What do we mean by a ‘neighbourhood’?
In Contextual Safeguarding we mean any public place – like a shopping centre, park, housing estate, shop or hospitality outlet. This section will support you in assessing and responding to a context like this. We have developed neighbourhood-assessment resources (sometimes called location assessments) because our existing safeguarding system was not designed to respond to harm in neighbourhood contexts. Our research with practitioners showed that we needed new tools and guidance to support systems and practitioners already familiar with assessing and responding to harm in a family setting, to be able to assess and respond to harm in places beyond the home.
If you are worried that young people are being harmed in a public place, a neighbourhood assessment can support you to understand the contextual dynamics of what is happening to cause harm and what can be done to create safety.
The resources in this section will support you to:
- Understand key features of effective and ethical neighbourhood assessments before you begin
- Conduct a neighbourhood assessment
- Turn your assessment into a contextual plan
- Measure the impact of Contextual Safeguarding responses
