MASH case study, Oxfordshire County Council

1139

1139 enquiries over 3 months

Average of 95 enquiries per week resulted in MASH enquiries

98%

98% of enquiries progressed in agreed timescales

Innovate Services, MASH, Oxfordshire County Council, application of threshold, multi-agency safeguarding hub, child protection, case study

The challenge

Prompt processing of enquiries into a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) is vital to identify any urgent child protection issues. The council needed a trusted partner to work with to help clear an accumulation of enquiries and embed more efficient ways of working to prevent future pressures on its own MASH team. Working directly with the council’s MASH team and in accordance with the ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ 2015 statutory guidance, we set clear objectives enhancing multi-agency working whilst monitoring application of threshold. This enables us to identify any potential risk to a child on the same day as enquiries.

Our approach

We quickly mobilised four senior Innovate CYPS social workers to work on a co-location basis alongside the council’s own team at a local police station for three months. Our brief was to process all new enquiries, allowing the council’s in-house team to concentrate on existing workload. This included progressing cases to child and family assessment, referring them on to appropriate universal service, initiating child protection enquiries or no further action. We also provided advice and support directly to families and professionals.

Each member of our team had a protected caseload of 25 MASH enquiries at a time with a target to progress at least 10 per day.

With an average of 95 enquiries per week resulting in a MASH referral, evidence-based working in real time was one of the main drivers in our delivery of the project. Statistics were collated at the end of each day by our highly trained team of social work administrators, and discussed with the project manager, before being shared with the service manager and director.

We engaged with frontline workers, senior managers and partner agencies to understand the issues causing a high level of unnecessary enquiries. This enabled us to give an objective outlook on current working practices and introduce a number of evidence-based ways to improve the performance of the MASH.

The results

The Innovate CYPS team received 1139 enquiries over the three-month term of the contract, relating to 1963 children. On average, the team received 95 enquiries per week that resulted in MASH enquiries and 98% of these were processed within the agreed timescales. The tactical support we provided enabled the council’s MASH team to clear its accumulation of cases one week before the end of the project.

We also successfully worked in partnership with the council’s team to help design and implement new, more efficient processes and reduce the risk of future backlogs. This included suggesting a number of service improvements and additional staff training. For example, we found that, in almost 70% of domestic abuse notifications, a MASH enquiry was not necessary. Therefore, we recommended the creation of a multidisciplinary team, comprising health, police and social work personnel to achieve better liaison and prevent inappropriate use of the MASH.

We received extremely positive feedback on our performance from the council and partner agencies. Everyone involved found working with the Innovate CYPS team highly productive and were delighted with the positive results achieved.

What our clients say

“Innovate CYPS progressed MASH enquiries in a timely manner with regular progress reports from senior managers who demonstrated a sound understanding of MASH processes and requirements within the wider context of children’s social care. This enabled our substantive MASH team to clear a backlog of work.”

Lara Patel, Area Service Manager, Oxfordshire County Council

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