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  • Sunday morning, and Sam Swann an emergency duty social worker is starting

  • a long shift. Sam, like all EDT colleagues works when others don't.

  • Weekends, nights and bank holidays. The work is diverse and the caseload usually heavy.

  • We cover the whole spectrum of Social Work really in terms of working

  • with children and families, mental health services, people with learning

  • disabilities and people with physical disabilities and also old people; so

  • really we cover a wide spectrum predominantly and nine times out of ten

  • we work on our own, we work through the night which means that we have to

  • prioritise work, we have to do assessments and investigations so

  • there's a lot of responsibility and accountability really because obviously

  • we have to stand by those decisions that we make at that time.

  • After a handover from

  • the colleague she's relieving, Sam's work starts. Almost immediately the phone

  • calls begin.

  • [On the phone] That's custody okay appropriate adult okay...

  • A 16 year old is being held at Telford's main police station suspected of carrying an

  • offensive weapon. By law an appropriate adult must be with him to safeguard his

  • welfare and ensure that he understands all procedures and any charges being

  • brought against him. As his parents are refusing to attend that role will fall

  • to Sam. So the officers are ready to go but the sister is not there.

  • Ok, well if you can give me a call when the solicitor has gone into consultation

  • I'll come along then ... all right then so we'll give you a ring just before we arrive ok?

  • Sam's next case is a woman at a local

  • hospital who's causing staff concern. Sam may need to undertake a mental health

  • assessment. She discusses the case with the co-cited community nurse crisis team.

  • She's been placed on a ward where she's continued to complain of physical

  • complaints but their medical sort of investigations don't

  • identify that there's any medical problem okay so she's

  • known to us - she's care coordinated is she?

  • presumably they'll let us know if they become concerned about her behaviour.

  • Jointly, they decide that no immediate action is needed as the hospital will

  • hold the patient until Monday and Sam's phone is ringing again it's the call

  • she's been expecting from the custody suite [On the phone] She's in consultation okay

  • so we'll come over see you shortly bye-bye - that was sergeant from custody

  • there the solicitors arrived so we need to make our way over - to custody.

  • The EDT role demands experience and Sam has plenty. She left school at 16 and came

  • into Social Work through an admin job.

  • I was appointed a social work assistant

  • and I also had a varied caseload at the time I worked at the local psychiatric

  • hospital I also had a few cases where children were on the child protection

  • register as it was known at that time

  • I qualified in 1995 and chose to come back

  • into predominantly child protection, I became team manager covering the

  • north side of Telford and stayed in team management for probably about four

  • years until the job came up in EDT

  • Very rare opportunity for a job to come up in the emergency duty team where I am now so it

  • was an ideal opportunity really to go back in as a practitioner because

  • you have that experience and knowledge base I think it's fair to say

  • that we all feel fairly confident in doing the job but that's not to say that

  • it's not tough at times and sometimes you do question 'is this the right thing to do?'

  • Well this one acutally was record time I would say we were in and out really within probably

  • an hour which is pretty amazing, that's pretty good. He admitted it, he was

  • charged and he's been bailed to go to court a week on Wednesday.

  • Back at the

  • office there are concerns that an elderly woman is not coping alone at

  • home [on the phone] because she's having four calls a day isn't she so she'll have had a

  • morning one. Sam checks in with the woman's home care service so it's the

  • same carer going in so that's good so she'll notice if there's

  • any change won't she if there's anything she's worried about okay all

  • right then thanks Linda bye!

  • It seems to be good news and Sam will

  • continue to monitor the situation. In the meantime there's a new message waiting...

  • That is our shop doc, our out of hours GP service who wants help with a lady who's

  • suffering with severe anxiety and some symptoms of depression.

  • A phone call to

  • the doctor who has visited the patient reveals the woman's condition could be

  • serious. The fact that she's not eating and drinking from a medical point of view

  • how will that impact? She sounds very unwell

  • So I've got a coordinator for Mental Health Act

  • assessment on this lady - she's a 64 year old lady who he says is not actually

  • previously known to mental health services and has had problems with

  • anxiety now for the past month or so, things have escalated in the last 10

  • days. This assessment now takes priority over Sam's other referrals and she

  • swings into action. Several phone calls later she's on the road as an approved

  • mental health practitioner Sam's job is to coordinate and take an active role in the assessment.

  • I've arranged to meet the psychiatrist

  • and another GP at the address the three of us have to assess and agree a plan really.

