Emergency out of hours social work service
How to contact children, young people and adults’ services if you have an urgent problem outside normal office hours.
What if you need to contact children, young people and adults' services during the evening, at night or the weekend?
We know that not all unexpected major problems happen during normal office hours or can wait until the next day.
Children, young people and adults' services provide an out of hours team that is there to help with these emergencies. The team consists of one social worker on duty at any time.
To contact the out of hours team phone 020 7926 1000.
Who will answer the phone?
An operator will answer the phone and take details of the problem and your contact details. They will pass this information over to the duty social worker, as soon as they become available.
What happens next?
The duty social worker will contact you as soon as possible. However, there may be some delay, as there is only one social worker available at any time and they may be dealing with other clients.
The duty social worker will give you advice and guidance over the phone on how to deal with the problem, or they may:
- recommend that you contact another more appropriate agency. They will give you the contact details
- refer the matter on to another team the next working day
- visit you or the person with the problem
When does the service operate?
Normal office hours are 8am to 6pm. If you have an unexpected emergency problem outside these office hours, you should call 020 7926 1000.
Who is part of the out of hours team?
The team is made up of experienced and qualified social workers.
What sort of problems can the out of hours team deal with?
If you have an emergency which cannot wait until normal office hours, then do contact the emergency out of hours service.
Here are a few examples of the sort of emergencies the out of hours service can deal with:
- child protection issues
- Mental Health Act assessments
- difficulties with children and young people
- older people and people with disabilities who are at risk or who need immediate help
- the police needing to arrange an appropriate adult for juveniles and vulnerable adults