In this blog post Jo Perrin, Safeguarding Adviser at Services For Education will be looking at safeguarding in our every day lives.

For years in the world of safeguarding we have understood what risks, signs and symptoms to look out for which might indicate a child is at risk of significant harm. We know that, despite high-profile media reports of strangers harming and abusing children, the main risks to children are often the familiar, the ordinary, the “every day” situations. This means our legal processes and our practices have, to a large degree, developed to focus on risks to children in their own homes – where parental figures may have significantly harmed a child or somehow colluded in that harm. None of this is wrong and it has protected generations of children.

However, none of us live our lives in a bubble. We all encounter a wide variety of people and situations in our every day lives. Even during the strictest periods of the Covid-19 lockdown access to the internet, via mobile phones in many cases, meant that all of us had access to maintaining existing relationships and developing new ones.

Since the end of lockdown restrictions many people have enjoyed going back to their previous social freedoms. Whilst this is joyous, it can also be risky. We all need to get to grips with the concept of “Contextual Safeguarding” to be alert to potential harm to children in all aspects of their lives.

Developed by Dr Carlene Firmin and her team at the University of Bedfordshire with the name used since around 2015, this term is now widely understood and the website contextualsafeguarding.org.uk is a great resource for all those who work with children and young people. The team identified that risks to children existed in peer relationships, schools and wider neighbourhoods, yet safeguarding assessments and interventions targeted individuals and families affected by those other contexts. Contextual safeguarding looks at how these wider contexts in a child’s life influence young people’s decision making and actions and ultimately how their safety may be impacted by the actions of others in these settings. Only by understanding all the risk areas in a child’s life can we understand the actual lived experience of the child and their full vulnerabilities.

Contextual Safeguarding as a term was first introduced into Keeping Children Safe in Education and Working Together to Safeguard Children in 2018. It is heavily linked to the increased understanding about peer-on-peer abuse and the wide-ranging concept of Child Criminal Exploitation developed from around this time. It is an approach to understanding and responding to young people’s experiences of significant harm beyond their families. Fast forward to today and many recent high-profile situations have a contextual safeguarding element.

Take for example the website “Everyone’s Invited” which looked at allegations of sexual abuse in education settings – this, and wider work on sexual violence and sexual harassment, is a contextual safeguarding issue, but it is also an education setting issue.

So Contextual Safeguarding is our concern in education too – it is not just something that happens “out there on the streets”. Equally social media means that safeguarding incidents that happen in the local community are often recorded and broadcast and therefore issues are brought into our schools. Children missing from education who are known or suspected to be involved with local gang culture and risks of knife-crime or County Lines activity are contextual safeguarding situations too. We need to know the risk areas in our locality – have we, for example, done a hotspot mapping exercise of our school premises but also of the local streets, to identify “risky” areas (for example outside local fast food restaurants or in a local car-park in the evening)? Do we work with other local schools and youth clubs and the local safer community police officers?

Once we can identify the risky contexts we can then use our RSHE/PSHE lessons or assemblies to educate and support the children in our care so they can not only identify risk, but also be taught to proactively seek support for situations that do not feel safe, by signposting to other agencies or through your own safeguarding systems.

As part of our SFE safeguarding subscription, we have produced a new training webinar for you to use with your staff to refresh their understanding of this crucial area of safeguarding and look at how to best support and signpost to your students.

Jo Perrin - Adviser, Services For Education

Jo Perrin is a seasoned Education Adviser with a strong background in safeguarding. She has held key roles as a Designated Safeguarding Lead and pastoral lead in the education sector. Facilitating training to enhance the knowledge and skills of professionals working directly with children and young people is her passion.

With a wealth of experience in teaching PSHE and expertise in childhood trauma from her time as a foster carer, Jo is dedicated to supporting organisations that work with children and vulnerable adults on safeguarding issues. She is actively involved in professional safeguarding groups in the West Midlands and is currently collaborating on a research project with colleagues from the University of Birmingham and the NHS focusing on FGM awareness within communities. Jo’s has worked as a West Midlands' Adviser for national PSHE resources, presented at the Sex Education Forum National Members' Event and authored an advertorial for PSM magazine and an article for SEND magazine.

Jo's expertise extends to training on topics such as Safer Recruitment and Mental Health at Work. She is also a facilitator for the nationally recognised NPQSL qualification, supporting senior leaders in education. Her contributions to publications and development of resources for RSE provision have been well-received by schools nationally and internationally.

With her extensive experience and dedication to professional development, Jo Perrin is a highly respected figure in the field of education. Her guidance on safeguarding, mental health awareness, personal development, and relationships education is highly valued within the industry.