Contextual safeguarding
Children and adults can cause harm to other children, young people or particularly vulnerable adults. This harmful behaviour may be carried out by an individual, as a part of group or through a community, and can include gang, sex, drugs or weapons related violence. It can occur online, for example, when children and young people are coerced to share youth produced sexual imagery ('sexting').
Children who harm others are likely to have additional and complex needs and while they should be held responsible for their behaviour, they should also be safeguarded and their welfare should be promoted.
Further information, research and resources about related issues can be found below:
Contextual Safeguarding Network
Contextual Safeguarding Practitioners’ Network
SCSP fact sheets:
Children and young people who abuse substances
SCSP multi-agency policies & protocols:
Contextual Safeguarding
Team talk & other briefings:
Team Talk 7 - Contextual Safeguarding
One Minute Guide to Child Criminal Exploitation - South Yorkshire Partnership
Foldout Guide to Child Criminal Exploitation for Young People - South Yorkshire Partnership
Resources:
The Contextual Safeguarding Audit Toolkit
Contextual safeguarding: what is it and why does it matter? NSPCC
Training:
Training systems and structures, CSN
Seeing the full picture - a parent’s perspective on child exploitation:
This 9 minute film explores the experiences of two families whose children were sexually exploited. The film takes the perspective of the parents and their experiences of navigating the services on offer. Click here to view.
The parents involved in making the film also produced a document titled “Messages for Practitioners” which outlines their advice to all practitioners working with parents where sexual exploitation is an issue. These messages can be found below and are good practice for all practitioners.
“Listen to us
Communicate with us
Work with us”
Messages for practitioners from parents in CSE cases
Sheffield services:
The Amber Project: Sheffield Child Exploitation Service
Other relevant information can be found on this website here: Information and resources or in the index on the left side of this page.
If you are concerned about a child or young person, follow this link: Referring a safeguarding concern to Children’s Social Care