Mash Contact Officer

Job Category : Admin / Clerical

Location : Laurence House, Lewisham Council

Hours Per Week : 35.00

Start Date : immediate Start

Start Time : 09:00

End Time : 17:00

Salary: £18.28

MASH CONTACT OFFICER

Hybrid working – Rota system in place.

Office is at Laurence House. 3 min walk from Catford Bridge Station. Pre booked Parking available.

Summary of Responsibilities and Personal Duties:

• To support the MASH by attending team meetings, MASH meetings and taking minutes as required.

• To screen all referrals to confirm whether parental consent has been obtained and, if not, notify the referrer that the referral will not be accepted without consent or consult with the duty Advanced Practitioner (AP) or Team Manager (TM) for confirmation of whether a contact should be created.

• To create accurate records for children and their families ensuring basic details including names, addresses, contact number, gender, ethnicity, religion, source of referral, parental consent to referral, are recorded.

• To be able to identify calls of a child protection/child in need nature and re-direct those calls to the duty social worker. This may involve alerting the Duty AP or Team Manager promptly when referrals requiring an urgent response are received.

• To maintain the duty phones and efficiently triage or signpost callers to the correct individuals, Team or Service.

• To provide a professional, sensitive and helpful response to young people, family members, professionals and partner agencies over the telephone.

• To answer queries, assessing the urgency of each query, giving detailed information, re-directing service users and professionals as appropriate and referring more complex and urgent issues to the Advanced Practitioner or Duty Manager.

• To support the MASH Team and partners in the provision of a high quality response to service users and professionals as the first point of contact.

• To identify when referrals and notifications into the MASH may not be appropriate and liaise with the duty AP (consistency) or Team Manager.

• To demonstrate clear knowledge and understanding of Corporate and Customer Care issues when practicing good customer relations.

• To have knowledge of the role of social workers and an understanding of why children and families are assessed or request assistance from the department.

• To consider the wider personal, family and environmental context of the presenting problem and in consultation with social workers, determine the appropriate action, for example, referral to a duty social worker or to another service provider. Provide information to families/carers and professionals about relevant resources in the community.

• To reply to requests for information according to agreed timescales and to a high standard (referring more complex queries to the AP or TM). This includes reviewing paper files, IT databases and providing detailed chronologies. These chronologies will be used as part of court reports, home office decisions, and other local authorities completing child protection investigations, Ofsted and assessments from other partner agencies.

• To maintain accurate and relevant computerised records, and undertake administrative duties including demographic enquiries, correspondence and maintenance of office systems.

• To support the organisation of meetings as required by the MASH including room booking where required.

• To book interpretation and translation services as requested (including liaising with provider).

• To develop and maintain strong relationships with partner agencies, such as Health, Education, Police, Housing and others, to ensure an effective resource for the provision of information for the Department and service users.

• To work as part of a multi-agency team and promote an integrated approach to the provision of information and signposting to the correct services.

• To photocopy, scan, collate, print and distribute documents or materials as required. This includes outcome letters to referrers and parents.

• To provide basic and more complex project management support as requested.

• To ensure that highly sensitive and confidential information is dealt with appropriately and the services are delivered in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018.

• To work flexibly to provide cover for colleagues as required.