Introduction The first Multi agency safeguarding hubs (MASHs) were developed in 2011 in response to failures of agencies to work together to safeguard children and young people. In numerous serious case reviews and national reports such as the Munro Review of Child Protection the failure to share information in a timely and effective way has been highlighted as a common theme. MASH aims to facilitate more effective multi-agency working and promote professionals working together. As information is shared between partners it is hoped that this leads to high quality and timely safeguarding responses as safeguarding risk can be assessed more accurately.

Aim The aim of this audit was to review decisions made by the MASH team over a 12 month period

Method A multiagency audit of safeguarding responses is performed on a weekly basis each Friday, involving representatives from police, health and social care. Up to 8 cases are randomly selected from that week some reaching threshold for multiagency intervention and some where the threshold was not reached.

Overall management was also graded

Results 347 cases were reviewed

Overall management

Outstanding 4.8%

Good 81%

Requires improvement 10.2%

Inadequate 3.5%

Conclusion Through weekly multiagency audit decision making within the MASH is reviewed. For children where the threshold to proceed to section 47 investigation has not been reached actions can be reviewed to ensure that interventions are effective, responses proportionate and families signposted to appropriate services. Where the threshold has been reached multiagency partners can ensure the decision is appropriate and clearly documented, and the referrer notified of the outcome. In the few cases where the overall management was felt to be inadequate this could be ‘rectified in real time’ as all referrals were made the week of the audit.