"COVID made us do it" - how a pandemic changed the work of Leeds social workers for the better

Unable to attend face to face appointments to carry out assessments, family meetings or even tribunals in a court-room, the teams in Leeds City Council's social care teams have been using technology to keep in touch with people and keep the system working - and say in many ways it is working better.

In the final day of a series by the Yorkshire Evening Post to highlight the work that social care teams have been doing behind the scenes during the coronavirus lockdown, we catch up with one of the city's three regional Neighbourhood Teams, which co-ordinate activity to support any vulnerable person in the city.

Nyoka Fothergill leads a team which covers the Armley, Yeadon, Pudsey and Holt park areas of the city and says just last week a tribunal was held for a person detained under the Mental Health Act. In a normal working situation it could have taken several weeks to co-ordinate family members, social workers and solicitors into a hearing date but instead the hearing was done via Skype in one day and resulted in an outcome that suited everyone.

Ms Fothergill said: "You can't just say you are going to keep someone detained indefinitely. It is so important that we use that technology. Just think how many people would have had to travel in terms of that. We got an outcome everyone was pleased with and it was via Skype.

"We have not embraced the technology but COVID has made us do it. We have always had it but don't use it but hands down we need to change the way that we work."

She added: "Whilst in lockdown we can't get and see everybody face to face. Video calls have been so important to have that face to face contact. We want to get to know a person, know their story and relieve any anxieties over decisions they have to make. You are seeing people for sensitive things like if a care situation has broken down or they have to enter the care system."

The phone has been another vital tool in reaching out to vulnerable adults in the city who have struggled during lockdown. The Neighbourhood Team is fielding calls from people concerned about the mental health of their neighbours, sometimes people contact the service themselves to say they need help. Social workers have still being able to offer advice and signpost to third sector mental health services. In some cases all that was needed was a chat over the phone.

On the other end of the spectrum are cases where the work can't be done remotely though.

Ms Fothergill said: "Our worlds don't stop because of lockdown. A couple of weeks ago we had somebody who had mental health symptoms. The challenge that we had was that his carer had COVID symptoms but did not want to go anywhere because she wanted to support her husband and her son had learning disabilities.

"We had to instigate an assessment under the mental health act that co-ordinated Yorkshire Ambulance service, psychiatrists and social workers. It was a massive team effort to co-ordinate to get there at the same time. The carer and her son were very very ill and to have an ambulance turn up in the full kit, it can be quite scary for people and they are thinking what happens next, but that is the opposite end of the spectrum."

Ms Fothergill says it will be a long time before her team return to their their normal office setting, which is in a health centre, but added the coronavirus situation had forced the social care department to break with the norm and it is unlikely to go back.

She said: "One thing COVID has made us all do is think about what we do now that we want to keep and we can definitely see the positives of it. 100 per cent it will change the way that we work moving forward."

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