Introduction

As local areas have adopted a CS approach, many have increased attention to young people's peer relationships as a source of both harm and protection. This chapter will explore themes which have surfaced while reflecting on the developing practice with peers being piloted in CS Scale-Up sites. We outline some potential benefits and risks, identified in the data, of safeguarding work with peer groups, and use this to reflect on what happens when these practices are employed without the application of the values; how might this impact the young people involved? If CS values are not underpinning the practice with peers, could we do more harm than good?

Within the Scale-Up data, we found multiple approaches employed to help focus on peer relationships and, more specifically, practice which targets the peer group. CS activities can take place at two levels. At level one, professionals embed recognition of extra-familial contexts into their work with individual children and families, using this to inform assessment, decision making and interventions. This might include sitting with the young person and, with curiosity and care, inviting them to reflect on their experiences in their friendships and wider peer relationships, their education settings or the places where they spend their time. Tools including peer mapping or safety mapping (see the CS website) can be used with the young person to facilitate reflections and help understand their experiences of harm in those contexts and, also importantly, their experiences of comfort and support. This can play a valuable role in assessment, decision making and planning for individual young people and their families. At level two, professionals work to actively change extra-familial contexts identified as impacting the safety of young people, meaning the peer group, school or public space could become subject to a safeguarding assessment, meeting or plan. This might include engaging with several members of a peer group, rather than an individual, to better understand the needs, functioning and social conditions which might be contributing to their collective experience of safety. It will also include engaging with the trusted adults who have reach into the group and capacity to provide guardianship to it.

While there is emerging good practice from Scale-Up sites, there is also increasing awareness of potential challenges when establishing practice with peers when this is not underpinned by the values.