Developing Contextual Safeguarding as a local system
This collection of video resources shares the developing findings of the Innovate Project, about how social care and other safeguarding agencies are innovating to address extra-familial risk and harm.
The Innovate Project is a four-year UK study funded by the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) which is exploring how social care and other safeguarding agencies are innovating to address harms that young people may encounter and experience beyond the family home (including online). Find out more about the Contextual Safeguarding strand of the Project.
In these video clips, Professor Michelle Lefevre and Dr. Jenny Lloyd share findings from the Innovate Project about tailoring Contextual Safeguarding to meet local conditions. They discuss ethical, practical and theoretical challenges, and share learning from organisations that are developing Contextual Safeguarding to support young people experiencing extra-familial harm.
Introduction to systems level thinking about Contextual Safeguarding
Jenny Lloyd shares core features of a Contextual Safeguarding framework for organisations, and the values that underpins them. She talks about work at two levels: bringing context into individual child and family social work and working within a context itself.
(Length: 7 minutes)
Leaning from how Contextual Safeguarding was developed in Hackney
Michelle Lefevre explores how Contextual Safeguarding was developed in Hackney, and how this could inform the development of Contextual Safeguarding in other organisations. This includes:
- A framework for the theory of change for Contextual Safeguarding in Hackney.
- The methods used to evaluate the process and outcomes of change, including some of the challenges of evaluation.
- The stages of innovation in Hackney, and the importance of reflexive loops of review and redesign.
(Length: 22 minutes)
Read the 2023 evaluation report of the independent evaluation of the Hackney pilot of Contextual Safeguarding, led by Michelle Lefevre.
What have the Innovate Project learnt about Contextual Safeguarding?
Jenny Lloyd discusses why and how organisations are developing Contextual Safeguarding responses to young people experiencing extra-familial harm.
(Length: 12 minutes)
Developing Contextual Safeguarding: Working with places and providing a welfare response
Jenny Lloyd about two elements of some of the newest findings coming out of Contextual Safeguarding:
- Taking an ecological approach and working ‘with places’ rather than ‘in places’.
- Developing a framework for providing a welfare response to young people experiencing extra-familial harm.
(Length: 9 minutes)
Reflective questions
- How could you use the theory of change for Contextual Safeguarding in Hackney (p. 23) to reflect on the development of Contextual Safeguarding in your own context?
- How could you use the conditions for welfare framework to promote the conditions for welfare for young people experiencing extra-familial harm?
- The findings highlight the importance of creativity, confidence and the ability to hold risk. How could you model this in your practice? How could you support others to hold this position?
Resources that are mentioned in these videos
- Contextual Safeguarding Toolkit.
- An article on ethical innovation.
- A DIY workshop to support Contextual Safeguarding work within a multi-agency setting.
About the presenters
Michelle Lefevre is Professor of Social Work at the University of Sussex and Director of CIRCY – the Centre for Innovation and Research in Childhood and Youth. Her research primarily focuses on professional practice with children, young people and families where there are issues of risk and harm, and it is rooted in her background as a child protection social worker and arts psychotherapist.
Dr. Jenny Lloyd is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at Durham University. She is a social and cultural geographer working in the area of peer-on-peer abuse and extra-familial harm in adolescence. Prior to joining Durham she worked at Bedfordshire University in the Safer Young Lives Research Centre.
Professional Standards
PCF - Contexts and organisations | Professional leadership
