Children and Families Out of Hours Service

The Out of Hours team supports professionals and the public outside of normal working hours with social care issues they have

Out of Hours team

Support may entail recording information for the benefit of involved teams, responding to safeguarding concerns, giving information and advice, or providing fuller assessment and casework.

The immediate priority is to keep people safe until daytime operations resume.

The Out of Hours service (OOH) is based in Fareham, Hampshire and covers:

  • Adults, Children's and Mental Health Services for Hampshire County Council
  • Adult and Children’s Services for Portsmouth City Council
  • Children's Services for the Isle of Wight Council
  • Adult Services for Southampton City Council

OOH is co-located with Hampshire Constabulary’s Central Referral Unit.

During peak hours (evenings and weekend days) the team consists of 3 service advisors who take the calls and process referrals for the service.

Working with the team there is:1 Duty Manager, 1 Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP), 2 Child Care Social Workers, 2 Adults Social Workers and 2 Child Care Social Work Assistants.

At non-peak times (overnight) the team is 1 AMHP and 1 Childcare professional with a Manager on call.

Referrals to the OOH team (from professionals only)

In high risk situations, OOH can support a case by undertaking work or visits during working hours. Any requirement for this must be discussed with the Duty Manager for OOH who will be on site from 2pm Monday to Friday and can be contacted on 0300 555 1373, the exception being emergency unknown situations, at which point OOH’s will respond accordingly.

In order for Out of Hours to support the situation/client you will need to advise the Duty Manager of any plans that have been made to manage the case and support that may be needed. Depending on the services workload, it will not always be possible for OOH to support a case in this way.

A discussion with the Duty Manager is the only reliable way to ensure a plan is considered. Failure to speak to the Duty Manager, or just sending the case by email/work flow to the team without discussion, runs the risk of the case being missed or there being insufficient resources to enact the plan.

Updates for the OOH team (from professionals only)

If you need to update OOH with information in case a situation/person comes to our attention, please use your case system to add a briefing note of what you would like to be done

  • 'Update for Out of Hours' case note for Hampshire
  • 'Update for Out of Hours' case note for Portsmouth
  • 'Update for Out of Hours' case note for Isle of Wight

If the update is for information only, and there is no specific pre-planned work for OOH to do, there is no need to telephone us.

Operating times

The service runs from

  • 5.00pm to 8.30am on weekdays
  • 4.30pm on Friday to 8.30am on Monday
  • 24-hour cover on Bank Holidays

The evening and weekend team run on a rota basis to ensure that cover is provided around the clock.

Contact us

Out of Hours
Phone 0300 555 1373 (public and professionals)
Text 07565 205102 (hard of hearing/deaf clients only) 

Email [email protected] (professionals only).  Please note that this is not a referral route or to be used to update OOH.