Family Support, Safeguarding and MASH

Our family support, safeguarding, and multi-agency safeguarding hub services.

Family Support

Children and Young People's services in Suffolk work in multi-agency teams using the Signs of Safety practice framework.

This framework brings Social Care and Family Support (formally known as Early Help) Services into combined, more local, integrated teams to work following the principle of one family, one plan, and one lead worker to establish a sustained relationship more likely to bring about change.

Visit our Social Work careers pages to learn more.

Safeguarding

The Safeguarding Service includes Independent Reviewing Officers (IRO’s) who have responsibility for chairing Child in Care reviews and Child Protection Conferences. They are managed by the Safeguarding Managers who also have responsibility for chairing complex strategy meetings, MACE panels and MAPPA attendance. The LADO Service and the two missing and CE co-ordinators are also managed within safeguarding. We have Business Support teams who are responsible for note taking and managing invites and calendars.

See some of the key roles within the Safeguarding service below.

Safeguarding Managers are responsible for the effective delivery of safeguarding services for children in care and those subject to child protection plans. Safeguarding Managers also have chairing responsibilities of MACE Panels (Multi-Agency Criminal Exploitation), complex strategy meetings and SUDICs (Sudden or Unexpected Collapse and Death in Infancy or Childhood) plus management and oversight of the Regulation 44 (children’s homes independent inspection and monitoring process) and LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer) process.

Independent Reviewing Officers (IRO’s) are responsible for chairing Children in Care reviews and also act as conference chairs in initial and review child protection meetings. The role involves careful scrutiny of childcare plans, ensuring that key actions and responsibilities are being undertaken and, most importantly, ensuring a child’s safety and wellbeing is met either in a suitable placement as a child in care or in a family setting under a Child Protection Plan.

Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)

The Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) is the single point of contact for all safeguarding concerns in Suffolk. Contacts to our team are triaged and MASH assessments are carried out in order to identify risk and provide interventions of varying levels. Most roles include contacting parents and caregivers as well as the many partner agencies working with MASH both co-located and externally.

The MASH is a fast-paced environment where no two days are the same. Working at the heart of a dynamic partnership between social care, police, health, and education, you'll assess risk, gather intelligence from multiple sources, broker support services, record sensitive data, communicate professionally, and help ensure effective decision-making - all within tight timescales.

Your skills in relationship-building, information sharing, administration, and sound judgment will directly impact lives across Suffolk.

Some key roles within MASH include:

MASH Partnership Manager,
Social Worker,
Senior Social Worker,
Consultant Social Worker,
MASH Practitioners,
Business Support,
Head of Service.

Family Support, Safeguarding and MASH

Family Support

Safeguarding

Safeguarding Managers

Independent Reviewing Officers (IRO)

Business Support

Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)