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Integrated Front Door (MASH and Early Help)

You can raise a concern about a child on our safeguarding and child protection webpage. Also see our information on out of hours emergencies.

The Integrated Front Door

The Integrated Front Door is the term used to cover the services that work across Cambridgeshire to manage the referrals received in respect of children and young people. It includes the Multi-Agency Assessment Hub (MASH), the Emergency Duty Teams (Adults and Children) and the Early Help Hub.

Customer Service Centre

The Customer Service Centre is the point of contact for all safeguarding concerns regarding children and young people. It enables contacts to be filtered to the relevant service areas quickly and efficiently. This ensures that children, young people and families receive the right level of intervention in a timely manner.

The MASH is a multi-agency environment with full time involvement from Children’s Social Care, Police, Health, Education, Early Help, Domestic Abuse Services and a number of virtual partners such as Youth Offending, Probation, Fire Service and Housing. All core partners have signed the Information Sharing Agreement which enables detailed information sharing as necessary.

The MASH receives any contact relating to children 0-17 years in the Council that are not open to statutory intervention. The outcomes of MASH activity include the following:

  • No further action
  • Provide Advice and Information
  • Pass on to Early Help Hub for further support
  • Pass on to Children’s Social Care for Child & Family Assessment.

A MASH enquiry is completed with parental consent to share information being obtained. However, if a parent declines and there are grounds for partner agencies to be sought to assist in a proportionate response to the case, the MASH Manager can override this and will provide a rationale for this decision.

In the MASH:

  • Relevant agencies are identified to share information held on their databases
  • Contacts are prioritised using a RAG (Red, Amber, Green) rating and completed within a period of 24-72 hours
  • The MASH process provides a secure and confidential environment for professionals to share information.

The Early Help Hub sits alongside the Multi-Agency Assessment Hub (MASH). It is responsible for reviewing and authorising all Early Help Assessments that are completed with Cambridgeshire. It coordinates access to Targeted Support services in Cambridgeshire. It provides advice and guidance on cases managed by the professionals already involved. The Early Help Hub receives contacts that do not need a statutory service (social care) but require multi agency support through Early Help Services to support a family’s needs.

For more information visit our Early Help Processes page.

Professionals can access Liquidlogic - Early Help Module, to make checks or submit an Early Help Assessment.

The Emergency Duty team provides an out of hours emergency social work and Adult Mental Health service across Cambridgeshire for children and adults services. The Emergency Duty Team responds to out of hours referrals where intervention from the Council is required to protect a vulnerable child or adult, and where it would not be safe, appropriate or lawful to delay this intervention to the next working day.

Cambridgeshire IDVA Service is a team of Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs), who provide an independent service offering crisis intervention and support to victims and survivors of domestic abuse. Crisis support is defined as being short-term following a reported incident of abuse.

The IDVA team are employed by Cambridgeshire County Council and based at Cambridgeshire’s Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). Referrals into the service originate primarily from Police and in addition other partner services.

The IDVA team work across the county, in addition, there are externally funded IDVA’s for:

  • Young people 13-19 years.
  • Victims and survivors from Eastern European A8 countries.
  • Victims and survivors whose referrals come from Addenbrookes and Hinchingbrooke Hospital Services.

IDVA’s are able to:

  • Talk through clients’ options and give information to help them make decisions.
  • Advocate with other partner services on behalf of their clients.
  • Assist with personal safety planning for clients and their children in order to reduce risk.
  • Support clients through the civil and criminal justice system.
  • Support/options given regarding housing and alternative safe accommodation.
  • Provide emotional support.
  • Support is available via telephone or by appointment in a face-to-face meeting.
  • Clients can only be referred with their consent and contact takes place at safe times and in safe locations.

Information for parents and families can be found on our accessing support for your family, child protection or local offer pages. This page is aimed at professionals and agencies. Parents and families may also find this detailed information useful.