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Transitional Safeguarding

Updated: Apr 29

"We need to make sure that safeguarding adolescents and young adults runs fluidly across developmental stages. It needs to build on the best available evidence, it needs to learn from both children's and adult safeguarding practice and which prepares young people for their adult lives."

Taken from Bridging the Gap. To read the full report click on the link.





What is transitional safeguarding?

Transitional safeguarding is not a prescribed model of work, it depends on local circumstances. What it does, is allow the local areas to work flexibly and creatively. What we are trying to do is to seek to prevent harm for these young people, protect them where harm is occurring and to also recognise and respond in ways that can help these young people recover from the impact of harm. It is a multi-agency issue, and is completely dependent on the collaboration and connection between services and with communities. With this in mind it is useful to take on board that transitional safeguarding works with other approaches that are being used, such as contextual safeguarding. Contextual Safeguarding is a term devised by Dr Carlene Firmin. It is an approach that allows us to understand and respond to children’s experiences of significant harm beyond their family and home. To understand more on contextual safeguarding, you can visit the contextual safeguarding network https://contextualsafeguarding.org.uk/


Why do we need a transitional safeguarding approach?

What we need to remember is that adolescents have different safeguarding needs to those of a younger age. Not only are they exposed to harm and risks from within the family home (inter familial harm) but they are more at risk from factors from outside of the family home (extra familial harm).

Why is this?

As children grow, they learn and get influenced by the people and world around them. This broadens as they get older, and so does the area they get influenced from. This results in these influences having a greater impact on them.


We are influenced first by our family home and then peer groups, school and neighbourhood. When we get older we also have influences from the online world. Contextual safeguarding, extra familial harm, is therefore about considering an individual or cohort of young people and identifying who may be influencing them and the degree of that influence.


We need to remember that young people are part of a network of peers and neighbourhoods. It is important that when we consider some of the issues affecting our young people, we also consider the context in where these influences are coming from and that we understand the impact that they have. We also need to consider not only the physical, real world, influences, but the wider influences found within social media and the important messages that they impart!


We know that some adolescents who have suffered adversity at an early age are particularly vulnerable to harm which can continue into adulthood. With the rise of domestic abuse, sexual and criminal exploitation, trafficking, peer on peer abuse and violent crime more children are suffering trauma, resulting in a more complex transition from childhood to adulthood.


We also have to consider that the safeguarding systems for children and adults are very different and built on different legislation and procedural frameworks. The differences between these systems causes issues and allows adolescents to 'fall through the gaps' as neither children's safeguarding or adult safeguarding are designed with adolescents in mind, not taking into consideration their unique developmental or behavioural needs. We also must consider that becoming an adult does not automatically happen overnight when they turn 18! It is a gradual process that continues well in to your early twenties!


How can we move toward a transitional safeguarding approach?

We need to remember that it is a multi-agency approach and it involves all areas within a local authority to be involved and invested in it. In order to be successful in this we need to make sure that we keep the young person at the centre of all the decision making that goes on. We need to think about the transitions as early as possible in order to lessen the impact of this change on the young person and their family, and to plan this with them. We need to make sure we continue to communicate with the young person and their family and to listen to them about what they want.


What we need to do is work with these young people and to try and focus on their strenghts, in order to boost their self esteem and to build and enhance resilience in them. This allows them to be more able to face adversities, to manage the risks they face and to learn from their mistakes.


To read more about safeguarding click on the related posts below

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