Innovating in the Time of Covid: Adapting Services for Young People Experiencing Extra‐Familial Risks and Harms

This paper explores how seven organisations from the children's social care sector in England adapted their service during the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions to better meet the needs of young people experiencing extra-familial risks and harms. Particularly, it focuses on these organisations' experience of attempting to transform services in a unique crisis context and considers what insights this situated study offers into the processes of innovation and practice improvement in the sector. Twelve respondents from these seven organisations participated in semi-structured interviews, which were analysed both narratively and thematically. Six of these participants were interviewed longitudinally over 6 months, enabling consideration of barriers encountered within their innovation journeys and the factors and conditions that facilitated the process. From these, three longitudinal narrative accounts were selected, highlighting themes emblematic of the overall dataset. The findings indicate that, unencumbered by the usual constraints of bureaucracy, organisations could adapt service provision with unprecedented speed, to respond in more youth-centred and welfare-oriented ways to young people's needs. Rapid cycles of iterative development in response to young people's feedback suggested a surprising potential for agility and responsivity in the children's services sector, raising questions about whether and how this might be mobilised outside of crisis conditions

Safeguarding Young People Beyond the Family Home

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. During adolescence, young people are exposed to a range of risks beyond their family homes including sexual and criminal exploitation, peer-on-peer abuse and gang-related violence. However, it has only been over the past two decades that the critical safeguarding implications of these harms have started to be recognised. Social care organisations are increasingly experimenting with new approaches but continue to experience challenges in supporting affected young people and their families. This book analyses the results of the first rapid evidence assessment of social care organisations’ responses to risks and harms outside the home across 10 countries. The authors highlight key areas for service development, give insights into how these risks and harms can be understood, and consider wider implications for policy and practice

Being heard: promoting children and young people’s involvement in participatory research on sexual violence: findings from an international scoping review

This report shares findings from an international scoping review conducted on the engagement of children and young people in participatory research on sexual violence. The report discusses a range of ethical and practical challenges of involving vulnerable children and young people in participatory research on sensitive issues and draws out key considerations for research practice

Safeguarding Young People Beyond the Family Home

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. During adolescence, young people are exposed to a range of risks beyond their family homes including sexual and criminal exploitation, peer-on-peer abuse and gang-related violence. However, it has only been over the past two decades that the critical safeguarding implications of these harms have started to be recognised. Social care organisations are increasingly experimenting with new approaches but continue to experience challenges in supporting affected young people and their families. This book analyses the results of the first rapid evidence assessment of social care organisations’ responses to risks and harms outside the home across 10 countries. The authors highlight key areas for service development, give insights into how these risks and harms can be understood, and consider wider implications for policy and practice

‘Relocating Adolescents’: The Costs of Out-of-Area Placements as a Response to Extra-Familial Risk/Harm

In the UK, there has been increased awareness of the harm adolescents face beyond their families. There is no national strategy for safeguarding adolescents. One intervention that comes with particularly high costs is relocation placements by children’s social care that move adolescents some distance from their communities. This research aims to contribute to the evidence about the relocation of adolescents exposed to, or at risk of extra-familial risk/harm. The research reported here sought to explore the costs associated with relocation placements. Data were gathered about the time taken to carry out the social work processes associated with relocation placements and about the costs associated with the placements. Two interviews and six focus groups were conducted with twenty-four participants. The findings highlight that each adolescent had a unique context, which was influenced by the type of extra-familial risk/harm. The service response therefore needed to be tailored, and unit costs are presented as a range from £22,000 to £170,000 for six months. There is substantial variability in the use and costs of relocation placements. The findings offer evidence for earlier intervention to avoid extra-familial risk/harm. The financial costs of relocation placements need to be considered within the context of the well-being of adolescents

‘It's like a much deeper understanding and you kind of believe them more …’ : The value of peer support for young people affected by sexual violence

