Emergency Duty Team

Outside normal working hours, the Emergency Duty team can be contacted with problems or crisis.

They are here to help with any personal or family problems that reach a crisis during the night or at weekends or bank holidays and cannot wait until the next day. They will consider all situations where social work advice is needed immediately but the main problems we deal with are:

• difficulties with children or teenagers
• concerns about a child outside the family
• mental health emergencies
• elderly people at immediate risk
• concerns about a person with a disability
• urgent family or personal problems

You can phone on 01344 786543 (or text on 07867 907877 if you have hearing difficulties) between 5pm and 9pm weekdays, 24 hours at weekends and bank holidays when the Social Services offices are closed.

The phone will be answered by a qualified social worker with experience of working in crisis situations or by an emergency response officer. If the social worker is already talking to someone on the phone you can leave a message and they will phone you back as soon as they are free.

Please note that all calls to the Emergency Duty Team are recorded for quality assurance purposes.