Key values and ethical considerations when conducting a neighbourhood assessment.
Neighbourhood assessments, just like every 'child and family assessment', should respect young people's rights, promote their well-being and focus on building safety (which is more than just disrupting risk). Every assessment should involve young people and their families as active partners.
The key values that underpin Contextual Safeguarding should be at the heart of neighbourhood assessments. If your assessment does not follow these, it will not be aligned with Contextual Safeguarding.
Involving young people, their families, and their communities, rather than ‘doing to’. Prioritising consulting young people and others who live and work in a neighbourhood and including them in the decisions made to create safety.
Our assessments focus on finding out about the strengths within a neighbourhood alongside learning about risk and harm. This might include learning about existing friendships, protective guardian relationships, policies, or services that could be bolstered or further drawn on, to keep young people safe.
In our assessments the ‘data’ we prioritise are the voices and experiences of young people and their families who are impacted by safety and harm, rather than for example, crime reports. Sometimes this can mean that adult or professional perceptions differ from those of young people. We respond by acknowledging these differences but work hard to keep the experiences and views of young people, their families and people in the community central to the assessment.
We take young people’s rights seriously throughout the assessment process. We commit to challenging assumptions – particularly when it comes to young people's rights to choose who they spend time with in their community. Neighbourhood assessments must ensure that:
- surveillance over young people is not increased in the pursuit of 'safety'
- young people are not prevented from spending time with their friends
- young people are not subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference of their privacy.
In the assessment we think about the structural inequalities that shape how young people experience the neighbourhood. We reflect on how inequality and poverty, as well as racism, misogyny and classism could impact abuse and harm to young people in the context.
Our assessments must be led by a caring intention and centre the humanity of young people – we need to get to know young people, understand what their needs are, what they want and what’s important to them. To do this we need to draw on, and support access to, relationships of emotional support and solidarity for young people, parents/ carers and wider communities – with each other and with professionals.