Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub John Maddox MASH Development Officer

Information Sharing in action

Your Speaker today and the dark arts !! My background and experience is based on a former life. I was a police officer for 30 years and for a good proportion of that I was an intelligence officer. Which means that my principle responsibility was handling information which was risk assessed and which carried risk with it. e.g. CHIS & UC Duty of care Procedures to be followed Public interest immunity Where….europe kiv germany

WHY ?

Why do we need MASH in Staffordshire The Evidence was clear and difficult..we lost children BSK410 & NS10 Go over NS10 5x5x5 and grading 1

Concept Sharing more information. Undertaking Early Risk Assessment A ‘whole family’ approach to safeguarding. Enhanced data sharing and analysis to join up the information available about a family to support and/or intervene to protect the vulnerable. Creating a confidential environment where proportionality necessity & justification allow information to be released to operational staff.

Who is in MASH Staffordshire County Council Children & Adults Staffordshire Police Staffs & Stoke NHS Partnership Trust Stoke on Trent City Council Children & Adults SWMPT (MAPPA) North Staffs Combined Mental Health (maybe)

The Challenges Culture Fear Knowledge Ignorance The law Doing what we have always done Not my responsibility Culture : A view of the world from a silo, no appreciation of anothers role or responsibilities, even a lack of respect for other agencies Fear : of getting things wrong..better to be risk averse, stories of misconduct cases Knowledge: Of data protection claim it stops you doing anything, awareness of agreements, understanding what can and cannot be done. Ignorance: Of change, of protocols, of changes to legislation The Law : Duty of care balances, complexity of changing case law

Solutions Having a face to face process Creating a Confidential Environment An agreed MOU Right level of decision maker Professionally Disagree Applied Multi agency thinking Professional judgement Trust & Confidence

MOU Builds on existing agreements Two stage process – Reveal & Disclose Audit Process Have a legal basis Handling Protocols & info ownership Escalation process

Essential Elements Governance

Cohorts/Populations:- High Risk Children referrals (Safeguarding & above)   Vulnerable Adult (No secrets) referrals Domestic Abuse-Victims & Perpetrators and repeat cases Domestic Violence screening for Children & Vulnerable Adults Missing persons Child Sexual Exploitation Hate Crime Some Professional Concern cases (issues raised by professionals but not clear as to the cohort at referral stage)

SO WHAT !! More referral's equals more information sharing More Information Sharing equals more opportunity for Safeguarding More Safeguarding means opportunity for early intervention Early intervention means less need acute services More discussions mean better decisions about who should attend

Performance (February & March 2013) Total throughput = 6723 MASHED = 1919 (as of 21/05/13= 3851) Equals = 29% info sharing 41% Domestic Abuse 36% Children 10% Adults 4% Child Sexual Exploitation 9% other cohorts

Exit severities following Mashing : 66% Unchanged 27% Raised What impact re Risks Exit severities following Mashing : From Single agency assessment incoming to output by MASH 66% Unchanged 27% Raised 7% Lowered Re referral rate = 5.2%

How to eat an elephant – one piece at a time ; Things to watch out for Prepare for change How to eat an elephant – one piece at a time ; Gradual introduction of cohorts of cases Design of the physical change of information sharing Prepare for change. I’m a sure you will have all seen an episode of grand designs and apart from that German huff house, all projects despite best laid plans, are changed and redesig9ned. This is equally true for MASH. for the MASH. It is is important to have the practicalities and infrastructure in place and to specify how the system will work as this will provide the much needed blue print however, be prepared for change. How to eat an elephant – In small bites There is a risk with setting up a MASH that the service will attempt too much from the outset. The MASH concept will often overpromise and the operational reality will under deliver. It is important to remember that as agencies come together to share processes they will also begin sharing the demand. Staffordshire took the approach that we would gradually introduce cohorts of cases to the full lateral checking process. This meant that there was no risk to existing processes. The children’s team retained its distinct incoming lines and dealt with calls as they had always dealt with them. We wanted time within the environment to design how the physical exchange of information sharing would take place and once this had been designed and tested and was up and running we would gradually increase the demand.

We view full information sharing as a compliment to already established systems. Prepare for change. I’m a sure you will have all seen an episode of grand designs and apart from that German huff house, all projects despite best laid plans, are changed and redesig9ned. This is equally true for MASH. for the MASH. It is is important to have the practicalities and infrastructure in place and to specify how the system will work as this will provide the much needed blue print however, be prepared for change. How to eat an elephant – In small bites There is a risk with setting up a MASH that the service will attempt too much from the outset. The MASH concept will often overpromise and the operational reality will under deliver. It is important to remember that as agencies come together to share processes they will also begin sharing the demand. Staffordshire took the approach that we would gradually introduce cohorts of cases to the full lateral checking process. This meant that there was no risk to existing processes. The children’s team retained its distinct incoming lines and dealt with calls as they had always dealt with them. We wanted time within the environment to design how the physical exchange of information sharing would take place and once this had been designed and tested and was up and running we would gradually increase the demand.

Introducing a wave of multiagency demand through a single point of information sharing is likely to result in a monumental bottle neck. We often think in linear terms and this is apparent from many of the process designs I have seen for MASH. In reality the information sharing activity is organic and happens across the partnerships often simultaneously. We took time to observe this activity, understand it and on the strength of this introduced complimentary processes to help organise and quantify it.

It’s worth it It’s Worth it Moving beyond simple co location to an integrated multiagency system is hard work and I cannot state here and say we have full cracked it however, we are evolving and developing at pace. What I can say is that it does bring enormous benefits. The staff are behind the concept and are absolutely of the view that it has made a difference to their practice. There is a culture of confidence regarding information sharing and the intelligence we hold on the combined systems has greatly increased our opportunity to safeguard. Ultimately it is important not to loose sight of what is being achieved. We will often focus on the problems and challenges we face and neglect to look at what is working well and what has been achieved. Has the MASH been worth it, absolutely it has.

Questions