ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the socio-cultural norms that underpin the relationships of trust between service providers and interpreters in the social work field which often remain implicit during interaction. It argues at the 'edges' of the role boundaries of both agents in order to improve the quality of communication. The provision of high quality and culturally sensitive services in interpreter-mediated social work encounters involves complex interaction and negotiation between the service provider and interpreter, the success of which is considered to depend to a large extent on the level of mutual trust invested in the communicative approaches adopted by both agents. Thus the discussion involves a re-interpretation of the 'server-served' relationship in interpreter-mediated social work encounters and is informed by findings of focus-group work designed to allow social work practitioners to articulate and evaluate their experiences of practice in light of what might be termed a new reality of social work practice.
