If you are worried about the safety or wellbeing of a child or young person in Devon, or want to discuss options for early help for a child or family, please contact our customer service centre on 0345 155 1071. Our lines are open Monday-Thursday 9am-5pm and Friday 9am-4pm.
If you need help outside of these hours or at weekends or bank holidays, please call our Emergency Duty Service on 0345 6000 388.
If you are a professional, please go to the information for professionals section for details on how to contact us.
If a child is at immediate risk contact the police on 999.
What is the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)?
The MASH team is the front door of Children’s Services and the first point of contact. The MASH receive all the requests for early help and safeguarding from people who are worried and concerned for children. These requests can come from professionals, such as the Police or education, but also members of the public and family members and young people themselves
Our job is to identify, assess and make safe at the earliest opportunity all vulnerable children and families in our communities. We do this through the sharing of information and intelligence across the safeguarding partnership, such as health, education, Police and probation, to name but a few.
The MASH 4 key principles
- Children are best brought up in families, with local support when needed.
- We support families to find their own solutions, building on strengths and finding solutions to whatever difficulties they are confronting to be resilient, improve family life and increase opportunities for their children.
- Children who need protection will receive it; wherever possible, early help will prevent the need for statutory intervention in family life.
- Timely permanent arrangements will be secured for children who can’t be brought up in their birth family.
How do we assess the level of need?
The Devon Children and Families Partnership (DCFP) has adopted a multi-agency model to help professionals assess safeguarding needs for children and young people.
The DCFP has adopted the Levels of Need, which is a continuum of need model to provide a multi-agency, whole system approach to assessment, prevention and intervention for children, young people and their families and directly support the early help framework and process.
Within MASH there is an Early Help team that respond to requests for Early Help support by contacting the family and professionals, assessing Level of Need and taking action to progress the support needs identified.
The aim of early help is to build on people’s strengths and resources to manage their own challenges and resolve their own difficulties and prevent further problems in the future.
Early help is not a designated team, it is the way that everyone works together to support the needs of families.
Can we talk
If you are worried about the safety of a child in Devon and want to speak to someone, or if you are a child worried about your own safety, please contact our team on 0345 155 1071.
If you are a professional, you can call the consultation line for a case discussion prior to making a request for safeguarding or support
Confidentiality is very important and each agency ensures that the information shared is relevant and proportionate, it is always important that the consent of the parent is given to any enquiry to enable information sharing within the MASH, an exception to this would be should seeking that consent place a child or others at increased risk. Read more in the MASH privacy notice.
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