Our ‘Seeing the Signs, Hearing the Voice, Disrupting the Harm’ best practice events took place in October 2026 and focused on missing children and child exploitation.
The PowerPoint slide pack from the events is available here.
Our keynote speaker was Joshua Chisling:
Local guidance and tools
- Adolescent Safety Framework – Devon’s approach to contextual safeguarding and responding to harm outside the home.
- Safer Me resource pack – includes the Safer Me Assessment, screening tool, assessment flowchart and Safer Me / Safer Me Plus resources.
- Safer Me Assessment guidance – practical guidance for professionals completing an assessment where there are concerns about exploitation or other threats to a young person’s safety outside their family home.
- Child exploitation information for professionals – page covering exploitation, indicators, safeguarding concerns and information about submitting concerns through local processes.
- Child Exploitation and Contextual Safeguarding Strategy and Action Plan 2025 –2028 – Devon’s multi-agency strategy setting out the shared approach to preventing, identifying and responding to exploitation, including the Prevent, Protect, Pursue and Prepare approach discussed at the events.
- Contextual safeguarding – Devon’s main hub for contextual safeguarding, bringing together information about the Adolescent Safety Framework, exploitation and missing children.
- Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership procedures – the multi-agency procedures referenced during the event, including exploitation and missing children.
- Devon Children’s Front Door – information about the Front Door, including early help and requesting support where professionals are concerned about a child.
- SPACE Services Not My Sentence – programme for young people who have experienced a family member go to prison and are struggling.
- Cornwall & The Isles of Scilly Safeguarding Children Partnership Child Exploitation Roadmap mentioned in the events.
- Plymouth Safeguarding Children Partnership Exploitation Pathway
- Barnardo’s Beacon Project mentioned in the events
National guidance and tools
- Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026 – current statutory guidance on multi-agency working to help, support and protect children. The Devon website also provides access to the national statutory guidance.
- Information Sharing Duty statutory guidance – the September 2026 guidance supporting the new statutory information-sharing duty. This is particularly relevant to the event’s emphasis on sharing relevant information and joining the picture around a child.
- Child Exploitation Disruption Toolkit – the national toolkit referred to in the disruption presentation. It covers practical disruption measures, multi-agency working, intelligence and information sharing in response to sexual and criminal exploitation.
- Children Missing Education statutory guidance – Department for Education guidance for schools and local authorities on identifying and supporting children missing education. This complements the event discussion that absence and changes in education can provide important safeguarding information.
- Safeguarding children not in school – a 2026 Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel briefing for multi-agency practitioners on safeguarding responsibilities for vulnerable children with low attendance, children missing education or those being home educated alongside other vulnerabilities.
- Child Safeguarding Practice Review National Panel Learning Hub
Further learning
- Beyond Risk in Adolescent Safeguarding by Carlene Firmin quoted in the Joining the Dots presentation
- The Smartphone Solution – Dr Martha Psychologist
- The meaning behind the emoji – The Children’s Society
- Contextual Safeguarding Network – research, publications and practice resources on contextual safeguarding. This was included in the event’s further support and resources slide.
- National Working Group Network – resources focused on child exploitation and abuse, also signposted in the event pack.
- CareKnowledge – online learning and practice resources, including material on child exploitation and contextual safeguarding. Access may depend on an individual’s organisation or subscription arrangements.
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