Cat White (Contextual Safeguarding Advisor from Ealing) and Derrick Osinde (Senior Practitioner in the Adolescents Team in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham) share their experiences of testing and embedding different approaches to working with peer relationships in safeguarding work with adolescents affected by extra-familial harm.Find out about their work by listening to a joint podact they recorded together and by reading their reflections about how peer assessments can be considered with individual young people and with peer groups, and the potential benefits and impact as well as some of the challenges of using these approaches.
Derrick Osinde
I am a Senior Social Worker based in an Adolescent Team working with teenagers affected by exploitation (youth violence, criminal exploitation, Modern Slavery and child sexual exploitation). In Barking and Dagenham, we have been piloting the use of the peer assessment tool, developed in Hackney, to help consider peer relationships and dynamics within our individual assessments for young people. We use the peer assessment tool to support young people who are experiencing significant extra-familial harm.We work with a number of agencies who also work with children at risk of exploitation (National Referral Mechanism, Rescue and Response and Safer London). Our partners benefit from us having a good understanding of the young person’s current location, who they might be with, and the risk presented to them. At times, using the peer assessment tool and peer mapping has helped us to locate young people and safeguard them from harm.
Cat White
Cat White is a Contextual Safeguarding Advisor for the London Borough of Ealing. As part of the local authority’s Contextual Safeguarding Team, this role involves providing consultative support to professionals in Ealing who work with young people who may be at risk of or experiencing extra-familial harm. Cat also chairs strategy meetings when extra-familial harm is the main concern and writes and facilitates relevant training. Cat undertook Ealing’s first level 2 peer group assessment
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Working with peer relationships in safeguarding work with adolescentsCat White (Contextual Safeguarding Advisor from Ealing) and Derrick Osinde (Senior Practitioner in the Adolescents Team in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham) share their experiences of testing and embedding different approaches to working with peer relationships in safeguarding work with adolescents affected by extra-familial harm. -
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Using the peer assessment tool in child and family assessmentsDerrick Osinde, Senior Social Worker in an Adolescent Team in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, shares his reflections on using the peer assessment tool to support child and family assessments, corresponding to a ‘Level 1’ of Contextual Safeguarding. -
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Learning from a peer group assessmentCat White, Contextual Safeguarding Advisor in the London Borough of Ealing, shares her experience of developing a peer group assessment, at ‘Level 2’ of Contextual Safeguarding.
