Contextual Safeguarding: Dr Carlene Firmin, University of Bedfordshire

As children move into adolescence they begin to spend more time away from parental supervision with their peers, at school, in community and online contexts.

In addition to many positive experiences, time spent in those spaces can increase their exposure to exploitation and other forms of abuse. Parents have little influence over these extra-familial contexts and traditional child protection systems have struggled to effectively respond to keep young people safe when using approaches that largely intervene with families affected by these issues – rather than tackling the contexts within which exploitation is occurring.

Carlene Firmin and colleagues have been developing the concept of Contextual Safeguarding to address this limitation in current approaches, and in 2018 the term ‘Contextual Safeguarding’ was introduced into Working Together to Safeguard Children. The Masterclass will enable managers and frontline practitioners to develop their understanding of Contextual Safeguarding and consider the implications for their practice. 

Biography

Dr Carlene Firmin MBE is a Principal Research Fellow at the University of Bedfordshire, where she leads their Contextual Safeguarding and peer-on-peer abuse research programmes. Carlene has spent the past 10 years researching young people’s experiences of community and group-based violence and advocated for comprehensive approaches that keep young people safe in public places, schools and peer groups. Carlene has worked with practitioners across the UK to co-create contextual interventions and develop contextual safeguarding systems within children’s social care.