Research that informs practice and policy
The Contextual Safeguarding team are part of Durham University's Sociology department. We do research with young people, families and practitioners to inform practice that makes a positive impact to children's lives. We have a number of different research projects. See below for more information about our past and current projects.
Current projects
Contextual Safeguarding and Cultural Sensitivity
The Contextual Safeguarding team and Power the Fight are working together to develop culturally sensitive approaches to tackling violence in schools and communities.
Resourcing Safety
Resourcing Safety is a three-year Participatory Action Research project working with young people, families, communities, local authority commissioners and voluntary sector funders to explore and address resource barriers to building safety for young people in relation to extra-familial harm.
Planning for Safety: Embedding Risk Outside of the Home (ROTH) Pathways
Planning for Safety is supporting and tracking the implementation of Risk Outside of the Home Child Protection Pathways in local systems and national policies.
Completed projects
The Next Chapter
The Next Chapter (TNC) grapples with key questions that emerged from the three year testing of Contextual Safeguarding during the Scale-Up project and is made up of four workstreams to explore
The Innovate Project ESRC
The Innovate Project is a collaborative examination of how, why and where innovations happens in social care to safeguard adolescents experiencing complex risks.
Contextual Safeguarding Across Borders (CSAB)
Contextual Safeguarding Across Borders is a two-year project (2021-2023) exploring the application of Contextual Safeguarding in international contexts, specifically in situations of structural, historical, and contemporary racial inequalities
Scale-Up
The Scale-Up project worked with nine test sites in England and Wales to create Contextual Safeguarding systems in practice across Children’s Social Care and with multi-agency partners.
Beyond Referrals
The Beyond Referrals projects worked with schools and VCS organisations to respond to harmful sexual behaviour and extra-familial harm
Securing Safety
A research project into the rate, cost and experience of the relocation of adolescents exposed to or at risk of extra familial harm.
Contextual Safeguarding: Measuring Reach & Impact
In 2017, the Contextual Safeguarding programme (CSP) began partnering with local authorities to begin testing the framework in practice. The Reach and Impact (R&I) workstream is the first systematic attempt at evaluating the extent of the programme’s reach and impact.
The Peace Project
The PEACE project in the London Borough of Hounslow’s Youth Offending Services is using Contextual Safeguarding to develop interventions in response to exploitation.
The Oldham Youth Project
Pilot Project led by a voluntary sector organisation using the principles of contextual safeguarding to better respond to increasing levels of youth violence in the Oldham
Safer London Peers Project
A project with Safer London to explore opportunities for safeguarding interventions with young people’s peer networks.