Contextual Safeguarding: In Practice

Contextual Safeguarding challenges the traditional view that safeguarding starts and ends within the home. Instead, it recognises that young people are shaped by (and vulnerable to) harm within a broader range of contexts. Rooted in real-world complexity, this training allows practitioners to explore and plan for the practical application of contextual safeguarding in their settings.

Schools, peer groups, neighbourhoods, community spaces, and online platforms all hold power: to protect, to expose, to connect, or to isolate. This framework invites us to look beyond the individual and family, and toward the social, structural, and environmental factors that shape safety.

Rooted in real-world complexity, Contextual Safeguarding offers a powerful lens for understanding risk, resilience, and responsibility in the everyday spaces where young people live their lives.

    • Describe the core principles of the Contextual Safeguarding framework and how it expands traditional safeguarding approaches.

    • Identify how extra-familial contexts (such as peer networks, schools, community spaces, and digital environments) interact with systemic inequalities, including racism, poverty, and marginalisation to influence risk and resilience in young people’s lives.

    • Explore practical, collaborative approaches to intervene in extra-familial contexts and co-create safer spaces with young people and communities.

  • This training is suitable for any teams working with children, such as Children's Services, Alternate Provision Staff, Youth Service, and third sector support services.

  • This training can be delivered either face to face or online.

    We also offer a two day, in-depth version of this training for managers and heads of service. Designed to increase and share knowledge of systems and practice. Delegates will leave with an action plan designed to implement and embed Contextual Safeguarding in their settings.