What to do if you are worried about a child

The Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) team are qualified social workers. MASH will provide triage and multi-agency assessment of all safeguarding concerns in respect of vulnerable children. MASH will analyse all of the information they have gathered as part of their enquiries and will make a recommendation for what should happen next, this may mean a child and family being offered Early Help or for an assessment under section 47 or section 17 Children Act 1989.

MASH responds to all safeguarding referrals for children from a range of individuals, including professionals, families and carers. The team are based in County Hall, Newport, Isle of Wight.

MASH are the first point of contact within Children’s Social Care where staff will triage the information referred, where risk and protective factors will be considered, and next steps identified. MASH staff will use the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Safeguarding Children Partnerships Threshold Chart to determine what help and protection a child and family may need. 

The benefit of the MASH team is the team will gather information from the various computer systems managed by each individual agency within the MASH. This information is shared in a timely and effective way to inform the decision making for children and families.

If you work in an acute frontline setting and need to confirm whether there are any known or current safeguarding concerns before you discharge a child to the care of a parent/carer, you can use the MASH Professionals’ telephone number or Out of Hours number to establish this information.

Both MASH and Out of Hours will be able to direct you to the allocated social worker if the child already has an allocated worker. If you decide that you are discharging a child and have safeguarding concerns, then you will need to complete the  Inter-Agency Referral Form  (IARF) . This will be processed by MASH.

Information to support you can be found on the Isle of Wight Safeguarding Children Partnership website page Worried about a child . In an emergency, please call the Police on  999. If you have an immediate safeguarding concern that a child or young person has suffered significant harm or is likely to suffer immediate significant harm, then contact should be made with MASH by telephone and supplemented with an  Inter-Agency Referral Form (IARF) .

• Include the names and dates of birth of child(ren) you’re concerned about. Ensure you don’t use nicknames.
• Include names and dates of birth (if known) of family members and/or other adults living in the same home. If you don’t know them, provide an estimate age. This helps agencies in information gathering processes.
• Detail what happened and the nature of your concerns. Be specific where possible – include dates and times of significant events.
• Child’s Voice – Include what the child/young person said, using their words. Remember that child’s voice is not only what they say, also include their presentation/behaviour. This can be particularly important for children with additional needs.
• Include what the impact on the child is from the concerns you have.
• Do not use acronyms! These might be common to you in your agency, but other agencies often do not know what they mean.
• What do you know about the family history that Children’s Services may not know?

A video on how to make a good quality Inter Agency Referral – coming soon. 

7 minute briefing: Quality of referrals into the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (PDF)

Yes, you should always make parents/carers aware, prior to contacting MASH, that you will be contacting MASH due to concerns or worries about a child. Whilst you may be concerned this may impact upon parental/professional relationships it is important that parents/carers understand your concerns and reasons why you have contacted MASH.

Professionals should not discuss the referral with a parent/carer if the child is being placed at immediate risk of harm or has suffered significant harm or a crime may have been committed. 

MASH in this instance will be able to provide additional advice to you on an individual basis.

Members of the public can contact MASH and remain anonymous if they would prefer. Whilst MASH will always do their utmost to keep the identify of individuals anonymous there are, on occasions, times when the information provided by the referrer may lead the parent/carer to identify for themselves who they believe the referral has come from. MASH would not knowingly divulge this information.

Professionals are not able to remain anonymous if they are making a referral to MASH in a professional capacity. Professionals are expected to discuss referrals being made to MASH with the parents/carers involved prior to contacting MASH. 

Professionals should not discuss the referral with a parent/carer if the child is being placed at immediate risk of harm or has suffered significant harm or a crime may have been committed.

The preferred method for referrals is the use of the Inter-Agency Referral Form (IARF) . The IARF should be used for all enquiries about a child or family and for making child protection referrals.

On cases where immediate safeguarding/child protection concerns are evident, professionals are required to make initial telephone contact with MASH using the telephone number below and supplement the telephone call with a completed  Inter-Agency Referral Form (IARF).

If you are a professional and have concerns because you think that a child might be being neglected and/or abused and you want to talk to someone or ask someone to find out what is going on, you should contact MASH on the following number:

• IOW Professionals Line:  01983 823436 during office hours 8.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Thursday, 8.30am to 4.30pm on Friday.
• IOW Public Line: 01983 823436 during office hours 8.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Thursday, 8.30am to 4.30pm on Friday.
• Out of Hours service:  0300 555 1373  at all other times.

MASH staff will analyse the information that has been provided in the IARF, telephone conversation and gathered from other agencies. MASH will complete the relevant risk assessments and make a decision as to what help and protection a child may need.

