The MASH is made up of representatives from early help, children’s social care, health, probation, and the police. We have strong links with our education and early years partners, family centres, adult social care, housing department, the youth justice service and the child & adolescent mental health service (CAMHS). We also work closely with independent charities and organisations such as MK Act.
The partnership works together to screen contacts taken into the MASH, share and analyse information held across various client data systems to understand the child’s history, lived experience and agency involvement so that effective and timely decisions can be made about the type of services children need to reach their full potential and improve their outcomes.
The Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) is the ‘front door’ for Children’s Services in Milton Keynes. The MASH is the first point of contact where there are new concerns about the safety, wellbeing, or welfare of a child or unborn baby.
The MASH brings together professionals from different agencies to share information, assess risk, and make informed decisions about the support and protection children and families may need.
For children and young people that are already open to Children’s Services and have an allocated Family Help Worker, Social Worker or Personal Advisor please contact the allocated team directly. Their contact details are below:
- Family Help Teams: 01908 252 525
- Multi Agency Child Protection Teams (MACPTs): 01908 253 818
- Children We Care For (formerly Children in Care Team): 01908 253 740
- 16 – 25 Team: 01908 253 434
- Children with disabilities Team (CWD): 01908 253 617
- Short Breaks Team: 01908 252 042
Whilst we are one team, we have three distinct strands in the MASH: early help service, the duty pod and the assessment pods.
- The early help service responds to all referrals that do not meet the criteria for statutory interventions or assessments. They provide support and guidance with early help assessments, signpost to universal services or making referrals to the family centres and the Family Help Service. More information about the early help service can be found here.
- The duty pod: With oversight from a Team Manager, all new referrals and contacts will be screened and processed by social workers and customer liaison officers. We use the MK Level of Needs threshold document as well as local and national policies and legislation, such as the Children Act 1989 and Working Together, to inform our decisions and next steps.
- The assessment pods complete Single Assessments under s.17 of the Children Act 1989 and undertake single and joint enquiries under s.47 of the Children Act 1989. The assessment pods work with children and their families on a short-term basis whilst the enquiries and assessments are undertaken.
Monday to Thursday: 9am to 5pm
Friday: 9am to 4:30pm
If you are a member of the public, you can contact the MASH on 01908 253 169 / 170 during our working hours (see above).
If you are a professional, you must complete a Multi-Agency Referral Form (MARF). If your concern is of an urgent safeguarding nature, please also contact the MASH on 01908 253 169 / 170. Referrals cannot be taken over the telephone or e-mail. The Early Help Service and MASH are available to provide advice on situations where professionals are unsure of thresholds.
Outside of working hours (evenings, overnights, weekends and bank holidays), please telephone the Emergency Social Work Team (out of hours team) on 01908 265 545 with any safeguarding concerns.
In the event of an immediate concern for a child’s safety or welfare, please contact the Police on 999.
MASH: 01908 253 169 or 253 170
E-mail: children@milton-keynes.gov.uk
Emergency Social Work Team: 01908 265 545
Postal address: MASH, Civic, 1 Saxon Gate East, Central Milton Keynes, MK9 3EJ