What's MARAC /can they take child

[Andrepeat26]

Can anyone explain MARAC to me?

My understanding is it was for professionals to meet to discuss the safety of mum and child when there have Been domestic violence issues . And what safety plans to put in place. In this case its because the shitbag is being realised from prison. So I thought MARAC was a meeting to be sure of safety.

But people have started saying it's to discuss things behinde your back. And that we should get a solicitor . Incase try take children. I'm quite sure this is wrong . But its worried me a bit. So I just want to check.

Whoooaaa no.

they are probably getting it confused with a child protection conference

A marac is exactly what you said, a discussion to see how to move forward to ensure the woman (and especially dependants) are safe.

It becomes concerning when the victim down plays, denies the DV and or stays with the perp.

I thought that was the case . It just shit me up a bit so I wanted to check. There have been like 3 ish of them every tome he gets let out of hospital and nothing bad has ever happend regarding MARAC. So I thought that was the case . But only takes one person to say different and start questioning things.

Thank you so much for confirming for me

MARACs discuss people who are at risk of domestic violence - doesn't have to be children involved.

It's a collection of different professionals - housing, health, probation, police, children and adults social care, women's aid etc.
They share what they know about the situation, and agree if there are any further steps that can be taken to make sure the individual or family are safe - eg is there a police flag on the address, so that if you needed to call you'd be prioritised.

They don't have any power to remove your children.
If they felt you weren't taking reasonable steps to keep your children safe - eg if you were offering your address upon release from prison - it could result in an assessment from social care and further intervention from them. They won't see you accepting support from agencies at MARAC as a bad thing in any way.

Try not to worry OP - their primary aim is to help you keep yourself and your children safe.

There may be some confusion between MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference) and MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub)?

I'd suspect that the people scaring you are ones who are actually trying to find ways to resume their relationships with their abusers (or are relatives of the abuser) without alerting social services to the additional risk they are going to expose their children to.

MARAC is essentially (and yes, I'm being very blunt about it) 'How likely is it that she - and maybe the children - is going to be murdered by him?'.

Actually that could make sense MARAC vs MASH people could get confused

Thank you. That's what I thought. I probably should not over think what others say.

Even if you were referred to MASH it's a long way from that to removing children and that's very rare so don't panic and don't listen to ignorant people

I attend MARAC on behalf of my organisation (Adult Social Care)

It's what it says on the tin - a multi agency risk assessment conference. Each agency listens to what the concerns about risk are, shares any information or concerns they also have and then goes back to their own organisation with a plan of what actions they might need to complete as an organisation to help keep the person safe.

MARAC has no power to do anything - it's an information sharing arrangement.

@SafeguardingSocialWorker thank you for that. Just a quick question I get its a meeting for professionals. But why is the client not allowed to the meeting if its them that's being spoken about?

Yes . Not really worried about mash side of things. Can just see how the MARAC/MASH may infuse some people

The client isn't allowed largely because of the confidential info discussed, eg you don't have a right to know every probation detail about your abuser just the actions needed for you to be safe, and the sheer number of cases. A MARAC could easily discuss 30 separate cases in one (looong) meeting so the logistics of getting all those clients in/out at their time would obviously be a nightmare. Any decent worker involved though should be feeding back the relevant info to you.

Thank you for explaining

Yep this basically.

its a weekly meeting and lots of people will be discussed not just your situation.

we spend 5 minutes discussing some people and 30 -45 mins discussing others depending on the complexity, the amount of agencies involved and the level of risk. Information confidential to the abuser and other people involved might also need to be shared if it's relevant.

It would be impossible to guess when exactly your case would come up and the purpose of MARAC is solely to make sure all the professionals are aware of the situation and can take appropriate action within their agency if indicated.

so for adult social care, if the information shared at MARAC suggested that it may be beneficial if we could offer you a care act assessment to help you stay safe, or that we may have a statutory duty to start a s.42 safeguarding vulnerable adults enquiry then we would take an action from MARAC that we would approach you to offer this/ discuss this with you.

similarly if children's services heard information at MARAC that led them to believe a child was at risk they would then follow their usual processes to start gathering information/make contact with the family to complete assessments.

MARAC doesn't tell each organisation what to do, it just provides a platform to share the information to assist the individual agencies attending to decide if they have a duty to offer services/ respond.

Thank you.

Could social services involvement. For 3 years cause a concern.

Its all to do with domestic violence. That lead to a CP plan. She then had contact with him whilst in prison when he first went in so at the beginning of all the shit. That lead to PLO. Heavy involvement with social services, after some time PLO removed. CP plan on place . Now down to CIN .

But its been roughly 3 years . I know that he makes lots of threats within prison when seeing probation officer/ other professionals. Then he says things like he knows where DD lives . Makes threats etc . He does not know where she lives he plays mind games. Then sits back. That then raises concerns within professionals then Dd gets the back lash.

At the very start of all this he was meant to do 9 months reduced to 4. But because he keeps breaking orders etc . He gos back and in all he's done almost 3 years . When he has bern let out which i think is 3 times? He's been out 2-4 weeks before going back .

3 years under social services feels like such a worry . But coukd this be normal due to the threat he causes ? More recently he's made threats to professionals and they had to stop working with him.

MARAC is a meeting between health professionals, social services and police. It happens after a case of serious domestic abuse.

From experience, it's usually social services on its own that decides whether or not to take parents to court to try and take the children.

I knew of a MARAC meeting that involved domestic abuse (husband on wife) with background of a child related sex offence on the dad side. All that was done was discussing the facts. Nothing else happened.

It's highly likely nothing will change for you as a result from the MARAC.

It 'the State's' way of providing a check for themselves that every agency that should be doing something, is.

When you are discussed at MARAC it sounds like the agencies will hear the information that you have done everything within your power to keep yourself and your daughter safe when he is realised from prison.

They may suggest the police can put an alert flag on your property so if there are any silent calls etc they know to attend. They may suggest some actions for probation to alert children's services if your ex makes any comments about trying to contact your daughter. If you have an IDVA their representative may also be given some general actions around checking in with you to see how you are feeling about things and offering support if he is due for release.

Unless there is anything else you will probably be in the '5 minute' discussion category as the risks to you both sound fairly well managed.