Ben Newman has spent three years of his life 'up north' gaining a social work qualification. Along the way he has gained a wife and a baby boy, with another baby on the way. Earning money is a priority and he finds a temporary post as a Resettlement Officer on the large new council estate of Highfield.
After an unhappy year of banging his head on a brick wall, his post is amalgamated into the council mental health services. Overnight he becomes a team leader based in a small, isolated district office. Highfield becomes the centre of his universe with impacts on him, his family, and his friends, as he attempts to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Meet them all and the very mixed group of people who become his clients.
Life is never boring.
Bob Quant’s career in social work spanned thirty-five years and involved all sorts of positions. His favourite role was that of a community based social worker, but this story is definitely not autobiographical it’s pure fiction drawn from experience. Set in the mid-sixties it reflects the exciting changes in day-to-day life at the time. The best of times on so many levels.