Beyond Risk in Adolescent Safeguarding - (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From sexual violence within friendship groups to being groomed in community contexts for transporting drugs, extra-familial risks and harms continue to challenge traditional safeguarding approaches in the UK. These issues inhibit young people's safety and well-being and reduce their opportunities to develop as they grow.

Offering a bold and hopeful alternative, this book draws on a major multi-disciplinary research project involving practitioners, parents and young people. It asks how we can move beyond thinking about safeguarding young people from risks and towards creating the systems and conditions in which all young people feel safe and are enabled to flourish.

Through critical perspectives spanning diverse cultural and geographical contexts, and using reflective questions to prompt deeper thinking, the book reimagines adolescent safeguarding, showing how institutions can shift from risk-centred responses to delivering what all young people need to live full lives and to be safe in the process.

About the Author

Carlene Firmin is Professor of Social Work and Director of the Global Centre for Contextual Safeguarding at Durham University. Since 2008, she has used research to reimagine protection for young people beyond their front doors.

Kristine Langhoff is Professor of Social Work at the University of Sussex. She is a trained social worker, and her practice and research have focussed on youth, safety and harm.

Delphine Peace is Research Associate in the Global Centre for Contextual Safeguarding at Durham University. Through action research, she works alongside young people and practitioners to transform child protection systems.

Michelle Lefevre is Professor of Social Work at the University of Sussex. She previously trained and practised as a social worker and arts psychotherapist, particularly in the context of safeguarding.

Nathalie Huegler is a researcher and facilitator working with Research in Practice at the University of East Anglia and the University of Sussex. She is also a trained social worker and social pedagogue.

Roni Eyal-Lubling is Research Fellow at the University of Sussex.