The Chair introduced his report that provided feedback on the recommendation of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee regarding the principle of undertaking a series of Reality Check visits by small groups of members to enable those members to engage directly with frontline staff. He informed that the first of these visits had taken place to the Integrated Front Door / Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) at Moreton on Thursday 7 September 2017. 

The Chair informed that visiting Members were impressed by the warm welcome which was received during the visit and the willingness of all organisations to participate in discussion.  He added that considerable partner agency buy-in was evidenced by the number of organisations actively engaged within the Integrated Front Door / MASH environment and that the deployment and increase in the number of social workers within the MASH on a permanent basis appeared to have created a more stable working environment and enabled the application of more consistent processes / thresholds. 

Resolved – That

(1)  the report be noted; and

(2)  a further visit to the Integrated Front Door / MASH to the Reality Check be included into the Committee Work Programme once the service has transferred to the new location at Solar Campus.