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1.7.1 Emergency Duty Team

AMENDMENTS

This Chapter was amended in January 2008 and should be re-read.

For location and Contact details for the team see ‘EDT’ in the Contacts Information Appendix


Contents

  1. Structure of the Emergency Duty Team (EDT)  
  2. Operational Hours 
  3. Handover from Daytime Staff to EDT 
  4. Handover from EDT to Daytime Staff 
  5. EDT Recording 
  6. Access to Procedures and Advice Out of Hours  
  7. Use of Legal Advisors Out of Hours
  8. Security and Lone Working  
  9. Looked After Children - Sick, Absent or Missing 
  10. EDT Working Arrangements 
  11. Protocol One: Preparing for the Start of a Shift 
  12. Protocol Two: Procedure for Answering Calls to EDT or the CP Line


1. Structure of the Emergency Duty Team (EDT)

The Emergency Duty Team (EDT) offers an emergency response to referrals for social care (both children and adults) that are made between 5pm and 9am on normal working days, at weekends and Bank Holidays.  See Section 3, Handover from Daytime Staff to EDT, for handover protocol between day-time services and EDT.

The Emergency Duty Team provides one duty social worker, who is responsible for prioritising between the tasks involved in responding to referrals.


2. Operational Hours

Monday – Friday 
17:00  -  09:00

Sat/Sun/Bank Holidays:
09:00  -  09:00 next day

The Manager and the Team Business Support Officer are available during the day for part time hours.  Please see Emergency Duty Team (EDT).


3. Handover from Daytime Staff to EDT

Normally, day-time staff will be responsible for completing work that has been referred before 5.00pm or the end of the working day.

However, in exceptional circumstances, the EDT can be asked to continue with work already started where there is a danger to life and limb or in relation to statutory work.

How to refer/notify EDT of possible referrals/work

Information may be given by sending e-mails to the SSEDT Outlook mailbox.  If any action is required, this should only be done by telephoning the Emergency Duty Social Worker (EDSW), who can be reached via the Out of Hours Contact Centre after 5pm on 0207 373 2227 or 0207 361 3013.  If the EDSW does not return your call within 15 minutes, contact the contact centre again.


4. Handover from EDT to Daytime Staff

In order to ensure day time staff  can  follow through the tasks generated by  EDT’s intervention  within an appropriate and safe time, the following procedures should be followed: 

  • EDT will notify the relevant team through Outlook all work commenced or concluded at night.  EDT will send information both to the duty social worker and to each setting and to any other relevant workers (e.g. YOT, FPU, the FSCPA, AS, Homecare, Crisis Resolution Teams etc)
  • All social work teams have their own team mailbox in Outlook and are expected to check for messages regularly during the day. This particularly important at the start of the day
  • Whoever receives the message is responsible for ensuring that the message is passed to either the allocated social worker or to the duty social worker.
  • All EDT messages must be attached to either a contact sheet (on ASCC or LACmon) or event record (on ICS) and must be headed “EDT Recording”.


5. EDT Recording

Emergency Duty Social Workers should record their intervention before 9am next working day on a message sent from the SSEDT Outlook mailbox to all the relevant daytime SSD and NHS and Housing  staff and to appropriate Family Services or Adult Social Care Outlook mailboxes.  If there is a mental health assessment, the appropriate form should be e-mailed through Outlook and, if necessary, faxed to the appropriate ward.  If a child is Looked After, Placement Plan part 1 and Essential Information 1 should either be e-mailed or faxed to the EDT Business Support Officer. 

All SSD 256s should be sent to the setting but also to the ASW service by 9am. 

The signed paper copies of EI 1s and PP1s should be left at the carer’s or residential children’s home and a copy faxed to the EDT Business Support Officer to forward to the correct service. Where possible, it should also be e-mailed with the message by 9am next working day. 

Because of the complexities and constant changes in structures in health and social care, the EDT Business Support Officer and manager will check that EDT messages have been sent to all the right services by the next working day. 

Messages that arrive after 8.30am will also be sent to the Social Servicesline Contact Centre as well as the relevant social worker.

Queries about these messages should be sent to the EDT Business Support Officer.


6. Access to Procedures and Advice Out of Hours

As far as is practical within the constraints of working out of hours, emergency duty social workers are expected to follow departmental procedures, which are available on the Intranet, and use the appropriate relevant forms and formats. 

The Emergency Duty Team Manager will be available for advice. If the EDT Manager is unavailable an alternative manager will be on duty.


7. Use of Legal Advisors Out of Hours

Legal advice should not be sought where it is clear that there is the evidence to protect a child by the use of Police Protection or an Emergency Protection Order.   

