Create opportunities for children/young people to weigh up risks and recognise that sometimes this means they will take risks we as adults and professionals disagree with. Read more about contextual safeguarding here.Įnsure children/young people know the risks – talk about peer-on-peer abuse in an age-appropriate way.
Understand your local community and the context in which children and young people at your school or college are growing up. Staff should recognise that even if there are no reported cases of peer-on-peer abuse, such abuse may still be taking place and is simply not being reported Ensure that your reporting systems are well promoted, easily understood and easily accessible and have the confidence of children and young people. Issues that might later provoke conflict should be addressed early. harmful behaviours will not be passed off as ‘banter’, ‘just growing up’ etc. Make it clear that your setting has a zero-tolerance whole-setting approach i.e. Staff and students should feel able to openly discuss issues that could motivate child on child abuse. Staff and students should treat each other with respect and understand how their actions affect others. The issues of the interplay between power, choice and consent should be explored with children/young people.Ĭreate a healthy, safe environment based on equality and informed choice allowing children and young people to know their rights and responsibilities, what to do if they are unhappy with something and what it means to give true consent. However, the child/young person who has been harmed should always be made to feel safe and actions will need to be taken to separate them from the those harming them and ensure that the abuse is not allowed to continue. Understanding the power dynamic that can exist between children and young people is very important in helping to identify and respond to peer on peer abuse – there will be a power imbalance and this may be due to age or status – social or economic – and the child/young person who has harmed in one situation may be the one being harmed in another so it is essential to try to understand the one harming and what is driving their behaviour before giving sanctions.Ī thorough investigation of the concerns should take place to include any wider contexts which may be known.
Keeping Children Safe in Education highlights the importance of awareness of factors across a school’s local community so they understand where young people are living, who they come into contact with and the dynamics at play – contextual safeguarding. Peer influence and pressure is a major factor in decisions made by young people to join groups. It is important to recognise that children are vulnerable to abuse in a range of social contexts as they form different relationships in their neighbourhoods, schools and online and these can feature violence and abuse which is often hidden to adults. Contextual safeguarding and power dynamics
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