ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the client reception process in four children’s department offices just before social service reorganisation in 1971. The case studies were undertaken to analyse the effects of reception facilities and the activities of receptionists on the provision of child care services by the social work staff. In short, many of the important rationing decisions about resource allocation may be made not by a department’s senior or middle management, or by its professional social work staff, but by a clerical officer at the point of initial contact between the agency and its clients. For any organisation which provides a face-to-face service in an agency setting, the reception of visitors is a basic task. Every such agency must make some form of provision for receiving its clients on arrival and for ensuring that they are seen by a relevant member of the organisation’s staff.