Research demonstrates that relationships are key when working to support young people affected by sexual violence. Within these relationships, young people show a preference for non-judgemental, flexible, consistent and informal support. Peer support – defined here as support provided by those with similar experiences – is however an uncharted area for assisting young people affected by sexual violence. This paper draws on interviews with 25 respondents with knowledge and experience of setting up, supervising and/or participating in peer support initiatives for young people impacted by different forms of sexual violence in Europe and North America. The article highlights how one form of peer support, peer or ‘survivor’ mentoring, can provide emotional and social support; create space for ‘normality’; and give choices to young people. It outlines three unique dimensions to the support provided by peers more generally: relatability, credibility and translatability. The discussion reflects on what this might mean for traditional support provided by professionals. It also draws attention to the significance of recognising both the variety of experience and identity of young survivors of sexual trauma and the impact this may have on promoting relatability within relationships

Serious Case Reviews and Extra-Familial Harm: Missed and Emerging Opportunities to Develop Contextual Practices

The interpersonal harms that young people experience beyond their families have been documented internationally as have the challenges of protecting those effected using existing child welfare systems. Concern about this in the UK has led to development of ‘contextual’ child protection systems—capable of targeting the peer group, school and community contexts where extra-familial harm (EFH) occurs. This study examined whether reviews of serious incidents (serious case reviews (SCRs)) provide an evidence-base for understanding the contextual dynamics of EFH and/or developing contextual responses. SCRs (n = 49) from 2010–2020, where adolescents were harmed in extra-familial contexts, were analysed over two stages. Stage 1 involved thematic coding under four research questions. Using a framework analysis, Stage 1 themes were grouped around according to: contexts associated with EFH; the nature of social work responses and case review recommendations. Findings suggest that SCRs provide a limited account of the contextual dynamics of EFH. Whilst reviews illustrate that social work responses rarely address the contextual dynamics of EFH, many reviewers have neglected to focus on this shortfall when recommending service improvements. For case reviews to inform contextual child protection systems, information provided to review authors and the design of review requires adaptation

‘Relocating’ Adolescents from Risk beyond the Home: What Do We Learn When We Ask about Safety?

There is an absence of evidence supporting the use of ‘out-of-area placements’ to address risks adolescents face beyond the home. Approximately one in ten adolescents in England and Wales are ‘relocated’ from their hometowns by children’s social care teams due to these risks. Initial findings from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in England situate these relocations as a ‘failure’ to safeguard teenagers. Using participatory approaches to research design and data collection, this article asks what do we learn about the impact of relocations when we ask about safety? Activity-based, qualitative interviews were conducted with young people (n = 5), parents (n = 3) and professionals (n = 15) based in England and Scotland between 2020 and 2021, asking what worked and what didn’t when a relocation was chosen, and what was the perceived impact on safety. Interview data were thematically analysed in collaboration with young people and a Research Advisory Group of professionals, all with expertise in the area. Data indicated a tension between what professionals, and then parents and young people, thought was significant when planning relocations and an ambivalence about the impact of relocations. Considerations for safety planning are suggested to support young people’s holistic safety needs

‘Keeping the informal safe’: Strategies for developing peer support initiatives for young people who have experienced sexual violence

There is increasing recognition of the value of trauma-informed approaches when working with young people affected by sexual violence. Peer support is a key principle of a trauma-informed approach; however, there are limited examples of peer support programmes for this group. This paper draws on interviews with 25 respondents with knowledge and experience of peer support initiatives with young people impacted by sexual violence. The article outlines their perspectives on how peer support initiatives – that may be viewed as more ‘risky’ than traditional casework – can be kept ‘safe’. Six strategies are identified together with implications for practice

Relationship‐based practice and contextual safeguarding: Approaches to working with young people experiencing extra‐familial risk and harm

This article explores the synergies between relationship-based practice and contextual safeguarding when working with young people experiencing extra-familial risk and harm (EFRH). The article draws on data from interviews, observations, policy reviews and case files from two sites in England who are testing contextual safeguarding approaches to EFRH, including a children and families social work department and a voluntary and community sector organisation. The findings evidence how relationship-based practice in contextual safeguarding facilitates practitioners' understanding of places and their peers. The discussion draws on the theory of social defences to evidence that despite willingness and commitment to relationship-based practice, without systemic and cultural organisational support to respond to EFRH, efforts to do so may undermine and cause harm to practitioners engaging in this work