The Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) has been implemented to safeguard Torbay’s children and families. It aims to provide the highest level of knowledge and analysis of all known intelligence and information across the safeguarding partnership to ensure all safeguarding activity and intervention is timely, proportionate and necessary.
The vision is to identify and make safe at the earliest opportunity all vulnerable people in our communities through the sharing of information and intelligence across the safeguarding partnership.
Torbay’s MASH aims to provide a more consistent, timely and co-ordinated multi-agency response to individual situations relating to welfare and safeguarding concerns to children and young people. The intent is to improve the quality of information sharing between agencies in order that decision making can be both more effective and more robust.
The online portal will provide the facility for partners, parents, young people and members of the public to make referrals into MASH and Early Help directly. It will also optimise performance by automating the referral process internally whilst also, for the first time, allowing Early Help to have its own front door. This represents a significant mile stone for Torbay in the way it connects with its stakeholders.
To use the online portal you will be required to set up an account which is a one off process.
A recording of the of new MASH Referral Process can be viewed on ilearn.
Where possible referrals should be made to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and Early Help via the new Online Portal. If this is not possible please use the relevant referral form below.
If you are making a referral to the Children with Disabilities Team you will also need to complete and attach the Torbay Children with Disabilities Eligibility Criteria which can be accessed below.
For completion when making a referral to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)
To complete alongside Early Help referral
To complete alongside referral to Children with Disabilities Team
MASH focuses on three main functions:
The MASH is a team of people who continue to be employed by their individual agencies but who are co-located in one office.
Torbay MASH is co-located in Tor Hill House, Torquay. Torbay MASH currently consists of:
Objectives of MASH include:
Torbay MASH has been developed in line with and supported by Torbay Council, Torbay Safeguarding Children Partnership, Devon and Cornwall Police, NHS England, Torbay Safeguarding Adults Board and Torbay Probation.
Torbay’s Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) will provide information sharing across all organisations involved in safeguarding - encompassing statutory, non-statutory and the third sector. Essentially the hub will analyse information that is already known within separate organisations in a coherent format to inform all safeguarding decisions. All partners will work together to provide the highest level of knowledge and analysis to make sure that all safeguarding activity and intervention is timely, proportionate and necessary.
