www.wiltshire.gov.uk
Out of Hours Support
Summary of Service
The Emergency Duty Service (EDS) provides a social work service to the county of Wiltshire outside of normal office hours, at night, weekends and bank holidays; this excludes Swindon who has a separate The Emergency Duty Service (EDS).
We will make every effort to help people in need and their families irrespective of race, gender, ethnic origin, religion, culture, disability or sexual orientation.
We are available to help with situations which reach a crisis outside of normal office hours.
We are staffed by a team of Senior Social Workers most of whom are specialist trained workers in both Child Protection Adult Care and Mental Health social work i.e. they are generic practitioners.
Details of Service
If you call the Emergency Duty Service (EDS) you will initially get through to a Referral Coordinator who will take your details, or the details of the person you are phoning about and a brief description of the reasons for your call.
If the line is busy you will be put through to an answer machine, if you leave your name and number you will be called back once our Referral Coordinator is free.
Once we have details of your referral this will be passed to the Senior Social Workers who will make a decision as to what action is required.
Dependant on the situation we may decide to support you or give you advise via the telephone, or to put you in contact with an agency who will be able to help you e.g. we will signpost you elsewhere.
If the Senior Social Workers decides that a visit is required this will be arranged in terms of priority need. We aim to meet a one hour response time but this is dependant upon other priority needs. This may mean that we cannot meet this time scale and a visit will take a little longer to arrange. In the event that the situation is urgent we may decide, after consultation with the referrer, to call on the emergency services to assist e.g. ambulance or police.
We also have Domiciliary Care Coordinators; they provide a service to people receiving input from Home Care. This desk can also respond to crisis care situations for example if a person's main carer is taken ill and is unable to continue to provide the level of input required they can arrange cover via Wiltshire Home Care or other care agencies.
The Crisis Intervention Service is another service which can be called on via the Emergency Duty Service (EDS) office. This service aims to support children in their own family environment thus avoiding the need to accommodate children in Local Authority Care.
Needs
We may decide that your situation can be dealt with via the appropriate area team during normal office hours. If this is the case we will give you their contact details and advise that you make contact the next working day. We will also send a report to the appropriate team giving details of your contact; this will include a brief description of the reason for your call.
Payment
None to access the Emergency Duty Service (EDS). There may be cost implications if we are arranging certain services e.g. Home Care, residential care, nursing home care for example.
Eligibility
We are a service which is available to the residents of Wiltshire, who find themselves in a crisis situation, we have no other criteria.
Contact Details
By Post
Emergency Duty Service
PO Box 1424
Devizes
SN10 3TF
By Email
emergencydutyservice@wiltshire.gov.uk
By Telephone
0845 60 70 888
By Fax
01380 724008
| A to Z Names | Out of Hours Support, Social services - out of hours support |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Out of hours social services support |
| PID No. | 312 |
| IPSV Category | Emergency contacts (social care) |
| Level 1 Name | Out of Hours Support |
| IPSV ID | 7086 |
