Dudley MBC Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (often referred to as MASH) is the single point of contact for professionals (such as social workers, care and support staff, teachers or health professionals), and members of the public to report safeguarding concerns about adults and children across Dudley MBC.
Call Recording
When you contact the MASH, your calls will be recorded and retained for up to 90 days.
Our lawful basis for processing your personal information in this way is to protect the legitimate interests of the Council, its call centre employees, and its service users in the following way:
• To ensure you receive a high-quality service from us • To protect our employee’s personal safety and wellbeing
A third party would reasonably expect to be subject to call monitoring in the above specific situations.
The Partner Agencies within MASH hold information relating to past and present referrals that have been made to the hub. These referrals may include personal information relating to:
• Any person at risk (adult or child) • Any suspected perpetrator(s) • Parents / next of kin / family members / carers • Any other person or persons at risk who may be living at the property • Witnesses • Person who raised the concern (professional or member of the public)
The type of information the Partner Agencies within MASH holds will vary depending on the nature of the concern, but is likely to include some or all of the following information:
Person who is at risk: • Name, date of birth and other personal identifiers such as national insurance number, local authority reference number, health reference number. • Details of any previous involvement with the organisations listed below. • Disability information (if applicable) • GP / Social Worker details • Domestic violence history • Previous convictions • Risks to others • Victim concerns
Professional reporting the concern (please note professionals are unable to remain anonymous when reporting a concern): • Name, contact information • Job title • Organisation • Relationship to adult or child at risk
Details of person causing concern: • Name • Age, date of birth • Gender • Ethnicity • Contact details • Relationship to adult or child at risk
Parent / carer / others in the household: • Name, address, date of birth, contact information (email, telephone etc) • Relationship to adult or child at risk • Parental responsibility • Gender • Ethnicity
Details of other professionals involved: • Name • Contact number
Details of previous involvement from: • Children’s or Adult Services
The MASH is a partnership between the following organisations and agencies:
• Dudley MBC – (Adults, Childrens, Education, Housing, Family Support and Community Services) • West Midlands Police • Health • National Probation Service • Black Country Woman’s Aid • Care, Grow, Live
The Partner Agencies within the MASH handle concerns about children at risk and high-risk domestic abuse. Staff from Housing, BCWA, Police, Health, National Probation Service, Education and Children's Social Care are working together in the MASH office. The MASH directly receives safeguarding concerns from professionals such as social workers, care workers, teachers and doctors as well as members of the public and family members.
Where referrers have assessed that there is a risk of harm to a child as a result of suspected abuse or neglect, representatives from the different agencies within the MASH and outside will collate information from their respective sources to build up a picture of the circumstances of the case. As a result, more informed decisions can be made about what action to take, and support is targeted on the most urgent cases. Better co-ordination between agencies leads to an improved targeted and timely intervention for adults, children and families.
The MASH receives information from:
The person or organisation making the referral. This could be:
• The person who is at risk • A family member or friend of the person who is at risk, • A concerned member of the public • A professional such as a social worker, a care worker, a teacher or health worker etc. • Its retrospective partners
The MASH also generates its own information, for example when working together to decide on the best course of action for a person.
The MASH will use this information to:
• Hold a ‘Multi Agency Discussion’. At the meeting all relevant information gathered from partner agencies will be reviewed to determine the most appropriate course of action and to support the most urgent cases. • Feedback to the person who has reported the concern (where appropriate) • Signpost Adults, Children and Families to the most appropriate services or support.
Children’s Services uses Power BI as a business intelligence analysis tool that can handle hundreds of thousands of lines of raw data and add value by categorising, calculating and visualising information to give insight.
Working with colleagues in Children’s Services, interactive business intelligence dashboards have been developed to provide analysis into things like, number of service users, number of children in need, different types of interventions applied etc.
These insights can be shared with those members of staff who need the analysis to help Children’s Services improve service operations. Access to personal identifiable level data is restricted to those who have a lawful basis to access it.
Data Protection law says that we are allowed to use and share personal information only where we have proper and lawful reasons for doing so. We process personal information within the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub for safeguarding purposes because one of the following applies:
• You have given your explicit consent • It is necessary for the performance of a contract with you • For compliance with a legal obligation • It is necessary to protect the vital interests of you or another person • It is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest • It is necessary for the purposes of legitimate interests to do so.
For more sensitive information (i.e. special category information about a person’s race, ethnic origin, politics, religion, genetics, health, sex life or orientation) our lawful bases are:
• To comply with our legal obligations • For the purposes of preventative or occupational medicine • You have given your explicit consent • Protect your vital interests or those of another individual • Archiving in the public interest, scientific or historical research or statistical purposes • Reasons of substantial interest • Relevant legal or court action • Information already made public by you • Reasons of public interest in the area of public health
Dudley MASH takes the security of all personal data under its control very seriously.
The MASH will handle personal data in accordance with data protection laws. We will keep your information secure; it is only seen by staff on a ‘need to know basis’ who need it to do their jobs. Only authorised staff can use our computerised information systems and they must follow security procedures. In particular we will ensure that personal data is handled fairly and lawfully with appropriate justification. We will strive to ensure that any personal data used by us or on our behalf is of the highest quality in terms of accuracy, relevance, adequacy, is kept as up to date as required, is protected appropriately, is reviewed, and retained securely.
We ensure that appropriate policy, training, technical and procedural measures are in place, including audit and integrity monitoring, to protect our electronic information systems from data loss and misuse, and only permit access to them when there is a legitimate reason to do so, and then under strict guidelines as to what use may be made of any personal data contained within them. These procedures are continuously managed and enhanced to ensure up-to-date security.
Any information that we share with other agencies is sent securely and will only ever be shared with other agencies under careful controls, to ensure it is only used in the ways listed here.
The MASH sometimes needs to share information. Where this is necessary, we are required to comply with all aspects of the legislation. Below is a description of the types of organisations we may need to share some of the personal information that we process with:
• Providers of care and support services • Family members, carers, associates or representatives of the person whose personal data we are processing • Organisations such as health or education who work jointly with us to provide services and protect individuals • Police services • The prison service and probation service • Housing associations • Local Government • Other departments of the council • Public Services Ombudsman for England • Regulatory services • Data processors • Regulatory bodies • International law enforcement agencies and bodies • Partner agencies, approved organisations and individuals working with the police • Auditors
Your information your rights
The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) gives you important rights, including the right to access personal information the services hold about you.
Partnership agencies keep personal data as long as is necessary for the particular purpose or purposes for which it is held, this is in accordance with their respective Data Protection Retention Policies.
The council has a document retention policy that details how long certain pieces of information are retained. This is available on request by emailing information.governance@dudley.gov.uk
Contact Us
Any individual with concerns over the way MASH handles their personal data may contact the Data Protection Officer at the Council as below:
