The London Safeguarding Children’s Executive has launched the Safeguarding Adolescents In London (SAIL) digital resource
The SAIL guidance provides comprehensive guidance designed to transform how practitioners, managers, and service leaders work to keep young people safe across the capital. Co-produced with contributions from respected voices across the sector, and developed by the London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA), SAIL represents a significant step forward in bringing coherence to adolescent safeguarding practice.
The guidance describes the principles and practice that, as statutory safeguarding partners, London’s local authorities believe should underpin the work of all agencies working with vulnerable young people. Florence Kroll CBE (Director of Children’s for Royal Borough of Greenwich, Chair of the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services (ALDCS) and Chair of the London Adolescent Safeguarding Oversight Board (LASOB)) talks about the significance of the work:
“Adolescent safeguarding rightly has a very high profile in London. We regularly hear about young people who suffer harm and exploitation in the capital. Some tragically lose their lives, often doing so at the hands of other young people. In this context everyone wants to do something.”
Florence Kroll CBE, Chair of the London Adolescent Safeguarding Oversight Board
Florence’s words capture a central challenge facing practitioners: the sheer volume of activity across local, regional, and national bodies can create what she describes as ‘a blizzard of initiatives’. At the end of the line are the practitioners who get on with the day-to-day work of building purposeful relationships with young people, often navigating busy adolescent safeguarding systems that, whilst designed to offer protection, can themselves inadvertently cause harm.
SAIL seeks to cut through this complexity. Working through its Adolescent Safeguarding Oversight Board (LASOB), the London Safeguarding Children’s Executive is bringing greater coherence to the work of partners and practitioners, ensuring collective energy is used to greatest effect.
A digital resource for modern practice
The evolution from the original handbook to this digital guidance has been made possible by the support of the London Safeguarding Children’s Executive, under the stewardship of Abi Gbago and Ade Adetosoye, and under the strategic direction of LASOB.
SAIL has been designed as a digital reference resource, providing a distinctive account of the ways of working with young people in London. The guidance contains a wealth of original material alongside links to authoritative sources of adolescent safeguarding guidance. The London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LiiA) editorial team and the many contributors who generated its content have approached this work as a labour of love – and one they intend to continue developing as policy and practice matures.
SAIL brings together theory, practice, and policy to equip you with the information and tools needed to develop your practice and enhance the effectiveness of the adolescent safeguarding systems you work within.
Whether you are a frontline practitioner building relationships with young people, a manager overseeing complex cases, or a service leader shaping strategic direction, SAIL offers evidence-informed guidance rooted in a shared set of principles. The resource draws on effective practice already taking place across London’s partnerships, with practitioners generously sharing their approaches so that all can learn together.
The ultimate goal of SAIL is to ensure that wherever a young person lives in London – and as they move around the city – they receive a response underpinned by a shared set of principles, evidence-informed practice, and a genuine understanding of adolescents, their contexts, and their lived experience.
This consistency matters. Young people experiencing exploitation or harm should not receive a different quality of response depending on which borough they are in. SAIL provides the framework for London’s safeguarding partners to deliver that consistent, high-quality practice.
A platform for continuous development
This digital resource is not intended as an exhaustive account of all aspects of adolescent safeguarding. Rather, it is a platform that will continue to be built upon and further developed as policy and practice evolves. The guidance represents London’s collective commitment to enhancing adolescent safeguarding practice and keeping young people safer.
“We hope that you find this a valuable resource and that it fulfils its purpose of enhancing our adolescent safeguarding practice and keeping young people safer in London.”
Florence Kroll CBE, Chair of the London Adolescent Safeguarding Oversight Board
If you are working to safeguard adolescents in London, SAIL offers the evidence base, practical guidance, and shared principles to support your practice. Access the full digital guidance to discover how it can strengthen your work with vulnerable young people across the capital.