How we help with decision making
Below you will find links to services and documents that will guide your practise in helping to safeguard children at the right time.
If you are unsure what level a child and their family need protecting or supporting, the Continuum of Need framework will help guide you. This approach is aligned to the district's Wakefield Families Together model, where a child and their family receive the right help, at the right time, from the right service, and importantly, from the right person, whilst always acting in the best interests of a child.
The Continuum of Need is available in two versions and can be accessed by clicking below:
- Continuum of Need: A Framework to Support Decision Making (A5 leaflet style)
- Continuum of Need: A Framework to Support Decision Making (A4 single page portrait)
- To access a poster of the Continuum of Need, please click here.

What is the Integrated Front Door (IFD)?
Within the IFD are the Social Care and Early Help Screening functions for the district as well as the Multi-Agency Screening Hub (MASH).
These functions offer a single point of access for all contacts/referrals where there are concerns about a child or young person’s safety and wellbeing in line with statutory and local guidance. The Social Care Emergency Duty Team, also makes up a part of the Integrated Front Door – providing an “out of hours” response to urgent issues or help and harm for children in Wakefield.
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Multi-agency Screening Hub (MASH)
The MASH is the multi-agency arrangement to support the Integrated Front Door. The MASH is contributed to by a range of partner agencies (Education, Health, Police, Housing, with virtual links to Probation, Mental Health Service and WADDAS) such that where necessary, a range of information relating to the issues being raised for individual children, can be explored and shared at the screening stage in order to determine the right level and nature of safeguarding intervention.
Not all “contacts” to the Integrated Front Door will be screened by the MASH, but those which require a range of information from partners to enable decision making will be.
For a brief overview of the role of the MASH in Wakefield, click on the presentation link below. -
MASH Documents
To learn more about the MASH operational guidance click here
To learn more about the MASH referral process click here -
Multi Agency Referral Form (MARF)
If you are worried about a child and need to complete a MARF, an initial telephone consultation should take place prior to completion of the MARF with the Integrated Front Door (IFD) to refer a child where you are worried about their safety and/or the parent’s capacity to meet the child’s care needs. A multi-agency referral should be made when the agency considers that a child has been identified as a ‘Child in Need’ or is a Child in need of Protection’Visit the worried about a child page for access to the MARF document and more.
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When to access early help and more support
If you are worried about a child and you have identified that they need early help and support, which does not meet the threshold for child protection but is beyond a single agency response you may speak to your agency safeguarding lead or single point of contact as per your agency’s arrangements or local Family Hub in the first instance. At times it is helpful in developing the next best steps for the child and family you are working with.
If you are a school or early years provider, speak to your Early Intervention and Prevention Link Worker in the first instance to consider whether Team Around the School (TAS) or Team Around the Early Years (TAEY) is required.
To find out what your local Family Hub is and for contact information visit www.wakefieldfamiliestogether.co.uk/community-support/family-hubs

You should now have a good understanding of who the WSCP are...
...and how we can help you within your role.
Why not bookmark this page for future refence and next time you come back take a look at the recording training page to get a better understanding of safeguarding children in the Wakefield District?