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Urgent needs do not conveniently clock on between nine and five, Monday to Friday. So, for the past 20 years or so, full-time emergency duty teams (EDTs) have provided out-of-hours services.

This might mean one or two team members working through the night, weekends and bank holidays dealing with situations by phone and, if essential, by visit. EDTs provide a crisis response to keep people safe until the next working day when daytime staff can take over the case.

"On average EDT workers might have 15 to 20 years' experience, often lone working through the night," says Martin Smith, practitioner-manager at Buckinghamshire EDT. "So, one is trying to manage people who are strong-minded, independent thinking individuals. You need autonomous people to work in EDT."

But turning autonomous individuals into a team is a challenge in itself. Smith says: "One of the management tasks is keeping a team identity and ethos with people who don't see each other much as a team. Even if you're on a shift with someone, you might be there an hour and then be called out and not see them again that night."

Balancing the individual with the collective is a particular feature. "We discuss endlessly at our fortnightly team meetings how to maintain consistency, particularly with difficult, repeat callers," Smith says.

Buckinghamshire adopts a three-tier approach: seven full-time workers, including Smith, are supported by a number of qualified sessional social workers - daytime workers who can provide flexible cover. Also, there are support workers - usually unqualified (students, for example) - who can be appropriate adults for police interviews, escort and transport people and occasionally carry out visits.

Another crucial team-building aspect is the annual team day. Smith says: "At least once a year we have an away day or think-tank to generate ideas. This has been important for influencing the culture and the way we want to go."

The team also has an annual customer satisfaction survey as finding out what people think about you as a team can help build an identity.

Similarly, the team publishes an annual report that not only details the previous year's performance but sets out how it wishes to develop.

To keep up to date with developments and to maintain good working links and rapport, each EDT worker has a liaison role with different daytime teams. "That is also a positive spin-off from having sessional workers," says Smith, "because they come from daytime teams and help to keep the dialogue going.

Someone from our team will attend their team meetings and I'll liaise at team manager level." These liaison roles are encouraged by Smith through supervision and appraisal.

Given the experience of his workers, Smith's credibility is enhanced by his practitioner-manager role. He says that his staff realise he knows about their jobs because he has done it as well. "And through live supervision I can monitor quality: by sitting next to somebody you hear what they say and see how they respond."


A big difference Smith has experienced in moving from managing daytime teams is work-planning. He says: "Previously in supervision and meetings I'd be discussing cases, anticipating what a worker might be doing with somebody, what we should do with X and Y and so on. Whereas in EDTs there is no planned work to discuss. It is about how can we work better with police, or home care, or section 12 doctors [who give medical recommendations for compulsory admission to hospital]."

Smith believes his team really enjoy their work - not least because they get a big say in when they work. "We agree our rotas among ourselves - a shift pattern is worked out in accordance to individual preferences, which are accommodated as best we can," he says.

"I think EDTs hit the essential criteria about what people want out of work. They like the independence, that they can make a difference and have some control over when they are working."

Curriculum vitae

Job: Practitioner-manager, Buckinghamshire emergency duty team.
Qualifications: CQSW, BA (hons) applied social work studies; MA social work, PhD social work and counselling; PQ child care award.
Last job: Senior practitioner, mental health team.
First job: Bank clerk.

TOP TIPS

• Work alongside your team doing what they do.
• Discuss difficult issues face to face.
• Attention feeds enthusiasm.

RUBBISH TIPS

• Reply to all e-mails immediately.
• Ensure you selectively listen to one side of the story.
• Don't ask for opinions (but, if you do, don't listen to them).