Out-of-the-blue phone calls about an urgent review?

Several members have contacted the PB Team saying that they have recived phone calls, out of the blue, saying that a social worker wants to do an urgent review. Or that they said that they want to "come to visit, just to see how things are going" but then push for this to happen in a very short space of time.

This could well be because the Social Services is supposed to review people yearly but might not have been so efficient in the past! Some people are being told that they have to complete forms (SAQ, permission for a financial assessment etc) during the meeting - without having been told in advance.

If you do get a call out of the blue, please don't feel pressured into dropping everything to try to fit in with demands for a quick assessment.

You are within your rights to:

• ask them to call back at a different time,
• say that the date they want to visit isn't suitable and request a different date - even if they say it is urgent,
• say that you want someone to be present during the review (this could be a friend, a neighbour, a partner or even a member of the ADKC PB team),
• ask for the review to be held at a place that suits you - in your home, in the council offices, or even at the ADKC centre.
• ask for forms to be sent to you in advance or, if they bring them along on the day, ask for time to read them properly, including taking them away and having someone else go through them with you, before filling them in. If you need forms in an alternative format - ask them to provide the forms in the format you need. You might not even have to fill the form in anyway!
• ask them to stop, at anytime during the review, if you feel unwell, uncomfortable or under too much pressure. If you don't feel completely happy about what is happening, you probably won't have a good outcome.
• ask for a copy of the review and any other documents / forms after they have been filled in.

IN ALL THE CASES I KNOW ABOUT, THE CALL WAS GENUINE, but if you have any doubts, you can do the following (as advised by the Police):

Phone calls - If you are unsure that the person on the phone is really a social worker, ask them to send you a letter saying the time they will phone to make an appointment and the name of the person who will phone - don't give them any details - if the caller is genuinely from the Social Services they will have all  your details on record anyway.
You could also say that you will call back. Phone the Social Services Helpline 020 7361 3013 and ask to speak to the person in charge of your case, if they confirm it was a Social Worker who called you can  make arrangements for them to call you again. If they say it wasn't a social worker then ask them to report the bogus call to the appropriate person.

Home visit - If you are visited at home and are unsure that the person visiting is the person from the Council - DON'T LET THEM IN.  They will be more than happy to wait until you phone the Social Services Helpline on 020 7361 3013 to confirm who they are.  If you do let them in and then have doubts that they are really from the Social Services - leave the home if possible, go to a neighbour's and call the Police. The Police are more than happy to come out if someone has doubts about a visitor, even if it turns out that the visitor was genuine after all. If the person makes excuses and leaves, call the Police and let them know what happened, just in case they try the same thing with other people.

If you have recently experienced pressure to get a review done, or have any problems from now on, please get in touch with the PB Team on 020 8960 8888, pbadmin@adkc.org.uk or pbsupport@adkc.org.uk.