Essex County Council Social Services Department at Colchester has to service a number of clients who need overnight attention. The team consists of four regular members together with back up resources sufficient to deploy two members of the team each night.  Helpline provides a 'round the clock' response to customer's requests for emergency assistance in their homes. The introduction of a Night Owls service was built around the need to have reliable transport, an efficient radio network back up for health and safety, together with office and administration facilities at night. A quid pro quo agreement was established so that Social Services would provide staffing resources for the Helpline service overnight. This releases Colchester Borough Council staff from night time duties, enabling them to be re employed during the day time and producing savings in shift allowances. In turn, Colchester Borough Council provides a fully equipped/fuelled fleet vehicle overnight, supported by radio safety monitoring.	