Contextual safeguarding: Evidencing support and innovation for young people within a case management solution

However, recognition in the Department for Education’s publication Working Together to Safeguard Children¹ and the subsequent developing practice framework for Contextual Safeguarding led by University of Bedfordshire, has validated what many of my peers have been saying for a long time - this is not something that we as social workers alone can sort out.

It is about developing community-based interventions to address community problems and through those interventions, seeking to reduce the risk to young people.

Contextualised Safeguarding Scenarios

1995: I was working as a child and family social worker with a 14-year-old girl whose relationship with her mum had broken down and she was living in the local children’s home. The worries about her safety were due to her going missing late at night, running around Earl’s Court with a friend and being brought back home in the early hours of the morning in expensive cars.