The increased use of non-social work qualified support staff to field out-of-hours inquiries in social services departments is causing concern among some emergency duty teams, writes Derren Hayes. 

In a study of 28 by the Thomas Coram Institute, the quality and supply of support staff was raised as a problem in eight local authorities using different types of duty system, while others said the lack of status given to EDTs had seen a dearth of experienced social workers attracted to it.

This caused some managers to speculate whether all child protection referrals to the teams were being dealt with most appropriately.

“For example, when taking referrals from professionals in other agencies, assistants were or could be influenced by the opinion of the professionals rather than being able to make their own assessment,” the study reported.

One manager said the teams were “the dying ground for burned-out social workers”, resulting in the move to use unqualified workers for front desk duties.

More and better training to enable support staff to distinguish between the types of referrals and appropriate responses was needed, according to the respondents. Call takers needed to have greater awareness of the types of referrer to social services, and the states of distress people might be in.

Managers in three areas where out-of-hours calls were fielded by call centres were concerned these could cover too broad a range of services to attend to the specific needs of those contacting social workers.