The criteria for seeking legal advice should be that:   

  1. There is nobody in Family Services who can give appropriate advice to resolve the problem.  Advice has to come from a solicitor

    AND 

  2. There is no way to resolve a problem safely if legal action is delayed until the next working day. 

This means that either the problem will be a new and very unusual one or it will be a long-standing one, where legal advice given through daytime staff does not appear appropriate to the situation that evolves out of hours. 

The situation may have changed and it may be unclear what the reasons were for the advice given to daytime staff, so EDT  need to ensure that the action or inaction they plan will neither put the child/vulnerable person/ the public  at risk nor damage the Council’s legal case. 

The prerequisites for the referral should be that the EDT Duty Social Worker has spoken to a social work manager to discuss the case and  the manager is satisfied that : 

  1. there is no alternative way to ensure that child(ren) or other vulnerable people are safe without taking legal action
  2. there is no straightforward legal action that can be taken to protect the child(ren) or other vulnerable people
  3. there is no way that the legal action (planned with the manager)  can be taken without asking the legal department for advice 

If it seems necessary to seek legal advice, the EDT Duty Social Worker will tell the legal advisor which manager has suggested that they need legal advice and why no other method was seen as both sufficient and appropriate to protect the child(ren) or other vulnerable people. 

The EDT Duty Social Worker will be extra vigilant to try and avoid asking for legal advice between 10pm and 8am.


8.  Security and Lone Working

A thorough check must be made on the social care records and  with mental health services to identify whether there is a history of violence associated with the service user or premises. If there is, the EDT Duty Social Worker must take such precautions and ask for appropriate help to enable the visit to be undertaken safely.  This would involve either a CAS officer, a home care manager, a doctor, a district nurse or a police officer accompanying them. 

The EDSW must carry their Blackberry at all times (whether working inside or outside the  EDT base, so they can summon help if needed. 

If the Call Centre has reason to be concerned, they will email the EDSW to contact them.  If the Contact Centre receives no communication from the EDSW, they should call the EDSW’s mobile number. 

Where no contact can still be made, the Call Centre should  call the EDT manager, who will decide whether the police should be alerted. 

If the EDT manager decides there is a risk to the EDT Duty Social Worker they should ask the Contact Centre to contact the Police informing them that a Council Officer was visiting a premises, giving the specific area and address, that they visited, and saying that they have failed to call in and cannot be contacted.


9. Looked After Children - Sick, Absent or Missing

The following must be read in conjunction with the following:

Missing Children Procedure    

If it is reported to the EDT late at night that a Child placed in a Children’s or Foster Home is sick, Absent or Missing, the parent(s) will only be notified immediately if the child is seriously ill or at risk, otherwise they will be notified the next day; assuming the child is still sick, Absent or Missing.


10. EDT Working Arrangements

  1. All shifts following an office working day begin at 5pm p.m.  All shifts prior to an office working day finish at 9 a.m. When two emergency duty shifts follow each other, as on Saturdays and Sundays, or when there are Bank Holidays, there is an overlap of a half hour between 9am and 9.30 am for handover.
  2. The EDSW will check for messages on Outlook at 5.00 p.m. or 9.00 a.m. (both their own mailbox and the SSEDT mailbox).
  3. The EDSW shall contact the Out of Hours Contact Centre as they come on duty to ensure that there is no misunderstanding as to who is on call.  If the Contact Centre have not received a call within half an hour of the start of the shift, they will page the EDSW to contact them.  If Call Centre does not get a response, they will contact the EDT manager, who will explore what has happened.

    Further details of this process are provided below under Protocol One: Preparing for the Start of a Shift.

  4. When the EDSW receives an email message, s/he will check appropriate systems (SSIS/PI and ASCC for C&Fs Assessment System/LACMON/ICS for details of a client before responding to the message.  If it is about a mental health service user, they should also check with mental health services where practicable.


11. Protocol One: Preparing for the Start of a Shift

The Out of Hours Call Centre will receive regular updates of the EDT rota with the names of the Emergency Duty Social Worker (EDSW) expected to be on duty each evening. However, this is subject to change. Therefore, the following procedure should be followed at the beginning of every shift:

Step

Action
1. The Emergency Duty Social Worker (EDSW) should contact the Call Management Service to confirm that they are on duty
2. If the EDSW fails to call by 5.30pm (weekdays) or 9.30am (weekends), the Call Centre should e-mail the EDSW on the rota asking them to confirm that they are on duty
3. If the EDSW fails to respond by phone within 15 minutes, the Call Management Service should ring the EDSW expected to be on duty
4. If the Call Centre fails to get a reply, the Call Management Service should call the EDT Manager on 07973 124020


12. Protocol Two: Procedure for Answering Calls to EDT or the CP Line

Click here to view Procedure for Answering Calls to EDT or the Child Protection Line

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