Contextual safeguarding in education

A guide to contextual safeguarding for education providers including indicators and what to do if you have safeguarding concerns.

Introduction

Contextual safeguarding seeks to identify and respond to harm and abuse posed to children outside their home, including at school, in their neighbourhoods or on social media platforms.

Contextual safeguarding was previously known as extra-familial harm.

The following resources provide a further overview of contextual safeguarding:

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Indicators of safeguarding concerns

Some possible indicators of contextual safeguarding concerns which you may see in your school/setting: 

  • Changes in behaviour: Increased aggression or disruption, use of drugs or alcohol, or involvement in offending
  • Changes in relationships: Family relationships/ school relationships are negatively affected, or the young person is secretive about their relationships 
  • Changes in well-being: Emotional, physical, or mental well-being is negatively affected 
  • Changes in access: The young person's ability to access education or other services is negatively affected 
  • Changes in trust: The young person is less willing to trust or engage with adults 
  • Unexplained absences: The young person has unexplained absences from school, college, work, or training 
  • Unexplained items: The young person has unexplained money, phone(s), clothes, or jewellery 
  • Injuries: The young person has unexplained injuries 
  • The child or young person is Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) or has been excluded from school
  • The young person has been arrested

This list is not finite, so please discuss any other changes or concerns with you designated safeguarding lead (DSL).

Some possible health indicators to be aware of:

  • A&E attendance with injuries
  • High (or otherwise) level substance/drugs/alcohol misuse impacting on health
  • Suspected coercive internal concealment related injuries
  • Sexual activity less than 13 years old (victim or perpetrator)
  • Harmful sexual behaviour (victim or perpetrator)
  • Sexually transmitted infections or health problems that may indicate exploitation
  • Pregnancy suspected to be a result of exploitation
  • Bruises or bleeding to the genital or anal area
  • Suicidal ideation or self-harming behaviour along with 2 other indicators of CSE/CCE
  • Protracting and significant unresolved family breakdown impacting on the health of the child or young person suspected to be because of exploitation

Again, this list is not finite, so please discuss any other changes or concerns with you designated safeguarding lead (DSL).

Your concerns may also relate to a place or location rather than a particular young person and it is important that these concerns are also raised.

Here are some further resources about indicators of child exploitation:

Child criminal exploitation is the manipulation, coercion and control of children and young people to commit crimes usually for the benefit of other abusive adults or peers.

Read more about child criminal exploitation on the Invision Trust website.

Child sexual exploitation is a form of sexual, emotional and physical abuse of children.

Read more about child sexual exploitation on the Invision Trust website.

Grooming is when a person builds a relationship with a child, young person or an adult who's at risk so they can abuse them and manipulate them into doing things.

The abuse is usually sexual or financial, but it can also include other illegal acts.

This PDF from The Children's Society - Criminal Exploitation: Stages of Recruitment shows the stages and the signs to look out for at each stage.

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What to do if you have safeguarding concerns

If you have safeguarding concerns about a child or young person who attends your school or setting, you can find out further information on requesting support from Children's Services.

This page will inform you about Lancashire's

  • multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH)
  • request for support form
  • multi-agency support panels (MASP)
  • local authority designated officer (LADO)
  • continuum of need (CON)

If you make a referral, you'll receive a response outlining what we have done, why and the suggested outcome / next steps. This is sometimes what education can continue to do.

Advice

You can seek advice before you submit a request for support.

If your school has an SLA with Lancashire County Council you can contact  the Safeguarding Advice Line - safeguardingadviceline@lancashire.gov.uk or 01772 531196

For all schools and settings, you can contact the Safeguarding Education Team - safeguardingeducationteam@lancashire.gov.uk

Or you can contact the MASH Education Officers mash.education@lancashire.gov.uk

Anyone with concerns about child sexual/criminal exploitation can contact police on 101 or 999 in an emergency.

Lancashire's multi-agency exploitation teams can be contacted directly:

For further resources in a wide range of areas, visit the Lancashire Safeguarding Partnership toolkits.

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Multi Agency Support Panels (MASP)

There are multi agency support panels in Preston, Fleetwood, and Burnley.

These panels are a place for professionals, particularly in education, to highlight concerns about children that may be vulnerable to being exploited and drawn into violent crime, knife crime, and gangs.

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Why language is important

Slang words and terms are used in a criminal context and can often indicate involvement in gangs and criminal activity. Many children and young people who find themselves in these situations will use this slang, and it is important that professionals can understand and decipher it to identify those at risk.

It’s also important to consider how we, as professionals,  speak to or about young people. We must carefully choose our words when talking about children at risk of harm.

See the Lancashire Safeguarding Partnership contextual safeguarding toolkit for further information on the correct use of language.

The Making Words Matter briefing from Cumbria, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust describes why language is important and the impact of language on a developing child or young person. It also suggests ways to support practitioners and services in attending to language.

Emojis are often used to communicate inappropriate things with children and young people, where the true meaning may not be obvious. The Children's Society's emoji dictionary highlights some commonly used emojis.

The Waltham Forest Youth Independent Advisory Group created a video that shows real statements which have been used by professionals to describe victims of sexual exploitation, to help practitioners understand the impact on young people of victim blaming language. Watch the victim blaming language video on YouTube.

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Developing contextual safeguarding practices in your setting

Schools can be a safe place for young people, but they can also be places where young people experience harm and exploitation.

These resources will help you to recognise harm and create safety for young people.

Contextual Safeguarding programme resources

The following resources are from the Contextual Safeguarding programme, based at the University of Durham.

Self-assessment

Contextual Safeguarding: Beyond Referrals is a self-assessment toolkit for schools to identify and assess the factors that contribute to harm to children and create safety in their setting.

Policy

Contextual Safeguarding: Policy review for education and youth settings is a guide to help learn more about the policy review process, including how to create policy that takes into account peer-on-peer abuse and other extra-familial harm.

Engaging with young people

Listening to the views of young people and understanding how they feel in different contexts, such as at home, with friends and at school, is vital to respond effectively to young people when they experience harm.

The Contextual Safeguarding: Young people consultation toolkit contains resources to help support professionals to engage young people in conversations about contextual safeguarding.

Nest Lancashire

Nest Lancashire supports young people aged 10 to 18 who have been affected by crime or subjected to bullying, threats or harassment. Young people can talk to them in confidence and all of the services are free of charge.

The Nest Lancashire tookit has tools and resources for professionals working with children and young people to prevent all types of child exploitation and related crimes.

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Contextual safeguarding programme resources

Pol-Ed

Pol-Ed is an educational resource that has been commissioned by Lancashire Constabulary to support some of the preventative education that takes place within schools. They offer a series of lessons from EYFS to KS5 that can focus on policing priorities such as VAWG, Race-related and assaults. The platform is accessible to all schools within Lancashire free of charge for 2025.

Schools can access these resources by visiting the Pol-ed website

Please also consult the guidance document from the LCC PSHE team: