ABSTRACT
Managing external links can be fraught with difficulties. Suspicion, hostility and old antagonisms between social care staff and health workers, fieldworkers and others wait to be rekindled. Working effectively on external links will be more readily achieved if services are managed at a local level and are accountable to the same manager, and if the local boundaries of other organizations are coterminous with those of social care services. The concept of the keyworker is well known within social care settings. Different authorities, agencies and work settings have understandably translated these principles into their practice in different ways. This has led to a plethora of titles being used: attached worker, link worker, special worker and so on. The social care manager has a contribution to make to a case conference which should not be fettered by having to strive for impartiality. Wherever possible, the manager has a responsibility to reconcile the needs in a constructive manner.
