Social work in the 1970’s: Robina and Cyril: #4 in a series

 

Within a few months of starting as an unqualified social worker in Charwood Area Social Services Department it was decided that I could take part in the Area on call rota.

Charwood provided a local out of hours emergency service. Every social worker in the team had to be on the rota. This meant that about once a fortnight I was on call during a week night. About every three months I had to cover a whole weekend, from the end of the day on Friday until the following Monday morning. Being the late 1970’s, there was no such thing as a mobile phone or even a pager, so your home number was placed on the office answer phone and you could not leave home as long as you were on duty – unless, of course, you had to respond to an emergency.

I was on call one cold February Saturday when Robina phoned. What she told me led to tragic consequences.