"A lot of people still think of Kingston as being just a leafy suburb," says Barbara. "But these days it has become a very cosmopolitan place."

The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, which is shown in blue in the map of London’s boroughs opposite, is one of three Royal Boroughs in England. It is common to hear Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Tamil, Arabic, Chinese and Bengali being spoken in and around Kingston's bustling shops and markets and, surprisingly, the town is home to the largest Korean community outside the Korean peninsula.

"I was completely new to the world of interpreting and translation," reflects Barbara, "which meant that I came into it with a very open mind. I tested all of the available services and I went out and met with all the community and religious leaders."

Barbara reached two conclusions. Firstly, she determined that using local interpreters and translators was good for the community and worked well. "However, there are times when you need to have an instant and reliable source and for that we use EITI."

This twin-track approach underpins the strategy of the new Kingston Interpreting Service (KIS), which Barbara and her team have been piloting since January. KIS is a visionary and far-reaching project involving the Council and six local hospital trusts and primary care trusts.

"A lot of the work that has been done with GPs in the past is now really out of date," Barbara explains. "We're putting together a new set of protocols and guidelines to help service providers make the best use of the available resources. For example, for an emergency situation in an A&E ward, we will use EITI's telephone interpreting service."

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