SOCIAL WORKERS SHOULD WORK EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK

Here’s the thing with old age - you're still old at the weekends. Bit of a pain, really. No chance of partying, nights out, or long walks in the countryside. You don't really get a weekend. Just old age 24/7.

It’s the same if you have a lifelong or life-limiting condition, or if you’re living in poverty, or enduring an abusive relationship, or neglectful parents when you’re a child. If these things happen to you, there is no weekends, no bank holidays, no breaks.

But the services you rely on, and the staff who work there, get all these things. That means, effectively, my car receives better breakdown cover than most vulnerable people receive support. Yes, there’s a crisis team covering out of hours, but this is only for emergencies. Other than this, you have to wait until office hours for help.

No other sector really works like this. On a Saturday morning I can contact my bank, speak to my utility provider, buy a car, book a holiday, get a plumber, landscape the garden - by Monday morning I could have my whole house renovated. But I can’t get a routine endoscopy in a hospital.

WHEN I WORKED AS A HOSPITAL DISCHARGE COORDINATOR WE’D HAVE A MAD FRIDAY RUSH AS THE WARDS CLEARED THEIR BEDS OF ANYONE LOOKING VAGUELY HEALTHY ENOUGH TO GO HOME.

Capacity had to be freed up for a new influx of patients over the weekend when all the heavy drinking kicked off and A&E filled up.

Over a weekend it is much easier to be admitted to a hospital than to be discharged because, once admitted, the clinical team will want to run some tests. But the tests are usually undertaken by departments that are shut until Monday morning.

Given that an NHS hospital bed costs an average of £400 a day, you’d have thought it good economic sense to keep the whole service humming over the weekend, maintaining a steady flow of patients. It makes even more sense since the building stays open anyway. The heating has to be turned on. The gates have to stay open.

And what about social work? Many social workers are surreptitiously working away at weekends anyway,catching up on admin and emails. It’s just clients can’t get help. When you work in the field of addiction it makes profound sense to stay open at weekends since this is when many relapses happen.

OTHER INDUSTRIES HAVE MADE THE LEAP FROM THE 1950S.

Years ago I worked in civil engineering and we routinely rushed into work on a weekend to beaver away on closed roads or railway lines. After that I worked in a cereal factory. That was open seven days a week as well. Most factories are. Most shops are. Most pubs, restaurants, cinemas, leisure centres, gyms, coffee shops, and petrol stations. In fact, most places we spend money will gladly be there to receive it whenever we feel like dropping by.

And, of course, now there is the internet you don’t even need to drop by. You can log on anytime and click away, or chat to an online advisor.

So, how come, if making your latest purchase is so important, then being old, ill, neglected, or abused is not? How come these people have to wait? How come a frail old lady can buy cornflakes any day of the week, and even ring the helpline printed on the box should she have an urgent query about her breakfast cereal - but she can’t see a physio, oncologist, or a social worker outside of office hours?

It makes no sense, and yet in these days of service user empowerment, it’s not really challenged - not even by service users themselves who just shrug their shoulders and accept it. People gotta have weekends, right? Well, no, not in other sectors, not really.

You can make all sorts of arguments for why we remain closed at weekends when every other place stays open. We can’t afford to stay open seven days a week. Staff wouldn’t be willing to work weekends. Other services we work alongside - like schools - are all closed.

All of these reasons are valid. But, when you consider them for just a moment, they are exactly the same obstacles that stood in the way of other professions. Lots of retail staff must have baulked at the idea of Sunday opening – yet they made the transition anyway.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE REAL REASON WE DON’T MAKE THE SAME LEAP, I BET IT COMES DOWNTO CASH. WHAT’S THE FINANCIAL ADVANTAGE TO A PUBLIC SERVICE OPENING AT WEEKENDS?

It costs more but won’t generate any more revenue. Our customers aren’t actually spending hard currency. And it’s not like they are going to drift off to a rival competitor. That means our customer base is going nowhere.

We can shut up shop on a Friday evening, safe in the knowledge that all our clients will still be old, disabled, sick, neglected, or abused come Monday morning. And no-one will have swooped in and taken our place by helping them in the meantime.

It’s a cruel world, for sure, but this is the world we live in. You can get a coffee at the weekend, but you can’t always get help.

And it’s probably because it just makes more financial sense that way.