Implementing the contextual safeguarding approach: a study in one local authority
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCS-10-2021-0043 |
| Published date | 14 July 2022 |
| Date | 14 July 2022 |
| Pages | 221-236 |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Vulnerable groups,Children's services,Sociology,Sociology of the family,Children/youth,Parents,Education,Early childhood education,Home culture,Social/physical development |
| Author | Nathaniel Wilson,Clive Diaz,Juan Usubillaga |
Implementing the contextual safeguarding
approach: a study in one local authority
Nathaniel Wilson, Clive Diaz and Juan Usubillaga
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to explore how local authoritychild and family practitioners understood and
implement the contextual safeguarding approach focusing, in particular, on what practitioners felt
supportedand hindered implementation.
Design/methodology/approach –This qualitative study drew upon semi-structured interviews and
focus groups to explorethe perspectives of 18 frontline workers,team managers and senior managers in
a London authority.The transcribed accounts were analysedusing thematic analysis.
Findings –Participants reported that the strain on services because of sustained budget cuts was
overwhelming, even without the additional challenge of implementing this new approach. Further
challenges in relation to implementation included parental-capacity focused legislation and conflicting
perspectives betweenstakeholders. This study recommends that properfunding must be committed to
safeguarding partnerships if contextual safeguarding is to be successfully implemented. Additionally,
child protection practitionersshould aim to develop a collaborative and child-welfarefocused network of
communityagencies and organisations if youngpeople are to be safeguarded in their communities.
Research limitations/implications –As the sample requiredspecialist knowledge to participate in this
study, thisstudy cannot claim that the findings are generalisableto all social workers.
Originality/value –To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first external evaluation of the
implementation of the contextual safeguarding approach in a local authority independent of the
contextualsafeguarding team at the Universityof Bedfordshire since the evaluation ofHackney.
Keywords Contextual safeguarding, Safeguarding, Adolescence, Youth, Exploitation, Environmental risk,
Implementation
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In recent years, there has been greater public awareness in the UK of the harm that some
young people can encounter in the community. Issues such as knife crime, gang-related
violence and child sexual and criminal exploitation have featured in several recent
documentaries, newspaper and online articles and podcasts. Since 2013, the number of
violent crimes and offences committed using sharp instruments has increased continually,
with most cases occurring among youngpeople and in London (Haylock et al.,2020).
In the UK, there have been long standing concerns that child protection agencies are not
effective at keeping children safe from risks they face outside of their family homes (Firmin,
2017). Under section 47 of the ChildrenAct 1989, local authorities have a duty to investigate
where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a child that lives or is found in the area,
may be suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm. Dr Carlene Firmin and colleagues at
the University of Bedfordshire developed a critique of local authorities’ traditional child
protection responses to harm which occurs outside of the family home (for a detailed
account of their work, please see: Firmin et al.,2016). Firmin (2017) suggests that
safeguarding partnerships are designed only to address problematic parenting and
consistently fail to address the factorsand contexts outside of the family which can promote
Nathaniel Wilson is based
at the Department of
Children’s Services, Cardiff
County Council, Cardiff,
UK. Clive Diaz and
Juan Usubillaga are both
based at the School of
Social Sciences, Cardiff
University, Cardiff, UK.
Received 20 October 2021
Revised 28 January 2022
7 June 2022
Accepted 17 June 2022
The authors are grateful to the
practitioners, managers and
senior managers who took part
in this study.
Funding: The project was
conducted at the Children’s
Social Care Research and
Development Centre
(CASCADE), Cardiff University,
Cardiff, South Glamorgan,
Wales. The CASCADE
partnership receives
infrastructure funding from
Health and Care Research
Wales.
DOI 10.1108/JCS-10-2021-0043 VOL. 17 NO. 3 2022, pp. 221-236, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-6660 jJOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S SERVICES jPAGE 221
and perpetuate harm. The Contextual Safeguarding (CS) approach was therefore designed
to support safeguarding partnerships to improve their ability to safeguard young people
from the harm they encounter in the community. This paper explores how a local authority
implemented a Contextual Safeguarding approach to social work practice with young
people at risk of extra-familial harm.
Implementing the contextual safeguarding approach
The CS framework was developed to advance child protection and safeguarding responses
to the significant harm that some youngpeople experience in extra-familial contexts (Firmin,
2017). It comprises four key domains: target, legislative framework, partnerships and
measuring outcomes:
䊏Target: safeguarding partnerships should seek to identify, assess and intervene within
the social conditions of abuse.
䊏Legislative framework: safeguarding partnerships should incorporate extra-familial
contexts into child protection frameworks.
䊏Partnerships: the CS approach recognises that parents and carers have limited scope
to influence the extra-familial contexts in which young people are vulnerable and
therefore recommends that safeguarding partnerships need to develop effective
partnerships with agents in the local community that do have influence over the
contexts where young people are vulnerable, such as park wardens, transport
providers and shop owners.
䊏Measuring outcomes: the impact of CS should be measured by assessing the change
to the context in which harm was taking place (Firmin, 2017).
As an approach, CS aims to offer a route whereby local authorities can achieve some
consistency between practitioners. Local Authorities seeking to effectively embed a
practice framework into an organisation’s culture and practice should ensure that the
framework has “buy in” from all necessary partners, that it is seen as a long-term change,
that the framework is built on clear theoretical knowledge and that it invests sufficient
resources to enable repeated training and supervision for staff (Cabassa, 2016;Baginsky
et al.,2020
). To help with this, the CS programme at the University of Bedfordshire has
developed guidance and tools to support practitioners to better identify, assess and
intervene in contexts outside of the family. This includes the neighbourhood assessment
framework, developed by Firmin et al. (2018) to support practitioners when examining how
the interplay between a peer group and a certain environment may promote harmful social
norms. Additionally, Sloane et al. (2019) provide guidance to support multi-agency
professionals and stakeholders to work together to assess and map-out peer groups, the
relationship between them and the context in which the harm takes place and to consider
interventions which couldeffectively disrupt this harm.
To investigate how the CS approach was implemented in the Local Authority, it is important
to consider some of the theory relating to implementation science. The field studies the
factors, processes and strategies, which influence the uptake and use of interventions in
practice settings; how interventions interact with particular settings (Proctor, 2012). Authors
in the field consider implementation research to be as important as research on evidence-
based practice, because it goes beyond (and builds on) efforts to diffuse and disseminate
innovations to improve the uptakeand sustainability of an intervention (Proctor et al., 2011).
Research by Lefevre et al. (2020) is particularly relevant for this study. They studied the
implementation of the Contextual Safeguarding approach in Hackney and found that,
although contextual safeguarding theory is a workable framework for systems to address
extra-familial harm, there are challenges in its implementation. These include significant
PAGE 222 jJOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S SERVICES jVOL. 17 NO. 3 2022
To continue reading
Request your trial