MASH will record all information that is provided to the team. MASH will create an electronic file for the child concerned where the referral information will be stored electronically. Therefore, if you contact MASH for any reason you will need to be aware that any information you have provided will be stored accordingly.

The IARF inbox is monitored by MASH staff between 8.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Thursday and 8.30am to 4.30pm on Fridays. All IARF’s are triaged by MASH staff as they enter the inbox during these hours. If you submit an IARF outside of these hours, then they will be triaged the next working day.

If you want to make a child protection referral, then this  MUST  also be telephoned through to MASH via the Professional Line/Out of Hours telephone number to avoid any delay with the case waiting to be triaged.

Following an IARF being triaged, MASH will seek to deal with your enquiry as soon as possible. Social workers in MASH will normally complete all necessary enquiries within 24 hours to ensure a timely decision. MASH will contact you if they require additional information to process your IARF.

Members of the public will receive an automated email acknowledging receipt of concerns they have raised via the ‘Raise a Concern’ website link. Professionals will receive feedback on IARF’s to inform them how this referral has progressed and/or the outcome.

To ensure feedback is only sent when it is appropriate to do so, referral feedback will not be sent automatically when:

• No valid email address was supplied by the referrer.
• Professionals provide a personal, rather than a work email address.
• The referrer has asked not to receive feedback.
• The child is already known to Children’s Services. In such instances, the allocated worker will be in contact.

Please ensure you check your junk mail. Emails will be sent from mash@iow.gov.uk

The MASH process does not include every child and family's information being checked with the police; this would be neither appropriate nor a proportionate response for families who require help and support. 

MASH will prioritise all cases where a child has suffered or is likely to suffer significant harm. In these circumstances, enquiries will be made quickly to partner agencies within the MASH and a strategy discussion will be held. All strategy discussions are held within a two-to-four-hour timeframe and the referral information and risks to the child will be fully considered by partner agencies.

All strategy discussions are held in MASH and are led by a team manager from children’s social care. Outside the usual working hours of MASH and where the child is deemed to be at risk that evening, a strategy discussion will be undertaken with a team manager from the Out of Hours service alongside available partner agencies in MASH. For children that are not deemed to be at immediate risk of significant harm the strategy discussion will be undertaken the next working day. 

For all emergency situations dial 999. 

MASH is expected to make contact with parents/carers and or significant others where concerns for a child have been raised. Therefore, if you, as a professional, have made a referral please expect this information will be shared with parents and carers. Professionals are expected to discuss referrals being made to MASH with the parents/carers involved unless the child is being placed at immediate risk of harm or has suffered significant harm or a crime may have been committed.

Where the referral has been made by a member of the public, MASH will always do their utmost to keep the identity of individuals anonymous, however there are, on occasions, times when the information provided by the referrer would lead the parent/carer to identify for themselves who they believe the referral has come from. MASH would not knowingly divulge this information, however any enquiries being made at a later stage in the process, the parent/carer may themselves identify the source of the referral.

It is very important for MASH to gain as much relevant information as possible. MASH will endeavour to contact a range of professionals and parents/carers to discuss the nature of the concerns and to identify how support can be provided to improve outcomes for the children. Therefore, if you are contacted by MASH given the strict timeframe it is important that you share relevant information with the social worker as quickly as possible so that all needs and risks can be fully considered.

No – staff working in MASH have the role of receiving information from every agency and analysing any potential risks.

They then make decisions in respect of the most appropriate help and protection for a child’s identified needs. Where a child/family require a visit from a social worker as part of an agreed intervention, this visit will be conducted by a social worker from one of the other social work teams.

No, their role is to gather information and triage this to make a threshold decision. If a decision is agreed to progress for statutory intervention, this will be allocated to a social worker in the relevant team.

All social workers in MASH have their own direct dial telephone numbers/emails. Should you need to contact MASH social workers in relation to a child and family they are considering, then you can contact them directly via email and/or individual telephone calls. MASH social workers will provide these to you when they contact you.

If a case has been closed to MASH but additional concerns have then been identified, then these new concerns will need to be re-referred via MASH using a new Inter-Agency Referral Form (IARF).

Please contact MASH if you are unsure whether a rereferral is appropriate or would like further advice.

If there is professional disagreement regarding a decision that has been made then this should be escalated following the HIPS Working Together to Resolve Professional Differences (escalation and resolution).

If there is new information to share which has further increased the potential or actual risk to a child, a further referral should be made using the  Inter-Agency Referral Form (IARF).