Contextual Safeguarding and Child Protection

Carlene Firmin MBE is a Principal Research Fellow at the University of Bedfordshire, where she leads their Contextual Safeguarding programme. Carlene has researched young people’s experiences of community and group-based violence since 2005, advocating for comprehensive approaches that keep young people safe in public places, schools, and peer groups.

• List of Tables. List of Figures. Acknowledgements. Part 1: The challenge we face and the lens through which we view it. 1: Opening. 2: Extra-Familial Abuse in Context. 3: A Flawed Equation = A Systemic Gap. 4: A Contextual Lens. Part 2: Establishing the building blocks for Change. 5: Crystallising Ideas: When tweaking is insufficient. 6: Articulating an ambition: A Contextual Safeguarding Framework. 7: Creating an authorising environment: Contextualising national policy frameworks. Part 3: Mapping and test running Contextual Safeguarding Systems. 8: The developers, their tools and their roadmap. 9: Bringing Context into Work with Children and Families: Level 1 Contextual Safeguarding. 10: Believing that change can happen: Level 2 Contextual Safeguarding. 11: Policy frameworks and strategic partnerships. 12: Values and Impact: Deepening the Contextual Safeguarding Framework. Part 4 Looking back and planning forward: a pit stop on the path to Contextual Safeguarding. 13: Reaching my threshold: the grounds for state, and social work, intervention. 14 Formulating the ‘social work’ offer in a Contextual Safeguarding System. 15 The techniques and pitfalls of change: Mirroring, co-creation and case studies. 16: The legality and ethics of Contextual Safeguarding. 17 On the Side of Hope: Next steps on the road to Contextual Safeguarding. References. Index.

I heard Dr Firmin outline the principles of Contextual Safeguarding at the end of 2019 and I commented then that her ideas were among the most innovative I had encountered during some 30 years working in UK universities. Now that I’ve read this book I am even more convinced of its originality and importance. David Shemmings OBE PHD is emeritus professor of child protection research at the University of Kent, UK and visiting professor at Royal Holloway, University of London, UKIn my opinion, Contextual Safeguarding is one of the most significant developments for the safeguarding sector in many years. This book makes a vital contribution to the knowledge base, providing challenge and provoking thought in every chapter. Most impressively, it does so whilst also offering hope. It is essential reading for anyone interested in protecting young people and promoting safe communities.Dez Holmes, Director, Research in Practice and Research in Practice for Adults, UKIf you want to know what the ‘Contextual Safeguarding’ buzz is about, the new kid on the Child Protection block, you’ve arrived. This is a corker. In her inimitable style, Dr Carlene Firmin effortlessly unpacks this compelling, ground-breaking concept with a potency that leaves you wondering how we’ve ever done without it. An absolute game-changer for mis-labelled children and families needing protection from extra-familial harm - hope now on the horizon.Founder, SPACE (Stop & Prevent Adolescent Criminal Exploitation), UK