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This article explores the synergies between relationship‐based practice and contextual safeguarding when working with young people experiencing extra‐familial risk and harm (EFRH). The article draws on data from interviews, observations, policy reviews and case files from two sites in England who are testing contextual safeguarding approaches to EFRH, including a children and families social work department and a voluntary and community sector organisation. The findings evidence how relationship‐based practice in contextual safeguarding facilitates practitioners' understanding of places and their peers. The discussion draws on the theory of social defences to evidence that despite willingness and commitment to relationship‐based practice, without systemic and cultural organisational support to respond to EFRH, efforts to do so may undermine and cause harm to practitioners engaging in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When young people are sexually exploited, parents and professionals alike can feel uncertain about how to balance the need to protect the child's rights to agency and autonomy while also reducing the risk of harm. Despite the shared interest in keeping young people safe, there remains a substantial gap in the research literature about how practitioners engage parents to increase capacity to safeguard their children, particularly within the context of a child protection system ill‐equipped to address forms of extrafamilial harm such as child sexual exploitation. This paper aims to contribute to understanding how professionals effectively engage parents by drawing upon evidence from research evaluations of two programmes in rural/urban North and urban South locations in England, both providing specialist support to parents/carers of sexually exploited children and young people. Through interrogating elements of effective support work evidenced across both programmes, a set of emerging key themes are presented, proposing that parent support and engagement can create a 'virtuous' cycle, whereby families are strengthened and are better able to protect their children from sexual exploitation and other forms of extrafamilial harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trauma‐informed practice has been developing for decades, though much remains unknown regarding how it is understood and practised. Drawing upon focus group data from an evaluation of a trauma‐informed approach (TIA) implemented by an organisation in Southeast England, this paper provides a unique perspective of 31 staff members and 18 young people. Results indicate how choice and control, key elements of a TIA, align with the Capability Approach (CA). The CA is then used as a novel analytic framework to examine the data. A 'Trauma‐Informed Capabilities Approach' is introduced as a holistic, person‐centred way of conceptualising young trauma survivors' well‐being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of data from a two-year evaluation of the piloting of a child-centred framework for addressing child sexual exploitation (CSE) in England revealed an intrinsic practice dilemma, whereby many practitioners experienced profound ontological, ethical, emotional and intellectual dilemmas in reconciling young people's rights to voice, privacy and autonomy with their rights to safety, guidance and protection. 'No-win' scenarios left practitioners in a 'double-bind', whereby acting protectively might alienate a young person, paradoxically encouraging them to engage in further risky behaviours. An individual commitment to child-centred and participatory approaches, relational practice and reflective use of self was found to support professionals in exploring this tension with young people themselves, involving them as partners in reducing the risk of exploitation. However, practitioners will struggle to achieve this without manageable workloads, good supervision and organisational support for the emotional content of the work. Transformational learning is required across the disciplinary practice systems to achieve a more integrated practice of 'both/and' thinking and feeling. The tensions between protection and participation can then be surfaced in a way that is constructive rather than divisive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]