Early Help Hounslow (EHH)
& Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)
Process Document
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Contents
Glossary of Terms ...................................................................................................................... 3
Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 4
Rationale ......................................................................................................................................... 4
Early Help Hounslow Common Contact Process (process map) ........................... 5
Early Help Hounslow Common Contact Process (process notes) ........................ 7
MASH Business Process (process map) .......................................................................... 9
MASH Business Process (process notes) .................................................................... 11
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Glossary of Terms
Early Help Hounslow
The ‘front door’ for contacts to Early Intervention Service & Children’s
Social care. Based at 88 Lampton Road, Hounslow.
MASH
Multi Agency
Safeguarding Hub
Team & service established to ensure that information from
safeguarding partners is collated to inform safeguarding decisions.
Partners are: Police, Probation Service, Education, Health, Housing &
Youth Offending Service. Partners are physically represented at 88
Lampton Road.
TRIO
Trio
The case recording system used by Children’s Social Care & Early
Intervention Service
VIP
Virtual Initial
Planning
The meeting within which completed Early Help Assessments (and
associated plans) are discussed and appropriate services brokered.
This meeting also nominates the team around the child / family and
nominates a lead professional for each case (based upon the
presenting issue and the degree of involvement of a professional
involved).
EHA
Early Help
Assessment
The referral and assessment tool used by any professional with
concern or specific request in relation to a child, young person or family
Part 1 is a referral form, part 2 is the assessment (and initial plan)
EHH
MERLIN Merlin
Merlin is the name given to the police system used to record and notify
the local authority of incidents to which the police have been called
where a child was present. The notification is sent irrespective of
whether the incident related to the child. The child’s presence is
sufficient to trigger a notification.
EIS
Early Intervention
Service
The service coordinating provision of Early Help services in the London
Borough of Hounslow. The wide range of services include (but not
limited to) schools support staff, Children’s Centres & family support
services
CSC
Children’s Social
Care
The statutory social care and safeguarding services provided by the
Children’s & Adults Services Directorate within London Borough of
Hounslow
TAC &
TAF
Team around the
child & Team around
the family
The planning and reviewing meetings that bring together all services
involved with a child or family. This meeting agrees and directs
services to a child or family and reviews success against the plan.
iTAC &
iTAF
Initial Team around
the child/family
meeting
Used simply to distinguish between the initial and subsequent TAC /
TAF meetings
RAG
RAG rating system
The method of determining timescale and case direction in the MASH
(described in this document)
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Overview
This document describes the process of receipt of information at the
front-door of children’s services in London Borough of Hounslow,
decision-making and the progression through to assessment and
service planning.
The document similarly describes the progression of contacts through
the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and outlines possible
service outcome options.
Each of the business process maps are presented as workflow
diagrams. Each of the process steps is numbered and the similarly
numbered process descriptions outline the activity involved within
these process steps.
The document is intended to provide an overview of the process and
contribute to multi-agency understanding.
Rationale
The mechanism described in this document was based upon feedback
and comment from professionals requesting we consider development
of a single ‘front-door’ model and to integrate this with the MASH.
Additionally the approach was developed to provide a service capable
of responding to cases that are inappropriate for or declined by,
Children’s Social Care (CSC). This removes the need for a separate
referral process for CSC or EIS and allows us to coordinate a
continuum of initial response spanning tier 2 (non-statutory) and tier
3/4 (statutory services).
April
2014
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Early Help Hounslow Common Contact Process (process map)
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Early Help Hounslow Common Contact Process (process notes)
1. A contact may be made by Telephone, Fax, email, post or in person. These
are received by the business support officers within EHH.
2. He information received (together with any supporting documents) are
saved and a contact created within the TRIO case recording system
3. This contact is passed by business support officers to the EIS Duty work
tray where the information is viewed by the EHH duty manager and an initial
decision made as to next steps. Additional information at this point may
require consideration via MASH.
4. If safeguarding issues are considered to be a feature of the contact then the
contact is routed to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) where a
safeguarding decision will be made (see MASH process)
5. It is possible that the contact may be resolved by the provision of
information, advice or guidance. In these circumstances the outcome
(recorded on the TRIO system) will be No Further Action. The contact
would be closed in this case.
6. Contacts that are determined as requiring further early help consideration
(rather than contacts with safeguarding concerns) will be passed to the
triage duty social workers who will undertake tasks requested by the
manager.
7. Once the tasks are completed (a completed task may lead to a further task
– dependent upon the information received) a further management decision
is required to determine whether further action or case closure is
appropriate. Additional information at this point may require consideration
via MASH.
8. If further action (and more specifically there is a likelihood of service
requirement), an early help assessment is completed by the triage team in
EHH.
NB. If the EHA is completed by an external partner, the document will be
fast tracked to this point in the process and will not receive an assessment
by EHH
9. A final management decision is determined at this point prior to the EHA
either being closed as not requiring further action or the document being
passed (as a TRIO record) to the Early Help Coordination team. Additional
information at this point may require consideration via MASH.
10. The case will be summarised and screened for a second time for wider
team involvements and sent for consideration within a virtual initial planning
(VIP) meeting
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11. The assessment is presented on a case by case / family by family basis to
the VIP meeting where a decision is made as to the initial team around the
family (TAF) or team around the child (TAC) membership.
12. The outcome of the VIP meeting will see the establishment of a team
around the child or family. An initial Lead Professional is similarly nominated
based upon degree of knowledge and involvement.
NB. The lead professional is critical to establishing the initial TAC/TAF and
in order that services can begin work, it is requested that the initial lead
professional continue to lead the TAC/TAF irrespective of whether this role
may be reassigned at the initial TAC/TAF meeting. Dispute regarding the
appointment of the lead professional has been shown to significantly delay
the process
13. An initial TAC / TAF should be convened within 10 working days from the
date of VIP meeting. This will determine appropriate outcomes in respect of
the child, young person or family and agree action against that plan. A
review TAC / TAF meeting should be set with an interval of no longer than 6
weeks. TAC / TAF minutes will be required and should be emailed to the
early help coordination team to be uploaded to the child / family record.
14. At the point where the desired outcomes recorded in the plan have been
achieved, the case would then close. It is similarly possible that the case
may close by consensus of the TAC / TAF meeting or due to withdrawal of
consent by the parent(s)/ young person.
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MASH Business Process (process map)
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MASH Business Process (process notes)
1. A MASH request is either received from Early Help Hounslow (a possible
safeguarding issue) or from the police as a MERLIN notification.
2. In all cases, the circumstances will be considered by the MASH manager in
the first instance and a RAG rating is used to determine next steps and
response timescales
3. RED rag rated cases are deemed to be at the highest of risk and in
immediate need of protection. These cases will clearly breach the
safeguarding threshold and immediately require routing to Children’s social
care intake teams to determine immediate safeguarding actions. In parallel
to this action all non-police partner agencies will be asked to provide any
relevant information or intelligence regarding the child, young person, family
or associates. The pan-London MASH timescale for the return of this
intelligence is 4 hours.
4. AMBER rated cases require further information to determine whether or not
the safeguarding threshold is met. Intelligence is requested from all partner
agencies (including the police) in these cases. The pan-London MASH
timescale for the return of such intelligence on these cases is 24 hours.
5. GREEN rated cases do not contain information suggesting that the
safeguarding threshold has been reached and that early help services
would be an appropriate outcome. The pan-London MASH timescale for
progression of these cases is 72 hours – however in Hounslow, these are
also progressed within 24 hours.
6. Cases requiring intelligence gathering from designated safeguarding
partners are sent as a request to partners via secure email (GCSX). The
information is tracked in terms of timescale.
7. Designated safeguarding partners then return the information to the MASH
(again by secure email) and this information is collated into a single
intelligence document.
8. The MASH intelligence product is utilised to ensure an informed
safeguarding decision.
9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. In all cases and the initial RAG rating is then re-visited on
the basis of the new information and the case routed to either Children’s
Social Care (intake teams) or Early Help (triage team) on the basis of the
intelligence received.
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