I would be interested in knowing what systems are in place round the country and in other countries to cover when staff are on sick or on holiday. I would also be interested to know how allocations are dealt with when you consider there appears to be a shortage in Children Services regarding recruitment of Social Workers and whether cases are left on pending for long periods of time including Child Protection. 

None, but the team just muddles together, as it a very supportive team. Regarding allocations, as we have a very high caseload and few staff, there are many cases, including CP ones, that are not allocated (or allocated in name only) and any issues that arise are addressed by whoever is on duty that day. Not perfect, but we do try and make sure that they are visited by the same worker. Any other ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! By the way, I work in a long-term child protection team.

Do people in your long term team ever get moved to cover the short term work during holidays etc? Given the time frames initial assessments etc have to be done by? i am just thinking that if lots of cases came in and lots of people were off it would be difficult to do this.

No, we don't cover the shorter term work as over the summer, we are all very short staffed. In addition, on many cases, there are deadlines for court reports to be filed and we are often left to write these on cases we don't really know. We are all stressed by the end of summer and also when people go on long-term sick, but we still manage to smile and have a laugh with each other!!