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It seems that for years emergency duty (or out-of-hours) teams have been in the sights of modernisers who view such generic teams as social care dinosaurs. And yet they continue to defy extinction. As parts of their traditional work disappear they seem to have become busier not idler.

Five years ago, Derby City Council (which had become a unitary authority in 1997) set up its own out-of-hours social work team, having previously contracted the service from Derbyshire Council. The shaping of the service was delegated to its service manager, Chris Hadley.


"I was appointed on 1 April 2001 and had to have the service operational by 4 June," smiles Hadley. "It was really exciting because I had a blank sheet of paper. I needed to appoint six staff, set up all the protocols and working arrangements between daytime services and out of hours, and introduce interagency arrangements with health, police and so on."

The challenges didn't stop there. "Another was resourcing 128 hours a week, longer if there's a bank holiday, with such a small team," says Hadley.

Especially when you consider that most daytime social work teams might have five or six staff to cover 37 hours a week. Being a practitioner manager is certainly useful at times."

However, such challenges for Hadley were outweighed by the opportunities afforded by supportive senior management. She says: "My line manager said: 'We've got faith in you - get on with it!'"

It's almost a clichŽ to say that any service's best resource is its staff. But it is true. Says Hadley: "Finding the right staff was crucial. I needed people to be flexible, who could work shifts within working time directives, work for a comparatively low enhanced rate of just 10 per cent, and be able to provide a continuity of service."

For Hadley, recruiting tried and tested staff was pivotal. "I managed to appoint two senior practitioners from the Derbyshire team who act as my deputies."

Having previously worked with them - as well as another former colleague from the county - Hadley knew they were experienced, reliable and competent approved social workers and child care practitioners who were also well versed in adult care and court work: good old fashioned generic all-rounders. "It was a good blend," she says. "It started us off on a sure footing - everyone was up for it. It was a new service; it was exciting. And the support we get from sessional staff has been excellent."

Looking back at that time, Hadley regrets that there wasn't an official launch. "We should have had some sort of launch event, where we could have said this is who we are and what we do. Especially given that we weren't being called an EDT but Care Line. It was a missed PR opportunity," she says.


The team's next challenge is the ever-present problem of how to respond to evolving services. Things have changed, agrees Hadley. "There's the separation of adults and children's services - and yet we still cover both. There is a contractual arrangement with Sova - a voluntary agency - to take on the non-looked after children, but we act as a handling agency for police and criminal evidence (Pace) interviews. Family support now works some unusual hours. The youth offending team now attends magistrates' court but we do the bank holidays. The crisis resolution team now covers mental health but we still do the statutory mental health work."

Despite aspects of its work being transferred out, Care Line's workload is increasing. "I don't know whether that is because we are becoming more well-known or whether there's a perception that people can access services more quickly through us," Hadley says. "We are getting through about 11,000 referrals a year which is a lot for a small team. When we first started it was probably something like 7,000."

So, although the team's inauguration passed largely unheralded, it is certainly making the right impact now. But, says Hadley, the team isn't resting on its laurels. "We actively go out during the day to provide training to social care staff on things like risk assessment and to nurses and the universities. We like to get out there to broadcast what we do. I think we're a valuable resource to the council."

Curriculum vitae 
Name: Chris Hadley.
Job: Service manager, Derby City Care Line.
Qualifications: CQSW/DipSW, MA Policy and professional studies, NVQ5 Management.
Last job: Social worker, emergency duty team, Derbyshire.
First job: Residential care worker with adults with disabilities. 

TOP TIPS
Network - get other people involved.
Make sure staff have oodles of goodwill.
Invest in a launch event. 

RUBBISH TIPS
Confine yourself to office hours to set up an out-of-hours service.
Team identity is automatic.