Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- List of abbreviations
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- 1 Introduction: Contextual Safeguarding but not as you know it
- PART I Domain 1: The target of the system
- PART II Domain 2: The legislative basis of the system
- PART III Domain 3: The partnerships that characterise the system
- PART IV Domain 4: The outcomes the system produces and measures
- References
- Index
1 - Introduction: Contextual Safeguarding but not as you know it
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 January 2024
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- List of abbreviations
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- 1 Introduction: Contextual Safeguarding but not as you know it
- PART I Domain 1: The target of the system
- PART II Domain 2: The legislative basis of the system
- PART III Domain 3: The partnerships that characterise the system
- PART IV Domain 4: The outcomes the system produces and measures
- References
- Index
Summary
Some might think of it as a ‘buzzword’. Others consider it a term to describe what they have known for some time. While some practitioners, policy makers and academics see it as a term that has revolutionised child protection responses to young people who come to harm beyond their front doors. Whichever way you describe it, one thing is true: the term ‘Contextual Safeguarding’ (CS) has become part of the child protection lexicon in the UK:
‘There needs to be a shift towards a model of Contextual Safeguarding where the risks are identified in different areas of the child's life and there's a coherent multi-agency response.’ (Parent participant in study on social care responses to exploitation by PACE, 2020)
It is not enough to work with individuals when a whole peer group is participating in harmful behaviour. Contextual safeguarding promotes awareness of vulnerability in the context … where adolescents spend their time, for example online, in parks or at school. (Triennial review of Serious Case Reviews, Brandon et al, 2020: 113)
It still strikes us as strange when we hear people reference or use ‘Contextual Safeguarding’, particularly when it appears in job titles. Like it's always been around. As if it is established to a point where everyone knows what it means, in theory and in practice. And to an extent, these quotes suggest that some people have ‘got it’. They have understood the essence of the idea, what those of us who work with it are trying to achieve and the potential that is yet to be realised. So too do many practitioners and young people who have engaged with our work in recent years:
‘The kids know what is safe these days and where they feel unsafe. So if adults listen, they can do something about unsafe places because they have the power to do that and to make things happen. Kids can't make the changes but know where is bad.’
(Young person, Scale-Up Project)‘Because the ripple effect will work out. So if we deal with that issue as a community, with services, bang smack in the middle, the positive ripples will go all the way to the edge to where all of the young people and elderly members of the family and all the individual hub families [are] on the outside. … So that's why I think it could be so powerful.’
(Family group conferencing coordinator, Scale-Up Project)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Contextual SafeguardingThe Next Chapter, pp. 1 - 14Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2023