East Suffolk Council
Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)
If you are worried that a child, young person or adult is at risk of abuse, harm or neglect, please call Customer First on 0808 800 4005 (free from landlines and most mobiles) or dial 999 in an emergency.
In order to ensure that information needed to keep people safe is held, and immediately accessible, in one place, a range of organisations in Suffolk with responsibility for safeguarding both adults and children such as Suffolk County Council, Suffolk Police, health services, district and borough council housing services, education, probation and the youth offending service have come together to create a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).
The Suffolk MASH, has been developed as a result of learning from previous experiences, especially from lessons highlighted by reviews of serious safeguarding incidents across the country. A recurring theme of these reviews is the importance of information sharing and close working arrangements between relevant agencies.
The MASH is being implemented in stages to make sure that the high standards of safeguarding already in place in Suffolk don’t suffer during the transition from current arrangements to a fully functioning MASH. Once fully operational, the MASH will be made up of approximately 60 professionals from across the county. The majority of these staff will be located at Landmark House in Ipswich.
The main advantage of the MASH is that officers can share the information their agency may have on a child or adult immediately to ensure the decisions taken about how to help an individual are done so, taking into account all available information.
An information sharing agreement has been established between the agencies involved with the MASH to ensure that information is shared confidentially, proportionately and securely. Sensitive and confidential information will never leave the ‘safety’ of the MASH team but it will help inform decision making.
Remember - if you are worried that a child, young person or adult is at risk of abuse, harm or neglect, please call Customer First on 0808 800 4005 (free from landlines and most mobiles) or dial 999 in an emergency.