  • It's up to Sam to look at alternatives to hospital and ensure the

  • woman's rights are protected. We need to talk to the husband and get his views

  • about the situation and then make a decision then about the best way forward

  • Over the course of two hours, Sam and the doctors decide the woman does need to be admitted to psychiatric hospital.

  • The woman's husband agreed to support the decision of the team.

  • Mental health assessments are always well...

  • they're just difficult really it's quite stressful she was really very sad but

  • I think the way we wrestle with that is you have to decide what's in the best

  • interests of the of the service user really.

  • As evening falls EDT manager

  • Helen Jones arrives to discuss the day's caseload with Sam

  • what sort of the day if you had today then?

  • It's been pretty busy actually, in fact I'm glad you've come in because there's one or

  • two things we can probably pass over for tomorrow but I need just to run them past

  • you then if that's all right.

  • Sam agrees with Helen that it would be best

  • if they attend the next case together. It's a child protection matter and requires a home visit.

  • They are families where daytime services

  • have got concerns about neglect and issues around a lack of supervision and

  • the parents' lifestyle so in the daytime it's difficult to

  • obtain evidence if that's what's needed, of what's actually going on in the

  • families in the evening so that's what we're going to do.

  • We'll need to you know

  • check the family home; let's see if the children are in bed make sure

  • that there's enough provisions but generally that things are okay and mum's coping well.

  • There are nearly 200 children in Telford under social services protection. Sam and the

  • emergency duty team regularly undertake these checks for their daytime colleagues.

  • She was in bed when we got there so she was quite defensive I

  • suppose understandably if we'd woken her up, but the children were asleep in bed

  • there was no suggestion that she'd been drinking which is the major concern

  • really it's about her drinking rather than her lifestyle.

  • You expect to have some defensiveness when somebody's calling at your house at that time really

  • It is quite late really... in fact it's now after 11 p.m.

  • Helen goes home to sleep before her Monday starts but Sam's shift continues.

  • There's still work to be done on several referrals from the morning.

  • A mother of three is claiming her jealous partner has threatened her.

  • It's in relation to a child protection matter, a domestic violence incident.

  • The man's already wanted by officers. If he's in custody Sam can take the opportunity to speak to the woman.

  • She's now checking that with the police.

  • He's made threats to burn

  • down the house with the children in it... so he's not been arrested he's not

  • in custody at the moment okay great thanks for your help, cheers bye!

  • Ok the situation remains the same so I'll just hand that out back

  • to safeguarding in the morning and let them know that he's still not been

  • arrested and they'll just liaise with the police again in trying to coordinate something.

  • Fifteen hours after the start of her

  • shift the calls keep on coming. Many are from carers reporting looked after

  • children who've outstayed their curfews. Sam risk assess each case.

  • The outstanding thing now for me is to write all the work up that I've done today so

  • that's really going to take up my time over the next few hours and hopefully

  • try and get a bit of rest period as well.

  • I guess really the rewards of the job

  • are the outcomes whether it's the outcomes for children for any client

  • group really it's the diversity of the work really you come on duty you really

  • don't know what what you're going to be faced with that day and I

  • enjoy that and it's challenging, there's a lot of on-the-job decision making,

  • quick thinking that's what I enjoy. As an emergency duty worker I guess one of the

  • rewards is, for instance, for an older person you know there are a lot of old

  • people who want to be at home and they feel safe at

  • home that's where they want to be and quite often we just get referrals saying

  • this person can't be at home they've got to go into into residential care and

  • there are ways of avoiding that sometimes and it's good if the outcome

  • means that we can provide support to enable that person to to maintain their

  • independence. The same can be said I think of people with learning

  • disabilities it's good to feel that you're helping people with learning

  • disabilities to maintain their independence and to become a part of the

  • community really.

  • It's Monday morning and Sam's shift is completed. Her colleagues now take over

  • and they're another part of what she finds rewarding about the job.

  • There is some good work that takes place and there's a lot of people who work really hard

  • and there's a lot of humour, in the day time service there's

  • certainly a lot of team and support for each other and and whilst we might not

  • get the recognition for it for the reasons of confidentiality or

  • that the human rights legislation all kinds of reasons for

  • that, but what's good about daytime services certainly is that you can

  • actually recognize it with each other and you can say to each other you did a

  • really good job there and that was a tough decision but it was the right

  • decision and you did well and I think the thing about Social Work is that we

  • learn we learn a lot from each other really, you know that that's a good thing

  • and there is a lot of camaraderie really between individuals and yeah we do

  • overlap sometimes you know and because that's the sort of thing that keeps you going.

Sunday morning, and Sam Swann an emergency duty social worker is starting

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