Relational epistemic safety: what young people facing harm in their communities want and need from professionals tasked with helping them

When young people are harmed beyond their families, what kinds of professional relationships help to keep them safe? Contextual Safeguarding is an approach to creating safety in community and school contexts that asks how changes can be made in the environment to create safer contexts. However, (mis)interpretations of the approach have given rise to practice devoid of relationships with the young people affected by professional decisions, and which override their rights and ways of knowing. We draw on consultations with young people about what they need from professional relationships when they experience extra-familial harm – called the Young People's Relationship Framework (YPRF). We then use this to analyse three pilot studies of multi-agency practice aimed at creating safety in extra-familial contexts. The findings show that, for a relational orientation to be achieved, professionals need to be guided by how young people know the world. We argue that this requires professionals to undergo a process of ‘undoing’: giving up privileged ways of knowing and making decisions, leading to what we have termed relational epistemic safety. We offer this to support professionals in developing relationships with young people who experience extra-familial harm that are characterised by equality and respect.