Creating conducive conditions for relational practice to flourish in our adolescent safeguarding systems

This blog introduces the first article in a series dedicated to the forthcoming second edition of the Adolescent Safeguarding in London (ASIL) handbook.

24/07/2024

By Colin Michel and Luke Billingham

In this blog, Colin Michel and Luke Billingham introduce their article on relational practice in adolescent safeguarding systems. To read the full article, click here, or scroll to the bottom of this page.

Colin and Luke would like to express their gratitude to Dez Holmes, Jeanne King, Sunniva Minsaas, Ben Byrne, Betty Lynch and Alex Honnan-MacDonald, who thoughtfully reviewed an earlier version of this article, and provided helpful comments and encouragement.

There is widespread agreement among both researchers and practitioners that high quality relational practice with young people forms an essential foundation for effective adolescent safeguarding. But there is substantial professional uncertainty about what it means to ‘do’ relational practice well, and what it should involve.

The term ‘relational practice’ does not have an agreed definition (Lamph et al 2023). It is used to refer to several types of relationship: professional relationships in direct work with young people; young people’s relationships with people, places, and agencies; and the relations between professional roles, organisations, and sectors. Improvements in each and all of these relationships can result in substantial benefits for young people’s safety.

We suggest that the capacities for attunement and analysis are central to relational practice, and are thus vital for adolescent safeguarding, whether practised in social work, youth work, youth justice, community development, or other professions in direct work with young people. These capacities enable practitioners to both connect with and assess young people’s situations, as well as to support the development of young people’s wellbeing and agency.

There are several constraining forces which can prevent relational practice from flourishing in adolescent safeguarding systems. Relational practice is demanding on those working with young people facing complex risks and harms. Practitioners can be expected to nurture and sustain these relationships with minimal practical guidance, while working within inflexible, excessive and/or conflicting procedures, with large workloads, and under considerable pressure. Managers can find themselves expected to narrow practitioners’ attention to risk management in work with young people. This can operate at the expense of attentiveness to relationships, and limit potential to support positive change in young people’s lives. For strategic leaders collaborating in multi-agency systems, the aliveness of relational practice with young people can sometimes get lost from view. 

Practitioner development of knowledge, skills and confidence through reflective supervision and systems leadership can support relational practice to flourish. We put forward a framework to show how conducive conditions for relational practice can be fostered. The framework aims to guide practitioners, managers and leaders, and to support exploration of constraints on and enablers for relational practice within local areas.

Our aim is to strengthen the case for strategic leaders to create conducive conditions for relational practice to flourish in adolescent safeguarding systems.

9xAs: conducive conditions for relational practice in adolescent safeguarding system

👉Download the 9xA conducive conditions framework here

Adolescent Safeguarding in London (ASIL) Handbook

  • This is the first article in a series dedicated to the forthcoming second edition of the Adolescent Safeguarding in London (ASIL) handbook.
  • ASIL is a practice handbook for everyone who works to build safety with young Londoners facing different types of harm in their lives.
  • The first edition of the handbook was published in 2022. Currently, the central ASIL project team is developing a second edition which will be published in late 2024.

Authors

Colin Michel has worked in children and young people’s services for more than 20 years as a manager, facilitator, and consultant in the voluntary and public sectors. Over the last few years, he has collaborated with local partnerships to support their development of adolescent safeguarding strategies. In 2022, Colin created “Adolescent Safeguarding in London” (ASIL) on behalf of the London Adolescent Safeguarding Oversight Board. He is currently working on the development of the second edition of the ASIL handbook.

Luke Billingham is a youth worker at Hackney Quest, an independent youth charity. In that role, he supports young people facing complex difficulties, particularly within the education system, and works alongside young people on neighbourhood improvement projects in Hackney Wick, the area he’s from. Additionally, he is a Research Associate at The Open University, focusing on violence reduction. Luke was the lead author of “Against Youth Violence: A Social Harm Perspective” (co-authored with Keir-Irwin Rogers), published by Bristol University Press in 2022.