Contextual safeguarding is an approach to understanding and responding to young peoples experiences of significant harm beyond their families. It recognizes that as young people grow and develop, they are influenced by a whole range of environments and people outside of their family, such as school, college, local community, peer groups, or online. Children and young people may encounter risk in any of these environments, and every situation and context is different. The approach suggests that systems should target the contexts (social conditions) in which harm was occurring, rather than just focusing on individual young people and their families. The Contextual Safeguarding Framework is composed of four discrete domains, which suggest systems should:
- Target the contexts (social conditions) in which harm was occurring.
- Recognize the complexity of young peoples experiences.
- Address the influence of extra-familial factors on young peoples lives.
- Work in partnership with young people and their families.
Contextual safeguarding can help provide an approach to help keep children and young people safe, but its not any individual voluntary or community groups responsibility to tackle all of the problems in their local area or take unnecessary risks. The approach aims to offer a lens through which to understand and interpret behaviors and contexts in a more nuanced manner than that provided by the traditional child protection model.
