Hackney MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub) Children's and Families Service
Service details
COVID-19 service update
During any COVID-related disruptions the team are still active and available to respond to concerns about the safety and wellbeing of children and young people.
If you have any safeguarding or well-being concerns about a child or young person who lives in Hackney and is aged under 18, we can advise you or you can make a request for support for us to review or investigate.
Phone 020 8356 5500
Email MASH@hackney.gov.uk
Out of Hours Phone line 020 8356 2710
If you feel a child is at immediate risk of harm, it is important to consider whether you need to call the Police on 999 to report your concerns, so that they can take immediate action to keep a child safe where needed.
Who are we?
The Hackney MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub) is a single point of contact or ‘front door’ for Hackney Children and Families Services including Hackney’s Disabled Children’s Services a separate and dedicated service for families, children, and young people navigating disability-related complexity
What do we do?
The MASH has three core functions:
- The front door for statutory social work intervention by Hackney Children’s Social Care, Safeguarding
- An Early Help Hub, where children and families who are not deemed to be in need of statutory support are offered advice and guidance, sign-posted, and/or referred to other services within the council or in the community that are best placed to meet their needs;
- An information sharing and advice hub, where multi-agency partners can access advice and guidance if they are worried about a child and are unsure what to do.
Professionals from Children and Families Services, Police, Health, Youth Justice and Probation services, and other appropriate partners (Multi-Agencies) work together through MASH.
They share information and make decisions about the kinds of services and levels of support children, young people and families need.
MASH shares knowledge, information, and professional judgments about the requests for support and next steps. This helps to make quick decisions that assist families and referrers to get prompt access to services.
Early Help or Safeguarding
MASH operates as a single point of contact for members of the public and professionals who are seeking advice and information, and/or who want to make a request for support for a child or young person in Hackney who may be in need of help or protection.
Early Help
Early Help in Hackney involves connected services working together to ensure that all Hackney’s children and young people, and their families, have access to the opportunities, resources, and support needed to set them up for whole-life success.
Child In Need
A child in need is defined under the Children Act 1989 as a child who is unlikely to achieve or maintain a reasonable level of health or development, or whose health and development is likely to be significantly or further impaired, without the provision of services; or a child who is disabled.
Hackney Child and Wellbeing Framework
All decisions in MASH about the most appropriate next steps for a child and family are made in line with the Hackney Child Wellbeing Framework.
Possible outcomes of requests for support into the MASH
- Advice and guidance, to the referring agency and or the family
- Referral to appropriate universal services
- Referral for support within the community and voluntary sector, or other appropriate service
- Referral for assessment and potential support from one of the Council’s targeted early help services such as; Children's Centres, Portage, Speech and Language Therapy, Family Support, Young Hackney or CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services.
- Referral for Education early help services e.g. Re-engagement Unit, Medical Needs Home Tuition Service, Educational Psychology.
- SEND Early Help services e.g. Educational Psychology Service, Visual Impairment or D/deaf and hearing impairment sensory teams, CAMHS,
- Referral to children’s social care for a statutory social work assessment.
Contact with the service for members of the public
To discuss your concern with a social worker, please phone Hackney Children and Families Services Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) on 020 8356 5500
The telephone line is open between 9 am and 5 pm Monday to Friday only, excluding bank holidays.
Or email MASH@hackney.gov.uk
Urgent concerns outside of office hours can be made to the Emergency Duty Team on 020 8356 2710
The Hackney MASH Consultation Line for professionals
If you’re unsure about what support a child and family needs, or whether you should make a referral to MASH, please call MASH and ask for a consultation with a member of the team.
How does the consultation line work?
- it’s for professionals only
- for cases that are not already open to the Council’s service
- you must have consulted your designated safeguarding lead first
- you will need to use the usual MASH number – 020 8356 5500 – and ask for a consultation
- experienced members of staff from MASH will respond
MASH will listen to your concerns and offer advice and guidance about the most appropriate next steps. Their advice may include:
- a request for you to have further conversations with the child and family about the concerns and, with their consent, other members of the family’s network
- making a written request for support to MASH
- Make or suggest a referral to another service
MASH will keep a log of calls to monitor use of the consultation line, but calls will not be recorded on our files. It is important that anyone contacting MASH make their own agency records of discussions.
Making a request for support
Consent for requests for support
Please note. It is expected that you will have spoken to the family about the referral you are making, before contacting MASH, in all cases except where it is felt that doing this will put a child at immediate risk of harm.
If you need more information and advice about requesting support or a formal assessment in Hackney you can find useful videos and resources here.
Request for support form
To make a request for support you will need to:
- Have been given consent by the family and where appropriate the child or young person.
- Have an understanding of the child’s needs and have thought about which services may be appropriate to provide the requested support.
- To have referred to the Hackney Child and Wellbeing framework.
- Details of the child or young person who the request for support is about.
Use the LBH (London Borough of Hackney) Request for Support Form to make a request for support. This form will automatically download when you activate the link.
Information submitted via the form will only be reviewed during office hours.
After you have submitted a request
Once a decision about the outcome of a contact is made, the person making the request will be informed of this decision, unless it is deemed inappropriate to do so.
Where the person making the request has not been informed of the outcome, the reasons for this will be recorded so they understand why.
If a case is already allocated within Hackney Children and Families Services, please contact the child’s allocated unit to discuss your concerns.
SEND Local Offer
- Local Offer Age Bands
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Early Years and Pregnancy 0-4
Primary 4 -10
Secondary 11-14
Preparing for Adulthood 14-18 - SEN Provision Type
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- Targeted
- Specialist
Who to contact
- Telephone
- 020 8356 5500 020 8356 5500 Fax: 0208 356 5516/5517 Fax: 0208 356 5516/5517 Out of hours: 0208 356 2710 Out of hours: 0208 356 2710
- MASH@hackney.gov.uk
- Website
- hackney.gov.uk/.../child-protection
- Scan to visit this website
Where to go
- Address
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Hackney Service Centre
1 Hillman Street
Hackney
London
- Postcode
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E8 1DY
View E8 1DY on a map - Venue Notes
Buses: 30, 38, 388, 55, 106, 236, 242, 253, 276, 277, D6
Train: London Fields, Hackney Central, Hackney Downs
Time / Date Details
- Time of day
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- Morning
- Afternoon
- Session Information
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Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm
Out of hours emergency phone number provided
Other details
- Referral required?
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Yes
- What to do if you have a complaint
MASH can be contacted to try to resolve any concerns about having used their service.
If this does not help Hackney's social care complaints department can be contacted on 020 8356 5800
If you have a situation that you are still not happy about then you can raise a formal complaint. This means someone who is not part of the service will look at what has happened and what might need to be done to help.
Information about Hackney complaints procedure is available here.
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