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Safer Me assessment guidance

A printable version of the information on this page is available here.

Contextual Safeguarding

As well as threats to the welfare of children from within their families, children may be vulnerable to abuse or exploitation from outside their families. These extra-familial threats might arise at school and other educational establishments, from within peer groups, or more widely from within the wider community and/or online.

Contextual Safeguarding is:

  • An approach to understanding, and responding to, young people’s experiences of significant harm beyond their families.
  • It provides a framework against which to design safeguarding systems that the address extra-familial risk.
  • It recognises the weight of peer influence on the decisions that young people make, extends the notion of ‘capacity to safeguard’ to sectors that operate beyond families.
  • It provides a framework in which referrals / assessments can be made for contextual interventions that, when delivered effectively, can complement work with individuals and families.

Who should complete a Safer Me Assessment?

Only complete this referral if you are acting in a professional capacity. This form is not for members of the public to complete.

If you are a member of the public, please contact MASH by telephone on 0345 155 1071

This assessment should be completed when there are threats to a young person’s safety from outside their family home, with specific reference to exploitation. Young people who may be exploiting others should also have a Safer Me Assessment to understand the impact of contextual issues on their safety and welfare. The young person should be between the ages of 11-17 (unless they are a Care Leaver, in which case they can be included up to the age of 25 with consent). If the young person is under 11, please discuss with your Safeguarding Lead and identify the most appropriate way to consider risk and request support.  Any professional can complete the assessment.

The assessment guides the assessor through the identification of vulnerabilities, indicators, online life, associations and environment, as well as protective factors present for a young person who might be at risk or experiencing harm outside the family home. It will inform which pathway/ action may be required. However, professionals also need to exercise professional judgement and curiosity.

What should I do if I am worried a young person is being exploited?

Please ring the police on 999 if the child or young person is in immediate danger and 101 if you suspect or are aware of a crime.

The Safer Me Assessment is not an emergency response mechanism and does not replace existing policy and procedures for child protection concerns or individual safeguarding responses. In the first instance you should discuss your concerns with your safeguarding lead, use the MASH consultation line 0345 155 1071 and if you need to make a MASH enquiry, please complete the online Request for Support form.

Information sharing

Sharing information is vital for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. It is essential for ensuring effective and efficient services are coordinated around the needs of children or young people, and their family or community. Information can be recorded where it is necessary for the Local Authority to undertake further enquiries/assessment in order to promote the well-being and safety of a child.

In Devon, we encourage a culture where information is shared with confidence as part of routine service delivery on community support. We believe that fears about sharing information cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the need to promote the welfare and protect the safety of children.

Consent and participation from young people and parents/carers

To properly achieve partnership with parents, it is essential to keep young people and parents/carers involved and informed throughout our work with their family. Parents and individuals with Parental Responsibility for the young person must be asked to give consent for all the work you undertake throughout the child’s journey unless this would put the child at risk of significant harm and/or jeopardise child protection enquiries. In these circumstances the reason for not seeking consent must be given. Refer to South West Child Protection Procedures for further information around consent.

Consent from absent/non-resident parents must be sought where it is safe to do so. Consent obtained from one parent only counts as partial consent. Consent should not be assumed to have been given or understood. Careful consideration needs to be given to the Mental Capacity Act.

Peer Researchers in Devon’s SPACE Youth Service recommend that young people are directly involved in the completion of the assessment. They advise that the way in which the conversations and questions are asked should not be too formal to allow the young person to feel comfortable. The young person may be more likely to provide more information if they complete the form with a known trusted adult or have them present when undertaking this assessment

Step-by-step guide:

