ABSTRACT
This chapter examines more local and sometimes individual attempts at bringing services together, including overseas examples, in order to learn from them and to define some principles of successful integration. There will also be a consideration of how integration has been played out in some other countries. Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH) have now been developed in a number of parts of England and take as their starting point the co-location of staff, from a wide variety of professional backgrounds, to provide an integrated approach to child protection. In Greater Manchester a number of key health outcomes were worse than in some other areas of the United Kingdom, with too little overall coordination of remedies. It is not surprising that the calls for greater integration of social services are also mirrored in health. The distinction between varying types of integration and their key principles should serve people well as turn to what an integrated child care system might truly mean.
