Transitional Safeguarding: Knowledge Briefing for health professionals
Transitional Safeguarding is concerned with safeguarding young people as they transition from adolescence through into adulthood. It is not simply about safeguarding processes for those who are transitioning out of a service or between services, but rather is concerned with the transition to adulthood itself.
Achieving a Transitional Safeguarding approach requires whole systems change involving input from all agencies. Colleagues working in the health sector have a vital and particularly important role to play.
This briefing is aimed at health professionals involved in safeguarding children and young adults accessing healthcare – from practitioners and managers through to commissioners, strategic leaders, and others with accountability for safeguarding in health services. It will also be useful for those who don’t usually work with young people and/or young adults directly but provide care or support to their family members or carers.
The briefing draws on evidence from research and practice to describe:
- What Transitional Safeguarding is.
- Why Transitional Safeguarding is needed.
- How the adoption of Transitional Safeguarding across health is key to developing a truly person-centred approach to safeguarding young people into adulthood.
- What you can do – as a practitioner, supervising manager, senior manager, or board member – to help implement and embed Transitional Safeguarding.
Professional Standards
PQS:KSS - Confident analysis and decision-making | Abuse and neglect of children | Creating a context for excellent practice | Designing a system to support effective practice | Developing excellent practitioners | Support effective decision-making
PCF - Knowledge
Transitional safeguarding - adolescence to adulthood: Strategic Briefing (2018)
Diverse approaches are taken in safeguarding practice across Adults’ and Children’s Services. These differences present challenges for those seeking to effectively safeguard adolescents into adulthood and young people can feel ill-equipped for the change in practice culture they experience as they become adults.
Transitional Safeguarding from adolescence to adulthood
‘Transition’ is a process or period of changing from one state to another. Within some aspects of social care, in particular safeguarding, the notion of transition can imply a definitive ‘line in the sand’ where assumptions about capacity change overnight and eligibility for safeguarding support is very different depending which side of this line a person falls.
Reflective, relational leadership and management
Phil Winterbottom has captured the experience of Safeguarding Leads in health for whom hierarchical authority and positional power is not always available. Building on the experiences shared, the findings facilitated the development of a ‘Reflective Relational model for Leadership and Management’.