Ofsted praises multi-agency child protection work at two councils

Separate focused visits by Ofsted to Waltham Forest and Barking and Dagenham councils were made last month to assess how well their multi-agency safeguarding hubs (Mash), which deal with child protection and children in need concerns, are performing.

Waltham Forest's Mash was found to offer timely responses to referrals and since the inspectorate's last visit in 2014, when children's services were rated "requires improvement" overall, has increased the number of partners involved in the arrangement.

It now includes professionals from children's social care, early help services, health, education, police, probation, housing, youth offending and London Victim Support.

Partners are also surveyed regularly to ensure there is a strong understanding among them of children's social care issues.

"Since the last inspection of services in 2014, there has been significant work to further develop the Mash," states the inspectorate in a letter to Waltham Forest's children's services department.

"This includes the co-location of more partner agencies and a recent relaunch of the revised threshold guidance. This in turn has resulted in improved, timely multi-agency responses to contacts and referrals.

"Regular surveys of partner agencies show improved understanding and better relationships with children's social care, and this is enabling better support and protection of children."

However, despite the praise, inspectors said they are concerned that recent changes to how cases are recorded electronically has led to inaccuracies, although they note this is being looked at by senior managers.

"This means that managers do not have a comprehensive, accurate understanding of the effectiveness of practice. Senior managers are aware of this and have taken robust action to improve data quality through a data cleansing exercise," adds Ofsted's letter.

Meanwhile, Barking and Dagenham's Mash was found to benefit from a stable workforce, timely information sharing between partners and consistency in applying thresholds for intervention and support.

Inspectors said that, in all cases they looked at, the council's response was appropriate, including offers of early help to families and children.

"Partners are well engaged, which ensures timely information sharing, the consistent application of thresholds and proportionate responses for children and their families who need help and support," states Ofsted's letter to Barking and Dagenham's deputy chief executive Anne Bristow.

"Managers take appropriate decisions to safeguard children, and responses to immediate child protection concerns are timely. Children and families are appropriately referred to early help services, where a wide range of staff and resources are available to provide help and support."

Areas of improvement at Barking and Dagenham, which was rated "requires improvement" at the last full inspection in 2014, include ensuring management oversight of case work is more consistent. Inspectors also raised concerns that referrals from multi-agency teams are not always clear about the nature of specific safeguarding risks. 

Barking and Dagenham's Mash includes representatives from the police, health, probation, education, children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), youth offending, substance misuse services and Community Solutions, which offers children and adult support services.

A spokesman for Barking and Dagenham Council said: "We have worked hard to improve children's social care and are pleased to see this recognised in the recent Ofsted focussed visit. By placing our Mash within our new community solutions service, it sits alongside a range of other services such as housing, adult social care and community safety.

"Working together these multi-disciplinary teams try to ensure there is no "wrong" front door and we can help residents whenever possible to tackle issues before they become a crisis."