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The home secretary has used a guide dog to help him do his job for years. Now charities are providing dogs to help deaf and disabled people with physical chores and even as companions, writes Natalie Valios.

Could man's best friend help plug the social care gap? Dogs do not discriminate on the grounds of race, sex or anything else. They work seven days a week without complaint. They don't go on about their personal problems, they never breach confidentiality, and they never ask for a pay rise. They are, in fact, ideal employees.

But while we all know about guide dogs for the blind, the growing role that dogs play in social care is less familiar. Evidence suggests that animal-assisted therapy can have beneficial effects for a range of social services clients. Pets can help with mobility, increase confidence, lessen anxiety and encourage social interaction.

Now Essex social services department is using £7,500 of funding from North Essex Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust to develop a pilot project to use dogs in its work with people with mental health problems. Part of the project will involve using volunteers and dogs from the organisation Pets As Therapy to act as befrienders to isolated older people living in the community.

"We would use PAT dogs for someone who may want a befriender but doesn't engage very well with services," says social worker Tracey Brennan. "For some clients, it's easier for them to build a trusting relationship with an animal than a person." If successful, a weekly visit would become part of their care plan which could then be funded through direct payments.

Dogs are also giving disabled people an enhanced quality of life by allowing them to be more independent and less reliant on human carers, says Lucy Doughty, research and development officer in the training department for charity Dogs for the Disabled.

There are currently 140 disabled people with assistance dogs provided by the charity. The dogs can retrieve cordless phones, open and close doors, collect letters, pick up dropped items, switch lights on and off, bark to raise the alarm in an emergency, bring in the milk, carry a shopping basket and empty the washing machine. More impressively, the dogs have resulted in a reduction in the home care required by their owners in every case.

Animal welfare is a priority for the charity. Applicants are assessed according to individual needs, but they must be able to care for the dog in line with an agreed code. The partnership is continually monitored throughout the dog's working life.

"All tasks are based on retrieval and push and pull work, things that dogs naturally enjoy doing," says Doughty. "They are like enhanced games that keep them mentally and physically active."

Hearing Dogs for the Deaf also trains dogs as working companions. Dogs learn to recognise up to eight sounds including the alarm bell, doorbell, cooker timer, and phone. The dog leads the owner to the sound, or in the case of an "emergency sound" like the smoke alarm, lies down in front of their owner.

While initial training costs are high - it costs Dogs for the Disabled £11,000 per dog - the end result is that users need far less human care. So should local authorities be investing in providing clients with dogs and lessening their home care costs? Brannan knows of one disabled client whose 42 hours' home care every week was reduced to just seven hours once she got an assistance dog.

Nicola Dunn is a firm believer in the value of non-human home care. Her life has changed dramatically since she acquired Will, a Dogs for the Disabled golden retriever, 18 months ago.

Dunn has cerebral palsy and is a wheelchair user. She has local authority home care to help her get up and go to bed, and before Will arrived she could only leave the house when a carer was there to help. Now she is free to come and go as she pleases because Will can open the door by pulling a rope on the door handle. He brings Dunn the phone, picks up the TV control, carries her shopping, puts clothes into the washing machine, and is currently learning to post letters.

According to Dunn: "I prefer Will to home care. Before Will, I wouldn't have had the confidence to go out and I had to plan everything I wanted to do around when I had people here. I don't need half as many carers now, and when I don't have carers I'm not on my own anymore. He has changed my life completely."