From 'risky choices' to 'risky contexts'? the state of play of UK child welfare responses to adolescent 'extra-familial harm': national and international implications

In the UK, professional responses to abuse adolescents experience beyond their families have undergone transformation in the past 30 years. We present data from 40 local authorities in England, Wales, and Scotland to assess the 'state of play' of child protection responses to significant harm adolescents experience beyond their families, commonly referred to in UK child protection guidance as 'extra-familial harm'. Data were collected via a two-year multistrand mixed-methods research project between 2022 and 2024. The aim was to explore whether child protection systems in England, Wales, and Scotland are addressing the legal, contextual, and structural shortfalls of responses to extra-familial harm in adolescence. Data were analysed against the four domains of the Contextual Safeguarding framework; used here as an analytical tool for considering the extent to which child protection agencies and their partners are currently using child welfare legislation to address adolescent extra-familial harm. Findings indicate the social care sector has further to go to enact a child welfare response that enables the provision of support and not merely the imposition of statutory frameworks to young people's lives.