The MASH is where we help protect the most vulnerable children and adults from harm, neglect and abuse. We’re the first point of contact for all safeguarding concerns from professionals, such as teachers and doctors, as well as the general public or family members. 

When these concerns meet the threshold for social care involvement, representatives from different agencies in, and outside, the MASH will collate information to build a full picture of the case, and the associated risks to the child or adult. 

As a result, multi-agency decision making will ensure that the right support and intervention is provided at the right time, in order to provide better outcomes for children and their families. And as part of this process, we’ll always make sure feedback is given to the original case referrers. 

Ultimately, the stronger collaboration between agencies will lead to an improved service for children and families.

Multi-disciplinary teams are made up of:

Social Workers work to support families to make the

changes in their lives to keep their children safe.

Family Support Workers work to provide support to

social workers.

Domestic Abuse Practitioners support victims of

domestic abuse, help them to recognise domestic abuse,

and support them to make changes to safeguard their

family.

Domestic Abuse Officers work with perpetrators of

domestic abuse to help them recognise the impact and

how this can affect their families.

Recovery workers work with parents who are

experiencing difficulties with either drug(s), alcohol or

both, to make positive lifestyle changes.

Mental Health Practitioners work with parents who are

experiencing mental health difficulties.

Psychologist works with parents on different aspects of

parenting that may affect their children.

Previously, social workers were often process-driven and task-focused, following activities laid out in Child Protection or Child in Need plans. Now we've moved our focused onto direct working with families.

Case supervision would involve a meeting between the social worker and their manager, which would often involve summarising what was happening to the case and identifying further tasks and actions for the social worker. Before and after the meeting, the social worker would spend additional time contacting other agencies to gather information and discussing next steps. 

Now group case supervision includes all the professionals within the multi-disciplinary teams who are working with the family. It's outcome-driven and solution-focused, with an emphasis of helping the family to utilise their strengths. 

The concept of Family Safeguarding is a simple one: get people who are working with the same family to work in a team and share the concerns and risks.

Our workers are trained in working with and supporting families to understand why we are involved and supporting them to make the necessary changes.

Our multi-disciplinary longer term teams work alongside the MASH model, with families to support them and address the difficulties they may be experiencing.

We have developed a new interface to our Integrated Care System known as the workbook that reduces the time that social workers spend recording information.

Children’s Services have changed the focus of how we work with families to a more motivational approach. 

This is a move away from our previous approach towards a more collaborative way of working where we aim to motivate parents to identify for themselves the change needed within their families.

It is important that as professionals we come together to support parents to identify their own reasons for change and the actions which they need to take to make the necessary changes to ultimately keep their children safe. 

The overall aim is to bring about long term change within families which is driven by the parents themselves and is therefore likely to be more sustainable.

The Workbook is the recording mechanism that allows the Family Safeguarding worker to better manage and record the interventions they undertake with families over time. 

It evidences parental capacity to change, and incorporates tools to analyse risk and need. It helps to define priority issues and enables staff to set and track progress towards goals for each family member. 

The single family workbook for all professionals in the multi disciplinary teams, combined with co-located working has reduced the amount of time spent on recording, travelling, meetings and writing separate reports.

The Workbook provides a succinct record of the case, and has proved helpful in reducing time spent on recording. This gives more time to spend with the family. 

We find creative solutions to make changes which make sure that all our Looked After Children have the opportunity to achieve ambitions which enhance their life chances throughout childhood and beyond.

Our Corporate Parenting Service includes Fostering, Adoption, the Contact Centre, the Looked After Children 0-17 Team and the Care Leaver 18-24 Team. In Luton we have made changes to our Looked after Children’s Teams. As a result we’re strengthening our service delivery and enhancing the outcomes for our Looked after Children. There has never been a better time to join us and drive our newly shaped service forward.