Contacts and Referrals

1. Initial Contacts

A contact record is created on the electronic database of Children's Social Care when a referral is received about a child and where there is a request for advice, information or a service. In Lewisham, the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) [1] is the referral gateway for Children's Social Care and Early Help Services. This includes the following:

• Children in of Help and Protection (Section 47, Children Act 1989);
• Children in Need (Section 17, Children Act 1989);
• Specialist services for children with complex needs;
• Specialist services for families who have No Recourse to Public Funds (NRFP);
• Specialist services for Private Frosting, Assessment and Support;
• Targeted Early Help intervention;
• Early Help information, advice and signposting.

If a parent or professional is worried about a child's welfare or safety outside of normal working hours they should contact the Emergency Duty Team (EDT). The EDT will consider the information received and take any immediate safeguarding action. The EDT social worker will create a contact record including the reported concerns and any action taken by EDT, which will be followed up by MASH during core working hours.

All contacts need to be considered alongside Lewisham Partnership agreed thresholds for Children in Need, Children in Need of Protection and/or Early Help. See Lewisham Continuum of Need Levels and Guidance.

MASH will consider all contacts in accordance with the Lewisham Partnership agreed thresholds. The MASH will use the practice framework to review contact information and make a decision with regard to one service or action is most appropriate.

Contacts on open cases

Information/contacts received about a child who is currently in receipt of services is passed to the child's allocated social worker and recorded on the electronic data-base. Information received about child or family whose involvement with Children's Social Care has ended within the last three months will be recorded on the electronic data-base and screened and may progress to a referral.

The Early Help Assessment is not a referral form, although it may be used to support a referral using the Multi Agency Referral Form (MARF).

2. General Principles

• Referrals should contain accurate, up to date and relevant information;
• Professionals and families should not experience barriers or delay in accessing services;
• Contacts and subsequent referrals should be processed efficiently in a timely manner;
• The needs of Children and Young People are identified efficiently and promptly;
• Children and Young People have easy access to the most appropriate service to meet their presenting needs;
• Information sharing between agencies and early identification of risk and harm to safeguard vulnerable children, is accurate, proportionate and relevant;
• Services are targeted at the most vulnerable children;
• All contacts and referrals will be progressed using the principles of the agreed framework in Lewisham i.e., Signs of Safety;
• Contacts received may contain sensitive information and should be handled in accordance with UK GDPR procedures.

Screening

When a contact is made, workers in the MASH screen and create the contact on the electronic data base. Each contact is then rag rated according to need/risk.

The MASH worker will check the electronic data-base records to see if the child or family is known and, if they are known, retrieve the information. Any such information should be passed to the allocated social worker if there is one.

The screening process should establish:

• Where the child lives, ensure that we have the correct address,
• Do we have consent, 
• The nature of the concern;
• How and why it has arisen;
• What the child's needs appear to be;
• Whether the concern involves risk of significant harm.
• Safety planning, which will consider whether there is any need for urgent action to protect the child or any children in the household.

This process will involve:

• Discussion with the referrer;
• Consideration of any existing records, including whether the child living in another LA is the subject of a Child Protection or Child in Need Plan;
• Involving other agencies as appropriate and in accordance with Information Sharing Advice for Safeguarding Practitioners, DfE:
  • Consent from the parent or carer should normally be sought;
  • The Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulations should never be a barrier to 'sharing information where the failure to do so would result in a child or vulnerable adult being placed at risk of harm' or on those occasions where seeking consent might increase the risk of harm or to prevent a crime being committed.
  • Information sharing should always be 'necessary and proportionate'.

If there are indications that a child may be at risk of Significant Harm, the MASH may progress whatever actions are necessary to protect the child or others in the household from Significant Harm, which may result in the immediate provision of services (see Safeguarding Children Partnership Strategy Meeting Procedure).

If there is suspicion that a crime may have been committed including sexual or physical assault or neglect of the child, the Police must be notified immediately.

Personal information about non-professional referrers should not be disclosed to the parents or other agencies without the referrer's consent.

The parents' consent should be sought before discussing a referral with other agencies unless this may place the child at risk of Significant Harm. In this case, the manager should authorise the discussion of the referral with other agencies without parental knowledge or consent. The authorisation should be recorded with reasons. Referrals without clear indication of consent may be notified back to the referrer before being processed.

All contacts should be responded to and completed within one working day.

2. Referrals

An Initial Contact will be progressed to a Referral where the social worker or manager considers an assessment and/or services may be required for a Child in Need.

Referrers should have the opportunity to discuss their concerns with a qualified social worker. The referrer should be asked specifically if they hold any information about difficulties being experienced by the family/household due to domestic violence and abuse, mental illness, substance misuse and/or learning difficulties.

Once the referral has been accepted by local authority children's social care the lead professional role falls to a social worker.

The social worker should clarify with the referrer, when known, the nature of the concerns and how and why they have arisen.

The social worker will arrange to visit or contact the referrer and obtain as much of the following information as possible:

• Full names, dates of birth and gender of children;
• Family address and, where relevant, school/nursery attended;
• Identity of those with parental responsibility;
• Names and dates of birth of all members of the household;
• Ethnicity, first language and religion of children and parents;
• Any special needs of the children including the means in which they communicate;
• Any significant recent or past events;
• Cause for concern including details of allegations, their sources, timing and location;
• The child's current location and emotional and physical condition;
• Whether the child needs immediate protection;
• Details of any alleged perpetrator;
• Referrer's relationship with and knowledge of the child and his or her family;
• Known involvement of other agencies;
• Information regarding parents' knowledge and agreement to referral.

3. Timescales

Professional referrers should make efforts to include accurate and up-to-date child and family details including names, ethnicity, addresses and telephone numbers (e-mail addresses if appropriate). Referrers should clearly outline what they are worried about, what is working well, and be available to discuss their referral with a MASH Social Worker. Issues of consent should be clearly noted in the referral. Consent should be gained on all referrals save in exceptional circumstances (cited above).

The MASH are responsible for identifying which Children/ Young People require assessment (and/or enhanced MASH enquiries) and which service is best placed to undertake the assessment and at what level, using the following criteria.

Level 1 Children with no identified additional needs - Signposting

These are children for whom all of their health and development needs will be met by universal services alone. Children and young people at this level are achieving expected outcomes. There are no identified unmet needs, or the need is at a level and can be met by the universal services or with some limited advice or guidance. Children, young people, parents and carers can access services directly.

Level 2 Children and Young People with Additional Needs – Low risk to vulnerable

These are children whose needs are not clear, not known or not being met. They may be vulnerable and showing early signs of abuse and/or neglect. Children and young people at this level are in need of co-ordinated early help and support from services. This is the4 threshold for a multi-agency early help assessment i.e. The Lewisham EHA.

Level 3 Children and young people with multiple/Complex needs –

These are children with high level additional unmet needs. They are unlikely to achieve or maintain a satisfactory level of health or development, or their health and development will be significantly impaired without the provision of services. They may also be children who are disabled. They may require longer term intervention from statutory and specialist services and need support by a clear co-ordinated plan. This is the threshold for an assessment led by children's social care under section 17, Children Act 1989 (Child In Need).

Level 4 Children and Young people with acute/specialist needs.

This is a smaller group of children who require intensive help and specialist support. This could be due to safeguarding issues where there is no risk of actual or likely significant harm, but needs are acute and multi-agency plans are not effective. It may also be the case that there are child protection issues and intervention is required under s47, Children Act 1989. During the course of an assessment the concerns about the child may become so great that the Local Authority may seek to make arrangements for the child to be Looked After outside of their usual family home. This may be a voluntary agreement with parents (section 20) or through the courts to seek shared parental responsibility for the child. Those young people in receipt of statutory services from the Youth Offending Service also meet this level of need.

If it is clear from the contact information that the child may be at risk of significant harm, or has experienced significant harm, the MASH team will progress the referral on the same day to the Referral & Assessment Service for a strategy meeting to consider the need for a child protection enquiry (s47).

When a referral is received which raises concerns, but the level of need or risk is unclear, the referral will be subject to enhanced MASH enquiries. This enables multi agency information to be collated and shared to build a full picture of risk/need to. This assists in early decision making. The aim is to identify vulnerable children earlier and more efficiently, through better information sharing and to enable agencies to act quickly to keep children safe.

Referrers have the opportunity to discuss their concerns with a MASH worker. The referrer should be asked specifically if they hold any information about difficulties being experienced by the family/household due to domestic violence and abuse, mental illness, substance misuse and/or learning difficulties. Referrers should note any advice given for their own records.

Once the referral has been assessed and progressed by the MASH, the social care lead professional role falls to a social worker.

4. Recording of Referrals

All Contacts and Referrals should be recorded on the appropriate electronic database – EHM or LCS (depending on level of need). This is with the exception of requests for information where the child or family are not previously known.

Professional referrers should be advised of the outcome of the referral by Children's Social Care within 3 working days. Professional referrals should contact Children's Social Care to establish progress if the outcome of their referral has not been received within this time period.

The child and family must be informed of the action to be taken, unless to do so would place the child at significant risk of harm.

5. Professional Disagreements

If there is disagreement regarding the decision and outcome about a referral in the MASH, the person making contact should contact the manager of the MASH in the first instance. If resolution cannot be found, the MASH Group Manager or Head of Service should be involved in trying to reach a resolution before contacting the Lewisham Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP). In this case the formal escalation policy should be followed. Please see LSCP Escalation Policy - Resolving Professional Differences.