Relocation, relocation, relocation: home and school-moves for children affected extra-familial risks during adolescence

From sexual exploitation and serious youth violence, to recruitment into drugs trafficking lines, young people encounter a range of risks in their neighbourhoods. Safeguarding partnerships in England face a practical challenge in addressing these ‘public’ types of significant harm, when using a child protection framework designed to respond to risks within the ‘private’ space of families. In the absence of a safeguarding system equipped to reshape unsafe extra-familial contexts young people are moved away from them. Drawing upon cumulative evidence from 20 case reviews and audits of safeguarding practices in 14 local authorities this paper explores the extent to which such relocations have achieved physical, psychological and relational safety. In doing so it articulates how relocation following public-space risks can disrupt private-space safety and recommends the practice be reviewed to identify the conditions in which it is an appropriate safeguarding mechanism.