ABSTRACT
This chapter describes to convey both formal and informal aspects of team processes, together with an account derived from discussions of the attitudes and perceptions of approximately a third of the social workers participating in the study. At the beginning of the study year, emergency service out of normal office hours was provided by area team social workers on a rota basis. However, plans were already in hand to establish full-time emergency duty teams of qualified and experienced social workers. Rural area covered several hundred square miles and this inevitably had an effect on the methods of work used. As a result the Rural Office provided less of a meeting point for its workers than the two urban offices, and it was frequently almost deserted, lacking the atmosphere of bustle which people familiar with urban offices have come to associate with social services departments.
