In addition, some of the referrals from police had insufficient information such as phone numbers, home addresses and wrong gender and names of people involved. The process of calling the police or the schools, requesting for additional information was time wasting. On one occasion, I made an unannounced home visit and I found out that the name on the referral was wrong, but it was the correct family. The team receives a high volume of referrals from the police, and I think accurate recording of information is very important, as we have a duty to safeguard the welfare of the children and young people referred to Social Services.

Furthermore, when I was carrying out welfare checks in regards to a referral decision made by the managers, some GP’s refused to provide information. They wanted to see a written consent from the families in order for them to release medical information. My task on some of these referral did not need a home visit and the families provided a verbal consent over the phone. However, some of the GP’s were very engaging as they cooperated – they understood very well my duty as a Social Worker. Some of the referrals had to be closed without information from the GP’s and I think it is a risky practice, considering the serious case reviews such as Baby P and Victoria Climbie. Information sharing between agencies has been a major concern for years, and I am glad that this team is moving towards implementing the MASH model of working together.

MASH model offers a more consistent, timely and unified multi ‘ agency response to individual situations, rather that children’s social care services making unilateral decisions in response to referrals. King et. al (2012) states that Multi Agency Safeguarding Hubs are designed to improve safeguarding for the children by co-locating key partners and their data, into secure assessment, research and referral unit to receive notifications of possible risk. Furthermore, the model’s improves information sharing between agencies, meaning decisions can be quicker and better in that there are based on a complete understanding of an individual case ( ibid).