Contacting the MASSH

Last updated 17 April 2023

The Multi-Agency Safeguarding and Support Hub (MASSH) is the single point of contact for the public and professionals to report concerns, request advice and share information about a child and or family.

Professionals

If you're a professional you should decide on the level of need below. Levels of need are used to determine the kind of support a child or family requires.

Before you make a referral, you should have the consent of the family unless this will put the child at risk of harm.

Levels of need

Thriving: universal services

Children and families that are thriving are usually those that are making:

• the best use of universal services, such as health, childcare and education -
• good overall progress in all areas of their development

For children and families to be thriving, we believe that the following factors should be met:

• loving, nurturing relationships with parents and carers
• a safe home, free from stress and adversity
• the right help to develop good language and other cognitive skills
• support to manage behaviour and regulate their emotions
• good physical and mental health and access to healthcare

When it's identified by a family member or professional that one or more of the factors are not met, this should be a trigger point to think about what may be needed to support the child, young person, parent or carer to thrive.

Getting advice and signposting

People of all ages will sometimes need to get advice in aspects of their lives. Children and families have the right to know what support is available and how they can access it. Getting advice can be a one-off or re-occurring until the adult or child feels advice and guidance is no longer needed.

Getting help

There can be times when a person or family needs help to achieve their goals and ambitions. People have the right to know what support there is available to them and how to access it. They also have the right to know when professionals believe they need help.

Getting help can be a one-off event, for example, an additional home visit from a health visitor to focus on one area of support, or it can continue for a short period of time, for example, supporting parents with the Solihull online course.

Help should only end when the child, adult or family feel that their goals are met. If goals are not achieved, professionals need to talk to the child and family about this. This may include talking about how to get more or a different kind of help to ensure a good outcome for the whole family.

Getting more help

There can be times when a child, adult or family need a plan of support and intervention from services. Children and families who need more help are those where the family and/or a professional has identified that, without help, the child will be in need as defined by the Children Act 1989.

Children and families may be encouraged to engage in a more formal assessment to consider the whole family’s need. For example, an early help assessment or social care led assessment and associated care plans that may stem from this assessment. When families receive more help, a lead professional will oversee the plan. Assessment, goal setting and support plans are always shared with children and families. As goals and ambitions are achieved, professionals should celebrate this progress with the family. If progress is not achieved, professionals must talk to the child and family about this. This may lead to goals being reset and consideration of changing and/or scaling up the support plan.

Urgent support and response

Children, families and professionals may decide that, without urgent and/or intensive support, a child may be at risk of serious harm, or their long-term outcomes may be impaired. In most circumstances, this level of involvement will require a referral to children’s social care and/or children’s mental health service.

In most circumstances, the request for involvement from such services should be discussed with the parent, and/or child as appropriate. The only occasion agencies may not talk to a child or their parent or carer about statutory involvement will be when a professional believes that the child’s safety will be compromised by doing so. This may not be a long term position and professionals will work quickly to put safety measures in place to ensure that open communication with the child and their care giver can take place.

You can visit the Stockport Safeguarding Children Partnership website to read the multi agency response to need guidance document.

When you've determined the right level of need, contact us by using the form below.

You can use this form to:

• tell us about a concern about a child’s welfare. Select the level of need: getting more help or urgent support and response
• request support for your child or make a referral to the emotional wellbeing hub or SEND hub. Select the level of need: getting help or getting more help
• request or share information about a child. Select the level of need: getting advice and signposting
• request advice about making a referral or advice about a child you are working with. Select the level of need: getting advice and signposting

Contact the MASSH

The best way to contact us is through the online form so we can gather all the information we need, however you can also contact us on 0161 217 6028.

• select option 1 to tell us about a concern about a child’s welfare
• select option 2 to request support for your child, make a referral to Emotional Wellbeing Hub or SEND Hub, request advice about making a referral or request advice about a child you are working with