Why we need better models and practice in safeguarding and social work to support young people through their journey to adulthood

Professor Christine Cocker, Head of School of Social Work at the University of East Anglia, provides an update on developments in transitional safeguarding in this blog for BASW.

Introduction from BASW Chief Executive, Dr Ruth Allen

I am delighted to introduce this blog from Professor Christine Cocker, Head of School of Social Work, University of East Anglia, Norwich.

Christine is one of the colleagues it has been a privilege to work with over the past two years to produce and promote seminal guidance Bridging the Gap and the Role of Social Work With Adults.  This aims to stimulate reflective thinking, learning and practice to enable social workers in adults’ services to support young people better, in particular to adapt and change adult safeguarding models that are often a poor fit to the types of risk young people face.

None of us goes to sleep as a child and wakes as an adult. But the law and the policies and approaches of many of public sector policies in the UK treat us as if this was reality.  BASW stands for a united profession of social work with many specialised and skilled parts. We believe is it essential that all social workers retain fundamental knowledge and appreciation of human needs across the life course.  This is a mindset and an attitude as much as it is a knowledge and skill set.  The needs and wishes of young people reaching and evolving into adulthood too often seem to confound both sides of the now deeply embedded ‘children’ and ‘adults’ service and safeguarding divides. Many young people  are too often failed and often blamed when the inherently challenging transition to adulthood is difficult, exploitative, high risk.

BASW will continue to support, promote and provide learning opportunities on Transitional Safeguarding. In the meantime, please read Christine’s excellent update, packed with wisdom and links to further resources.

Professor Christine Cocker, Head of School of Social Work, University of East Anglia
Professor Christine Cocker, Head of School of Social Work, University of East Anglia

Update on developments in Transitional Safeguarding: Professor Christine Cocker.

We have a binary approach to safeguarding in this country; under 18s are subject to children’s safeguarding processes and for over 18s, adult safeguarding procedures apply.  Consequently, many young people experience a ‘cliff edge’ at 18 years where they can no longer access children’s services safeguarding support and may not be eligible for adult social services. Their needs may not have changed overnight, but their ability to access services has (Cocker and Cooper 2022). The reality of transition into adulthood is not reflected in service and practice norms and young people can be left exposed to harms, falling outside separate child and adult safeguarding frameworks.

In 2018 Dez Holmes, Director of Research in Practice, coined the term ‘Transitional Safeguarding’, defining it as an ‘approach to safeguarding adolescents and young adults fluidly across developmental stages which builds on the best available evidence, learns from both children’s and adult safeguarding practice and which prepares young people for their adult lives’ (Holmes and Smale 2018, p3). 

Five years on from this first publication, we are further along in our thinking about what Transitional Safeguarding is and what it is not, and practice is developing.  Holmes (2022a) identifies six key tenets that underpin a Transitional Safeguarding approach. Transitional Safeguarding should be: participatory, ecologically and contextually located, developmentally informed, relational, evidence-informed, and have equality, diversity and inclusion considered in every way at every stage. The interconnectedness of both structural and interpersonal harms requires a highly integrated system of support, not a discrete service governed by age-bound eligibility criteria .

Those of us who have worked in this area argue that we need whole systems change in safeguarding practices that addresses legal and policy gaps as well as differences in social care, education, youth justice and health services across and between child/adult boundaries. This is more than just good transitions planning. Understanding safeguarding harms for young people requires us to engage with them in their individual lives, their specific safeguarding needs moving into adulthood, their views about what they think should happen, and their support networks.

With several publications and resources now available, we have the beginnings of an evidence base to support practice (e.g. Cocker et al 2021; Cocker et al 2022a; Special Issue of BASW’s Practice Journal; Preston-Shoot et al., 2022).

in 2022  the Office for the Chief Social Worker for Adults published a knowledge briefing written by Dez Holmes which includes local area examples of innovation.  But to be clear, no geographic or service area has got Transitional Safeguarding ‘sorted’.  The contradictions and complexities of practice when working in this space should not be downplayed (Holmes 2022a). The Chief Social Worker for Children has not produced a similar briefing or contributed to joint briefings, which is a lost opportunity as it is critical that practitioners, managers and leaders responsible for delivering services to children and adults work together and share their expertise of working with young people to avoid siloed thinking (Cocker et al., 2022a). The independent care review (MacAlister, 2022) at least recognised the gaps in provision for care experienced young people moving into adulthood, but Transitional Safeguarding is more than safeguarding young people who are already known to the state and for whom the state has legal duties and responsibilties.

Other resources have been developed for relevant practitioners: colleagues in Health have produced a Transitional Safeguarding padlet, which sets out examples of practice innovation, links to videos and resource on Transitional Safeguarding. A  knowledge briefing on Transitional Safeguarding for people working in probation services has been produced by Holmes and Smith (2022). For those interested in broader issues in safeguarding young people, there is the book edited by Holmes (2022b) Safeguarding Young People: Risk, Rights, Resilience and Relationships.

Every local area and service will rightly approach Transitional Safeguarding differently, depending on the needs of their own communities and their local priorities (Cocker et al., 2022b). The examples of what is being done elsewhere are helpful for all of us to learn from and they inspire us too. The challenge now is how we can all contribute to innovation in this area so that young people are centrally involved in determining their own futures, without underplaying the effect that complexities of harms may have on their ability to participate in decision-making.

Wherever you work, if you come across young people who are experiencing harms, then the Transitional Safeguarding approach will have something to offer in terms of supporting the young person and you to achieve resolution and recovery with them.

References

Cocker, C., Cooper, A., Holmes, D. and Bateman, F. (2021), Transitional Safeguarding: presenting the case for developing Making Safeguarding Personal for young people in England, The Journal of Adult Protection, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 144-157. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAP-09-2020-0043

Cocker, C., Cooper, A., Holmes, D. (2022a) Transitional Safeguarding: Transforming How Adolescents and Young Adults Are Safeguarded. British Journal of Social Work, 52(3), pp. 1287–1306, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcaa238

Cocker, C., Cooper, A., Holmes, D. (2022b) Transitional Safeguarding: Bridging the gap between children’s and Adults’ safeguarding responses.  In D. Holmes (ed) Safeguarding Young People: Risk, Rights, Resilience and Relationships. London, Jessica Kingsley Publishing, pp203-222

Holmes, D. (2022a) ‘Transitional Safeguarding: The Case for Change’. Practice. 34:1. Pp 7-23.

Holmes, D. (ed)(2022b) Safeguarding Young People: Risk, Rights, Resilience and Relationships. London, Jessica Kingsley Publishing

Holmes, D. and Smale, E. (2018) Mind the Gap: Transitional Safeguarding – Adolescence to Adulthood. Dartington: Research in Practice.

MacAlister, J. (2022). The  independent review of children’s social care: Final report. Retrieved from https://childrenssocialcare.independent-review.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/The-independent-review-of-childrens-social-care-Final-report.pdf

Preston-Shoot, M, Cocker, C. and Cooper A. (2022) Learning from Safeguarding Adult Reviews about Transitional Safeguarding: Building an evidence base. Journal of Adult Protection Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 90-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAP-01-2022-0001