone else or use a vetted phone interpreter.

Spend ten minutes briefing the interpreter in private before the student or parent comes in. An unbriefed adult may try to help by summing up a long answer, softening rough words or explaining family customs instead of translating what was said.

In safeguarding, softening or summing up ruins the record. Tell the interpreter to translate in the first person, word for word, including pauses, slang or harsh words. If a phrase has no clear English match, ask them to give the literal words first and explain the meaning right after.

Tell the interpreter not to answer questions for the school and not to ask the child extra questions of their own. If the interpreter comes from an agency, check their ID badge and have them sign a privacy form before you start.

• Check first for any social, family or neighbourhood link with the student or parents.
• Tell the interpreter to translate verbatim in the first person ("I", not "he says").
• Ask them not to soften, tidy up, sum up or leave out upsetting words.
• Agree a hand signal in case the DSL or interpreter needs to pause to check a term.
• Tell them that all paper notes taken in the room stay with the DSL at the end.

Set the chairs so you look right at the student or parent when you speak, not at the interpreter. Keep your sentences short and leave out school jargon. Pause after every sentence or two so the interpreter can translate without losing detail.

Explain the interpreter's job to the child or parent at the start. Tell them the interpreter is there only to translate, will keep everything private and will not talk about the meeting outside the room. Check that the student or parent understands the interpreter's dialect.

After the student or parent leaves, hold a five-minute debrief with the interpreter. Take any rough notes they wrote so no paper leaves the room. Check on their wellbeing too, because translating a child's account of harm is hard emotional work.

A clear safeguarding record must show how the talk took place. Write down the child's or parent's words in the first person, using the exact English translation given in the room. Where a key phrase in Kazakh, Arabic, Spanish, French or Mandarin carried weight, write the original words in quotation marks beside the English translation.

Log the full name and role of the person who translated, whether they were school staff or from an agency, and the language and dialect used. Note on the file that a conflict check and a privacy briefing took place before the talk.

Ask the interpreter to read the written log on the same day and sign to confirm that the English text matches what was said. Read how to record a safeguarding concern and safeguarding EAL and multilingual students for how these notes fit into the wider chronology.

• Log the full name, role and agency of the interpreter on the concern record.
• State the language and dialect used and confirm that no conflict of interest existed.
• Write key phrases in the home language beside the word-for-word English translation.
• Have the interpreter check and sign off the written record on the same day.
• Shred or file the interpreter's rough notes inside the locked case file.