As part of Bristol City Council’s (BCC) transformation of children’s services, the city has launched a new Safer Connections team to strengthen responses to Harm Outside the Home (HOtH). Central to this approach are Multi-Agency Child Exploitation (MACE) meetings, which bring together key partners from across the city to identify, assess, and respond to risks to children and young people.
MACE meetings operate at three levels to ensure both timely operational responses and strategic oversight:
- Daily and Weekly Intelligence Briefings – 0.5 hours daily plus a weekly briefing, chaired by the Early Intervention Team and Safer Connections, to share live intelligence and coordinate immediate action.
- Operational MACE – monthly full-day meetings chaired by the Head of Service for First Assessment (BCC) and an Inspector from Avon & Somerset Police, focusing on tracking children at risk and coordinating disruption activity.
- Strategic MACE – monthly 2-hour meetings chaired by the Director at BCC and a Superintendent/DCI from Avon & Somerset Police, providing citywide oversight, identifying trends and emerging threats, and ensuring joined-up governance.
“Tackling child exploitation and wider harm outside the home requires a truly joint approach. The new MACE structure gives us the ability to share intelligence quickly, agree coordinated action, and disrupt those who cause harm to children and young people. By working closely with our partners, we can ensure safeguarding is proactive, identifying risks early, reducing harm, and keeping children safe across the city.”
Through this structure, MACE enables coordinated activity across agencies, regular tracking of at-risk children, and system-wide learning to improve responses and reduce duplication, embedding multi-agency governance and oversight into everyday safeguarding practice.