Section of safer Me Assessment Advice for completion
Details of person completing the assessment This section confirms who you are, your role etc. It is also an opportunity to explain to the young person what the form is and why it is being completed.
Views of young people This is one of the most important parts of the assessment. As professionals, we cannot fully understand risk and safety for young people without listening to and really hearing their experiences and thoughts. Whilst a young person’s perspective may differ from those of professionals or supportive adults, particularly when we think about exploitation and extrafamilial harm, understanding the young person’s lived experiences and the story that sits behind what we see, is a critical part of being able to work with them, develop trusted relationships and find ways forward together. Although there is a specific section for the young person’s views, we should be reflecting their voice through all stages of the assessment and use direct quotes where possible.
Views of the parent/carer Again, this is one of the most important parts of the assessment. Parents/carers are our safeguarding partners and play a vital role in increasing safety for young people, both in the short and long term. Parents/carers will be the first people to notice things happening, they are experts in their own lives and will be significantly impacted by what is happening to the young person. Listening to parents/carers and ensuring they play a key role in assessment and planning is crucial.
Strengths Every young person has strengths and positive attributes. Recognising these shows the young person you are looking beyond their presenting behaviour and are trying to understand who they are, how they are communicating through their behaviour and that you are not just focusing on the negative things. Strengths can be identified in relation to relationships, resources, or can be personal attributes that can be drawn upon as part of developing resilience to risk and achieving positive outcomes.
Vulnerabilities These are the factors and experiences in a young person’s life that could potentially make them more vulnerable to being targeted for exploitation or to be exposed to other types of extrafamilial harm. It is important that as well as noting your own observations or known details in the free text box, you explore with the young person as to how their experiences and circumstances impact on them and why this increases their vulnerability to exploitation. Remember, exploitation can occur without any of the vulnerabilities being present.
Indicators These are behaviours or presenting concerns that could signs and symptoms of exploitation. Certain indicators can be present due to other reasons meaning it can be easy to overlook signs of exploitation. However, it is important to remain curious around what could be happening to a young person, why we are seeing certain behaviours or situations and what the bigger picture is. Please ensure further detail and context if added in the free text box.
Missing from Home or Care Going missing has a well-known link to exploitation – both as a vulnerability as well as a potential indicator. Whilst the majority of children that go missing aren’t victims of exploitation, the majority of victims of exploitation do go missing from home or care. Therefore, it is important to focus on missing episodes in detail to understand the context of these, why they have gone missing and how missing episodes form part of the young person’s experiences.
Digital Wellbeing The online world continues to grow as an essential and central part of our lives. This is also the case for young people, who have grown up in a digital age and one in which the pandemic has created an even greater reliance on digital technology. For young people, their online presence, relationships and communities are part of their world and day to day lived experiences. It is important that we explore this with young people in depth and understand what platforms they use, how and why they use them.
Peer Groups or wider associations Contextual safeguarding and adolescent development theory tells us that peers play a significant role in the life of adolescents. They can be a source of strength, safety and support for young people, but can also involve more negative influences. This section is an opportunity to explore the young person’s world beyond their family home and what this means for the  young person in terms of risk and safety. It is also an opportunity to start thinking about whether any wider contextual approaches with an identified peer group or associated individuals may reduce the influence and risk for the young person, for example through the initiation of a peer group context conference (or referral to MACE).
Locations and neighbourhood/community Contextual safeguarding theory tells us that alongside supporting individual young people, we should also be thinking about place or location-based interventions to change the environment in which harm takes place. This section is to guide the assessing practitioner to consider spaces and places.
Analysis of risk and safety This section is for the practitioner to draw all of the information from the Safer Me Assessment together and draw some conclusions about how and why a young person maybe at risk, the level and type of risk, who presents this risk, where it is present and what strengths may be helping to mitigate risk. Ultimately the analysis should be informing the next steps in terms of planning and intervention. The young person and parent/carer views should be reflected within the analysis.
Next steps The ‘Next Steps’ section should clearly identify what needs to happen now in order to address the vulnerability and risks identified. Whilst this may include processes for escalation or onward referrals, it should focus on what practical interventions need to take place with the young person, their family and wider contexts they are part of.
Review of safer me assessment For any young person assessed as high risk, the safer Me Assessment should be reviewed within three months. If the young person is assessed as medium risk, the need to review the Safer Me Assessment will dependent on whether the risk is dynamic or static.

 

If you think that the child is at risk of significant harm, contact our Front Door directly by calling 0345 155 1071. In an emergency call 999.


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