An implementation and process evaluation of Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH)
This project evaluates Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH), their key features and the ways in which different MASH work in their own contexts.
The project runs from February 2024 to January 2025 and is funded by Foundations.
Background
What is a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)?
Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH) deal with incoming contacts and referrals about children and young people who have prompted child concern notifications. In some cases, they may also act as a route to Family Help (until recently known as separate Early Help and Child in Need services).
Why are we evaluating MASH?
Across England, MASH are highly variable in how they are implemented locally. There are no existing centrally held records on:
- whether there is a MASH in each local area of England
- the date that a local MASH was implemented, or
- the characteristics of each local MASH at any given time.
Currently, there is not a programme theory (also known as theory of change) for MASH as a national intervention. We cannot yet describe how far there are the following:
- Common or diverse functions or features of MASH across England. These are the main mechanisms by which we expect MASH to work (or not).
- The perceived or intended impact of MASH. This may vary according to form, function and characteristics of the children and young people referred into MASH. The wider service and population context of each MASH can also affect this.
Although identified as a promising multi-agency system, we lack a well-developed and agreed-upon programme theory for MASH.
Why is this important for policy?
Regarding the transformation of children’s social care services, multi-agency working is a key focus for the Department for Education (DfE) and other government departments, including the Home Office and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).
In 2022, three independent reviews (commissioned by the government) published their findings. Together, they called for fundamental reform to children’s social care.
In February 2023, DfE responded to these reviews in Stable Homes, Built on Love. The DfE committed to working alongside other lead departments for statutory safeguarding (Home Office and DHSC) to commission our study.
The DfE is seeking to understand how current local safeguarding arrangements, including MASH, are:
- delivering their services
- identifying children in need of help and protection, and
- taking steps to safeguard and protect children.
Our study will help government to understand where overarching guidance and principles may support local areas to implement their MASH (or equivalent).
What do we know currently?
We surveyed 114 local authorities (LAs) in 2023, where 106 LAs reported having a MASH. We collected details about some key features of MASH across England. However, we continue to have only limited detail about:
- key features of MASH
- how these features are thought to work (i.e. mechanisms), and
- whether stakeholders think these features of a MASH should/do work differently for specific groups of children and young people or in different service contexts.
Aims
We will collect qualitative data from professionals and families. This will help us answer questions about:
- key features of MASH (and equivalent), and
- how different MASH work in their contexts.
We will highlight variation but also commonality.
Methodology
We will collect and analyse interviews, focus groups and observational data from practitioners and parents in England. Our main data collection will occur in three local areas of England.
We will sample according to key characteristics of MASH. We identified these in the literature and our survey of 111 MASH in England (Mendez Pineda, 2025). In this study, we take a ‘realist’ perspective on evaluation, i.e. aiming to not only answer the question of ‘what works’ but also understand for whom and why.
To embed a realist approach to our analysis, we will use:
- Normalisation Process Theory, and
- Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance (RE-AIM).
Both of which provide a structure for evaluating implementation.
How will this study be used
We anticipate that our findings can be used by the cross-government Steering Group on multi-agency working at the front door of children's social care. Our findings can be used to generate core principles of an effective MASH.
These principles and our wider findings have potential to inform government policy from the Department for Education, Department of Health and Social Care and the Home Office. Examples include the planned revisions of Working Together to Safeguard Children in 2025.
Establishing a set of core principles can encourage integrity within interventions or service models which are designed to vary between sites, such as MASH. A set of core principles would acknowledge that the 'form' and 'function' of MASH will differ when implemented in each local context. At the same time, they will facilitate some 'fidelity' to the underlying principles by which the service model works.
Team
Project lead
Project team members
UCL
University of Newcastle
Related links
Contact us
Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU)
Social Research Institute
IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society
University College London
55-59 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0NU
