Agenda item

MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub)Presentation

To consider a presentation on the operation of the MASH(Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub), one year after operation.

 

This  presentation has been withdrawn and  verbal update will be provided by the Director of Children’s services at the meeting.

Minutes:

 

 Following the judgement on Thursday the 14th March, one day after the agenda pack had been published with the present on the work of the MASH, there had been further reflection on   the content of the presentation which included details o the operation of the MASH and as some o f these procedures may be likely to change, it had been felt prudent to withdraw this items.  Instead the Director of Children’s service set out the background to the judgement. Essentially the judge had found that the section 47 investigation had not been correctly pursued .The initial assessment and strategy meeting had only been completed after the section 47 investigation had been instigated.  Before persuading the investigation there had not been proper contact with the parents to authorise information being gathered from the school and GP and this now raised questions for the council and indeed other local authorities with a MASH about the authority for information sharing between partners in a working environment.  The presentation advised o the benefits of information sharing and HW this was done but now there as this legal question to answer which would have a fundamental impact on how the MAH operated and shared information.

 

The criticism o the judge on the completion of the initial assessment, standards in reporting would be resolved. The initial assessment and core assessment were being replaced by the single assessment and the services were now looking at how they can create space for staff in First Response to   improve the standards in reporting. Legal and advice from a QC would be sought on the collation of data by the MASH and whether they are meting legal standards.

 There will also be a further audits completed on initial assessments.

 

The chair sought clarification on whether the initial decision to go ahead on a Section 47 without enough consultation or were there other issues as well?  The comments on the completion of initial assessments and core assessments were not good   and this was specific to Haringey.  In terms of the initial assessment as previously reported at committee an initial assessment is opened n the Framework I system to allow......

 

 The decision to go ahead with a section 47 was not properly constituted and the action taken was not proportional to the evidence in hand about the case to justify this.

 The committee discussed predicament of the social workers and on one hand could see that the action taken was overzealous but this could be attribute dot the recent history of the council. However, it was apparent that the action taken was not in proportion to the evidence in hand the committee agreed that information sharing was vital as it was necessary to identify a child and build up an understanding of the risks that the child could be subject to as this would inform the level of action to be taken.  It was noted that all MASH  collate and share information but it was now about  establishing the right thresholds to  determine the level of action to be taken in relation to a referral. In  taking forward the findings  the judgement the service need to ensure that  this does not lead to a significant change in behaviour of social workers  to the less cautious end  to sure vulnerable children are protected.