Carlene Firmin MBE is a Principal Research Fellow at the University of Bedfordshire, where she leads their Contextual Safeguarding programme. Carlene has researched young people's experiences of community and group-based violence since 2005, advocating for comprehensive approaches that keep young people safe in public places, schools, and peer groups.

List of Tables. List of Figures. Acknowledgements. Part 1: The challenge we face and the lens through which we view it. 1: Opening. 2: Extra-Familial Abuse in Context. 3: A Flawed Equation = A Systemic Gap. 4: A Contextual Lens. Part 2: Establishing the building blocks for Change. 5: Crystallising Ideas: When tweaking is insufficient. 6: Articulating an ambition: A Contextual Safeguarding Framework. 7: Creating an authorising environment: Contextualising national policy frameworks. Part 3: Mapping and test running Contextual Safeguarding Systems. 8: The developers, their tools and their roadmap. 9: Bringing Context into Work with Children and Families: Level 1 Contextual Safeguarding. 10: Believing that change can happen: Level 2 Contextual Safeguarding. 11: Policy frameworks and strategic partnerships. 12: Values and Impact: Deepening the Contextual Safeguarding Framework. Part 4 Looking back and planning forward: a pit stop on the path to Contextual Safeguarding. 13: Reaching my threshold: the grounds for state, and social work, intervention. 14 Formulating the 'social work' offer in a Contextual Safeguarding System. 15 The techniques and pitfalls of change: Mirroring, co-creation and case studies. 16: The legality and ethics of Contextual Safeguarding. 17 On the Side of Hope: Next steps on the road to Contextual Safeguarding. References. Index.