Social care responses to children who experience criminal exploitation and violence: the conditions for a welfare response

The conditions for welfare responses

Social care responses to children who experience criminal exploitation and violence: the conditions for a welfare response

In this webinar Jenny Lloyd discusses the findings of new Contextual Safeguarding research published in the British Journal of Social work.

What does it mean to give a welfare response to children that get hurt, or hurt others, in their communities? How do you prioritise the needs of children that are involved in ‘crimes’ like violence and criminal exploitation over the prevention of crime?

Working with two children’s social care departments in England applying a Contextual Safeguarding framework, we look at how social care provided welfare responses to children experiencing criminal exploitation and violence. By speaking with social workers, observing practice and piloting changes to the social care system we found out how difficult this was. The findings highlighted five key factors that provided the conditions for welfare and those that undermined them. We converted these findings into a framework that helps practitioners with language and examples of what a welfare response to harm in communities might include.

In the resources below you can find the link to the research article and the new framework.

Watch our webinar: Social care responses to children who experience criminal exploitation and violence

This webinar presents findings from our research paper published in the British Journal of social work. The research considers how to provide welfare responses to children involved in serious violence and criminal exploitation. The paper presents a framework of five conditions that support welfare approaches and those that undermine it.