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Translation and Interpreting Services

We provide Interpreters and Translators to assist communication between staff and clients who do not speak English. The service is reliable, responsive and confidential.

Click here for different languages (72KB, pdf file)

Who can access the service?

If you live in the Borough of Bexley or receive service/treatment in Bexley you can ask staff to provide an Interpreter who speaks your native language when you need to deal with any Public or Voluntary Organisation (e.g. Social Services, Housing, Housing Associations, Education, Schools, Hospitals, GPs, Dentists, Opticians, Clinics, Citizen Advice Bureau etc).

Who will pay for the service?

This service is free to the client.

How does it work?

To book an Interpreter during office hours (9am-5pm Monday to Friday), please ring the Interpreting Service on the direct telephone number 01322356462. If you need to contact us out of office hours, please telephone 020 8303 7777 and the Emergency Duty Team will answer your call.

You will be asked your name, adress and telephone number, the language you speak and details of your appointment. An Interpreter speaking your language will then contact you to confirm the details and will assist at the interview.

What will the Interpreter do?

The Interpreter will conduct face-to-face interpreting (communicate in English and your spoken language). This should enable you to communicate with members of staff who speak English, but not your language. However an Interpreter cannot provide advice or act on your behalf.

In an emergency, if an Interpreter cannot reach you quickly, they can assist you over the telephone.

What about written material in other languages?

We also translate appointment letters and reports in your spoken language.

Which languages do we cover?

At present we have Interpreters who speak the languages listed below. We can make arrangements to cover other languages.

Albanian	Hindi	Pushto	Thai
Amharic	Hungarian	Romanian	Tigrigna
Arabic	Italian	Rukiga	Turkish
Bengali	Konkani	Russian	Ukranian
Bulgarian	Latvian	Serbo-Croat	Urdu
Cantonese	Lingala	Slovak	Vietnamese
Czech	Lithuanian	Somali	Yoruba
Farsi	Mandarin	Sorani
French	Panjabi	Spanish
German	Polish	Swahili
Gujarati	Portuguese	Tamil