Havering’s Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) provides information sharing across all organisations involved in safeguarding including:
- statutory
- non statutory
- third sector (charities).
Essentially the MASH will analyse information that is already known within separate organisations in a coherent format to inform all safeguarding decisions.
All partners will work together to provide the highest level of knowledge and analysis to make sure that all safeguarding activity and intervention is timely, proportionate and necessary.
MASH has three key functions:
- Identification and early intervention working with the localities and early intervention service providers to support children and young people whose needs do not meet the threshold for children's social care.
- Harm identification and reduction undertaken by identifying children and young people experiencing the highest levels of harm and making sure partners work together to support them with harm reduction strategies and services.
- Co-ordinating partner agencies working with vulnerable children and young people.
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How does the Multi-agency safeguarding hub work?
All information within the MASH will be collected and decision making will take place in a timely manner within agreed timescales. Timescales will depend upon the priority criteria when a MASH enquiry is made to the hub.
All Child Protection will be immediately allocated to a social worker.
The MASH:
- manages contacts and referrals received from any source which are deemed to require further information to inform decision making
- develop a document recording the concerns information and all other available information in the hub within agreed timescales. A children's social care manager will make an informed decision using all the available information.
- develop concern information into a social care referral if services are required under S17 or 47 of The Children Act 1989.
- liaise with Havering Localities, including Children Centres and early intervention services for children and young people who need services but do not meet the Children Act 1989 threshold.
- provide consultation to agency referrers about thresholds, appropriate actions to be undertaken and services.
- assist in the identification for the Top 100 Families Project
The MASH will contribute to improved outcomes for safeguarding children and young people because it has the ability to swiftly collate and share multi agency information held by various organisations. This will enable the social care manager to identify those cases which meet the threshold criteria for a social care intervention.
Those which do not meet the threshold for a social care intervention but do require a service will be referred to the appropriate service within the community such as localities or Children Centres or other preventative and family support services.
The MASH is not intended to replace the functions of assessment, information sharing or multi agency working, but rather to make information sharing more comprehensive and efficient. It provides full information in one place into a coherent format that is already known within separate organisations.