Holistic approaches to safeguarding adolescents

This briefing shares findings from the Contextual Safeguarding Network’s third learning project exploring how local areas are developing holistic approaches to safeguarding adolescents from extra-familial risk. Holistic approaches are understood as coordinated strategic approaches that move beyond siloed responses to specific risks, such as child sexual exploitation (CSE), youth violence, criminal exploitation or teenage relationship abuse and develop overarching responses by joining meeting structures, assessments and interventions. The Contextual Safeguarding toolkit, which will be published on the Contextual Safeguarding Network in March 2019, will provide more exemplars of holistic approaches to safeguarding adolescents, including multi-agency extra-familial risk meeting protocols and templates. I