My new research finds that Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASHs) have driven a large rise in child protection investigation without making children safer — the answer is not more investigation, but responding to the social harms that put children at risk.

In the first national study of its kind, published open access in the British Journal of Social Work, Matt Jay, Simon Haworth and I linked Freedom of Information data from 130 English local authorities to national child protection statistics for 2010–2024. We found MASHs were associated with substantially more Section 47 investigation, but no better identification of children who needed Child Protection Plans and no reduction in serious harm or child deaths. Section 47 investigations have risen from around 85,000 in 2010 to more than 230,000 last year, while the proportion not leading to a plan has climbed from about one in two to nearly three in four. The families drawn in are overwhelmingly those living with poverty, poor housing, domestic abuse, disability without support and other social harms.

The answer is not more investigation. We need a fundamental change of direction — from organising child protection around predicting which families will harm their children, to using the combined knowledge and resources of agencies, families and communities to identify and reduce the social harms that make children less safe.

The goal should not be to investigate more efficiently, but to create the conditions in which children, families and communities can thrive — a direct challenge to the assumption behind the Government’s new Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams.

THE RESEARCH

BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK Do Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs improve child protection outcomes? Evidence from national administrative data Bilson, Jay & Haworth (2026). The peer-reviewed study, open access. FOI data from 130 English local authorities linked to national child protection statistics, 2010–2024. → Read the open-access paper     Plain-English summary: University of Lancashire news →

IN THE MEDIA

THE SUNDAY TIMES ‘It was like a witch hunt’: one innocent mother’s battle to keep her son The Sunday Times reports on the research and what rising numbers of child protection investigations mean for families. → Read at thetimes.com

COMMUNITY CARE MASHs associated with more child protection investigations but not better outcomes, study finds Community Care’s news coverage of the findings and their implications for the direction of child protection reform. → Read at communitycare.co.uk

MY ARTICLE FOR PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL WORK

PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL WORK (BASW) More investigation, but are children safer? What 15 years of MASHs tell us about child protection reform My article setting out the findings and what they mean for practice — including why we must shift from investigation to tackling social harm. → Read the article (PDF)