Contextual Safeguarding

Contextual safeguarding is an approach to understanding, and responding to, young people’s experiences of significant harm beyond their families. It recognises that the different relationships that young people form in their neighbourhoods, schools and online can feature violence and abuse. Parents and carers can have little influence over these contexts, and young people’s experiences of extra-familial abuse can undermine parent-child relationships.

Why contextual safeguarding is a priority

The Hull Safeguarding Children Partnership (HSCP) has a clear, strategic approach to contextual safeguarding, ensuring all key agencies and services work together effectively and respond in a coordinated manner to improve outcomes for all children and young people at risk of exploitation.

You can download our Contextual Safeguarding Strategy 2023 - 2026.

HSCP operates through a subgroup model made up of partners who develop policy, procedures and practice guidance for any person working with children, young people, and their families. There is an operational and strategic contextual safeguarding subgroup. Membership of both subgroups are wide and varied and include -

  • police
  • early help services
  • children’s social care
  • Hull city safe
  • leisure services and parks and open spaces
  • education settings
  • adult social care
  • representatives from the voluntary and community sector
  • neighbourhood and housing services

Along with many other agencies who provide support for children and young people impacted by contextual safeguarding.

The subgroups bring together the strategic commitment and multi-agency approach to develop an effective response to child exploitation and missing and vulnerable children. This includes our missing children protocol, and links to structures which address serious organised crime, led by Humberside Police.

The early identification, effective intervention and safeguarding of children and young people at risk of extra-familial abuse is at the centre of all the work of these groups and there is a commitment to learn from best practice and ensure collaboration with our geographical neighbours in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Contextual safeguarding conference

HSCP had the privilege to co-host the Contextual Safeguarding Conference on the 21st March 2023, alongside The East Riding Safeguarding Children Partnership (ERSCP) and the Office of Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC). The purpose of the conference was to reflect on our local approach to tackling child exploitation.

Contextual safeguarding continues to be a priority for HSCP to identify and reduce the number of children affected by exploitation. The focus is to ensure that there is a good understanding across the partnership of the complex and interrelated risks associated with child exploitation to enable support and intervention to take place at the earliest opportunity to reduce this.

You can download our Contextual safeguarding conference report

Contextual safeguarding resources

NSPCC provide information on contextual safeguarding.

Not In Our Community

Not In Our Community is developed with young people through social media and working with schools and youth groups. This website also contains information for parents, carers, and professionals.

Alfie’s story is a video produced by Not in our Community. This video is seen as one of the best in the UK exploring Child Criminal Exploitation and how organised crime groups or drug dealers groom children into criminality.

National Working Group

National Working Group has developed a Knowledge Hub and regularly collates and distributes resources that are relevant for specific sectors.

UK Safer Internet Centre

UK Safer Internet Centre has a number of informative resources for schools parents and young people around keeping safe online.

Contextual safeguarding Training

We have training courses around contextual safeguarding.