Contextual Safeguarding has been developed at the University of Bedfordshire over the past six years to inform policy and practice approaches to safeguarding adolescents. Initially emerging from a three-year review of operational responses to peer-on-peer abuse, Contextual Safeguarding provides a framework to advance child protection and safeguarding responses to a range of extra-familial risks that compromise the safety and welfare of young people.
This helpful briefing collates and summarises learning from multiple publications on the subject of Contextual Safeguarding with particular reference to the:
- International evidence on why context is important to adolescent welfare
- Contextual Safeguarding framework with specific reference to how contexts relate to each other and inform young people’s behaviours
- Contextual Safeguarding system and the role of contextual interventions
- Implications of Contextual Safeguarding for child protection systems and practices
Recommended reading – University of Bedfordshire: Contextual Safeguarding Briefing
Piece by Carlene Firmin (University of Bedfordshire): Contextual Safeguarding An overview of the operational, strategic and conceptual framework by Carlene Firmin November 2017
Members of the Contextual Safeguarding Network can access a great new podcast in conversation with Dez Holmes (Research in Practice). Dez speaks about the need for developmental considerations for safeguarding adolescents – recommended listening.
Apply to join: Contextual Safeguarding Network
Other relevant reading and resources
Guardian piece: ‘Care professionals haven’t been in the shoes of exploited children’
Department for Education: Aycliffe CSE innovation project Evaluation report July 2016
Research in Practice piece: Working Effectively to Address Child Sexual Exploitation: Evidence Scope (2017)
Relevant learning events: Complex safeguarding and responding to different forms of exploitation – Research in Practice
niromp.org 