Community Guardianship and Contextual Safeguarding with non-traditional partners

Overview

Contextual Safeguarding recognises that young people are vulnerable to harm in the places and spaces outside of their home – in their neighbourhoods, schools, peer groups, and online. Effective safeguarding in these contexts often requires the involvement of non-traditional partners – individuals and groups who hold trust, presence, or influence in the community, but may not be part of formal statutory systems.

This page outlines our approach to Community Guardianship and how we work alongside non-traditional partners to create safer environments for young people.

Who are non-traditional partners?

Non-traditional partners may include:

• Local business owners (e.g. shopkeepers, barbers, taxi drivers)
• Faith leaders
• Sports coaches and club volunteers
• Community influencers and leaders
• Tenants and residents associations
• Neighbours and parents outside the immediate family
• Online community moderators or content creators
• Security staff

These partners are often already embedded in the everyday lives of young people and can offer valuable insight, recognise early warning signs, and provide positive intervention opportunities.

What is Community Guardianship?

Community Guardianship refers to the informal but essential role that local individuals and organisations play in:

• Observing behaviours or situations that are concerning
• Intervening informally or escalating concerns where appropriate
• Creating safe, supervised environments within the community that young people spend time in
• Reporting concerns by sharing via appropriate channels
• Conveying care and respect, and approaching children with kindness and a listening ear

Our approach to working with Community Guardians

We aim to:

• Increase community awareness – Helping people recognise when young people are at risk
• Encourage safe spaces – Providing young people safe places and people to go to when they feel unsafe
• Enable sharing of concerns – Making the reporting of concerns simple and safe
• Build trust and shared goals – Building trust between statutory services and community groups
• Strengthen local partnerships – Building collaboration between businesses, transport networks, school and safeguarding teams
• Empower community members – Enabling meaningful contributions to safeguarding strategies
• Offer training – Training on recognising and responding to harm
• Reference tools – Providing access to guidance around concerns of harm beyond the home and potential responses

Why this matters

Young people often spend more time in public and peer spaces than at home. Harm such as exploitation, violence, or grooming can take place in these 'extra-familial' contexts. Non-traditional partners can see, hear, and act on things that professionals might miss – making them vital contributors to early intervention and safer communities. In addition, our non-traditional partners are often those individuals already integrated into the community and who young people value in those spaces.

Community Guardianship in practice

Chicken shop

Within her research, Professor Carlene Firmin highlighted a simple but powerful example of community guardianship involving a local chicken shop. Staff had observed that groups of young people were regularly gathering outside the shop after school, and that tensions between groups would sometimes escalate into arguments or fights. When this happened, staff gave out free chicken wings in order to calm everyone down and diffuse the tension. This also led to young people naturally coming into the shop and talking to staff rather than staying outside. This informal approach helped to de-escalate tensions, build trust between the young people and staff and create a safer, more positive environment for everyone involved.

Getting involved

If you're a community member or organisation interested in Community Guardianship in your area, here are a few examples of how you can integrate a Contextual Safeguarding approach into your day to day:

Shopkeeper

• Build rapport with local young people who use the store or business, encouraging them to view the space as safe
• Check in with children who appear upset or ‘out of place’. This will allow for a space for discussion if the child wishes to do so
• Report any concerns to relevant safeguarding partners
• Notice usual behaviours, adult-child interactions and patterns of visits
• Attend Contextual Safeguarding training to increase staff knowledge and awareness

Transport networks

• Identify patterns or themes around young people that raise concerns. This could be recognising specific days or times that young people are using the transport network
• Check in with young people who use the facilities, reminding them of the role of safe adults, giving them a secure space to discuss concerns should they have any
• Raise safeguarding concerns for any child who you feel may be experiencing harm
• Link in with Missing Teams to aid in the identification of children who are regularly missing to decrease the time of their absences and support their safe return

Faith leaders

• Develop trusted, consistent relationships with young people and their families accessing the faith groups
• Remind young people of the role of faith leaders in creating and promoting safety for children and their community
• Encourage the use of faith buildings as safe spaces for both individuals and peer groups
• Raise safeguarding concerns for any child who you feel may be experiencing harm

Security staff

• Regular engagement in a non-confrontational manner will encourage young people to view security staff in a positive manner
• Use authority appropriately to intervene and disrupt concerning situations involving the safety of a child
• Observation of hotspot areas where you believe tensions are most likely to escalate
• Be visible – visibility in a location where extra-familial harm is occurring can increase safety for children

Contact us

For more information about Contextual Safeguarding, Community Guardianship or if you need support or advice, get in touch with our team:

• Phone: 023 8083 3336 – ask to speak with a member of the Contextual Safeguarding Team
• Email: contextual.safeguarding.team@southampton.gov.uk