The MASH. The MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub) is commonly misunderstood to be the whole process of responding to a contact into CSC up to allocation to a social worker. Differences in the understanding between partners are exacerbated by conflicting use of the term ‘MASH’ in individual areas. MASH is currently used to refer to both a discrete process and various teams. For example, some boroughs call their front door teams MASH and others have a separate team dedicated to carrying out multi-agency checks and call this MASH. All boroughs have a MASH process – the carrying out of multi-agency safeguarding checks. This explains why this agreement is called the MAS (Multi-Agency Safeguarding) DSA, and not MASH. Despite the apparent differences, there is considerable commonality in the basic process at the front door followed by the London boroughs. This is captured in the diagram below, and provides a foundation for developing a definition and core elements for the front door to CSC:
