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Professor Carlene Firmin's Outputs (42)

A line in the sand: Moving from surface improvement to foundational shifts to develop effective responses to extra-familial risks and harms (2024)
Journal Article
Firmin, C., Lefevre, M., Langhoff, K., & Ruch, G. (online). A line in the sand: Moving from surface improvement to foundational shifts to develop effective responses to extra-familial risks and harms. The British Journal of Social Work, Article bcae193. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcae193

For over a decade, UK policymakers have responded to global ambitions to protect children from exploitation and other forms of extra-familial risks and harms by recommending that social workers coordinate local responses. This has required a signific... Read More about A line in the sand: Moving from surface improvement to foundational shifts to develop effective responses to extra-familial risks and harms.

Binaries and Blurred Lines: The Ethical Stress of Child Protection Social Work in the Grey of Extra-Familial Harm (2024)
Journal Article
Firmin, C. (online). Binaries and Blurred Lines: The Ethical Stress of Child Protection Social Work in the Grey of Extra-Familial Harm. Ethics and Social Welfare, https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2024.2414963

Social care responses to extra-familial harm require social workers to work across the binaries of welfare and justice, victim and perpetrator, parent and professional, risk and protection. This paper examines the ethical consequences of working in t... Read More about Binaries and Blurred Lines: The Ethical Stress of Child Protection Social Work in the Grey of Extra-Familial Harm.

‘Relocating Adolescents’: The Costs of Out-of-Area Placements as a Response to Extra-Familial Risk/Harm (2024)
Journal Article
Holmes, L., Pinto, V. S., Wroe, L. E., Peace, D., & Firmin, C. (online). ‘Relocating Adolescents’: The Costs of Out-of-Area Placements as a Response to Extra-Familial Risk/Harm. The British Journal of Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcae109

In the UK, there has been increased awareness of the harm adolescents face beyond their families. There is no national strategy for safeguarding adolescents. One intervention that comes with particularly high costs is relocation placements by childre... Read More about ‘Relocating Adolescents’: The Costs of Out-of-Area Placements as a Response to Extra-Familial Risk/Harm.

‘Known to services’ or ‘Known by professionals’: Relationality at the core of trauma-informed responses to extra-familial harm (2024)
Journal Article
Firmin, C., Langhoff, K., Eyal-Lubling, R., Ana Maglajlic, R., & Lefevre, M. (2024). ‘Known to services’ or ‘Known by professionals’: Relationality at the core of trauma-informed responses to extra-familial harm. Children and Youth Services Review, 160, Article 107595. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2024.107595

Efforts to shift from criminal justice to welfare-based responses to exploitation and other forms of extra-familial risks and harms, have centred relational approaches. In particular, the role that relationships between professionals and young people... Read More about ‘Known to services’ or ‘Known by professionals’: Relationality at the core of trauma-informed responses to extra-familial harm.

Innovation in Social Care: New Approaches for Young People Affected by Extra-Familial Risks and Harms (2024)
Book
Lefevre, M., Huegler, N., Lloyd, J., Owens, R., Damman, J., Ruch, G., & Firmin, C. (2024). Innovation in Social Care: New Approaches for Young People Affected by Extra-Familial Risks and Harms. Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.51952/9781447371250

Based on the findings of the Innovate Project, a four year pan-UK study to identify the processes of innovation in care this book asks: how can services be re-envisioned and transformed through innovation? The authors provide an overview of the proje... Read More about Innovation in Social Care: New Approaches for Young People Affected by Extra-Familial Risks and Harms.

Contextual Safeguarding: The Next Chapter (2023)
Book
Firmin, C., & Lloyd, J. (Eds.). (2023). Contextual Safeguarding: The Next Chapter. Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.51952/9781447366454

This book shares stories from child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation and peer violence about what has been learnt from the Contextual Safeguarding approach to understanding harm that happens to young people in their communities and wh... Read More about Contextual Safeguarding: The Next Chapter.

Identifying and responding to structural and system drivers of extra-familial harm using a Contextual Safeguarding approach (2023)
Book Chapter
Manister, M., Wroe, L., & Adams Elias, C. (2023). Identifying and responding to structural and system drivers of extra-familial harm using a Contextual Safeguarding approach. In C. Firmin, & J. Lloyd (Eds.), Contextual Safeguarding: The Next Chapter (30-43). Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.56687/9781447366454-008

As the previous chapter has shown, there is a case to be made for thinking about context beyond physical location and into how inequalities shape the places and spaces where young people spend their time. By exploring how racism, poverty, ableism, se... Read More about Identifying and responding to structural and system drivers of extra-familial harm using a Contextual Safeguarding approach.

From peers and parks to patriarchy and poverty: inequalities in young people’s experiences of extra-familial harm and the child protection system (2023)
Book Chapter
Wroe, L., Lloyd, J., & Manister, M. (2023). From peers and parks to patriarchy and poverty: inequalities in young people’s experiences of extra-familial harm and the child protection system. In C. Firmin, & J. Lloyd (Eds.), Contextual Safeguarding: The Next Chapter (17-29). Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.56687/9781447366454-007

A body of social work literature evidences the relationship between the wider contexts of young people’s lives, such as poverty, austerity, racism and so on, their experiences of harm and the child protection response to it. This literature casts a l... Read More about From peers and parks to patriarchy and poverty: inequalities in young people’s experiences of extra-familial harm and the child protection system.

‘This has given people what is needed’: progress and pitfalls for establishing child protection pathways in England that address significant harm beyond families (2023)
Journal Article
Firmin, C., & Manister, M. (2023). ‘This has given people what is needed’: progress and pitfalls for establishing child protection pathways in England that address significant harm beyond families. Child and family law quarterly, 35(2), 159-182

Child protection systems, and the legal frameworks underpinning them, are central to safeguarding young people at risk of significant harm. However, their design often assumes that the risks young people need protecting from are attributable to the a... Read More about ‘This has given people what is needed’: progress and pitfalls for establishing child protection pathways in England that address significant harm beyond families.

‘Relocating’ Adolescents from Risk beyond the Home: What Do We Learn When We Ask about Safety? (2023)
Journal Article
Wroe, L. E., Peace, D., & Firmin, C. (2023). ‘Relocating’ Adolescents from Risk beyond the Home: What Do We Learn When We Ask about Safety?. The British Journal of Social Work, 53(5), 2958–2978. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcad077

There is an absence of evidence supporting the use of ‘out-of-area placements’ to address risks adolescents face beyond the home. Approximately one in ten adolescents in England and Wales are ‘relocated’ from their hometowns by children’s social care... Read More about ‘Relocating’ Adolescents from Risk beyond the Home: What Do We Learn When We Ask about Safety?.

Has the purpose outgrown the design? (2022)
Book Chapter
Firmin, C., & Knowles, R. (2022). Has the purpose outgrown the design?. In In: Holmes, D. (Eds) Safeguarding Adolescents: Risk, Resilience, Rights and Relationships. Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Safeguarding Young People Beyond the Family Home: Responding to Extra-Familial Risks and Harms (2022)
Book
Firmin, C., Lefevre, M., Huegler, N., & Peace, D. (2022). Safeguarding Young People Beyond the Family Home: Responding to Extra-Familial Risks and Harms. Policy Press

During adolescence, young people are exposed to a range of risks beyond their family homes including sexual and criminal exploitation, peer-on-peer abuse and gang-related violence. However, it has only been over the past two decades that the critical... Read More about Safeguarding Young People Beyond the Family Home: Responding to Extra-Familial Risks and Harms.

Safeguarding Young People Beyond the Family Home Responding to Extra-Familial Risks and Harms (2022)
Book
Firmin, C., Lefevre, M., Huegler, N., & Peace, D. (2022). Safeguarding Young People Beyond the Family Home Responding to Extra-Familial Risks and Harms. Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.51952/9781447367277

During adolescence, young people are exposed to a range of risks beyond their family homes including sexual and criminal exploitation, peer-on-peer abuse and gang-related violence. However, it has only been over the past two decades that the critical... Read More about Safeguarding Young People Beyond the Family Home Responding to Extra-Familial Risks and Harms.

Serious Case Reviews and Extra-Familial Harm: Missed and Emerging Opportunities to Develop Contextual Practices (2022)
Journal Article
Firmin, C., Manister, M., & Peace, D. (2023). Serious Case Reviews and Extra-Familial Harm: Missed and Emerging Opportunities to Develop Contextual Practices. The British Journal of Social Work, 53(2), 1077-1098. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcac172

The interpersonal harms that young people experience beyond their families have been documented internationally as have the challenges of protecting those effected using existing child welfare systems. Concern about this in the UK has led to developm... Read More about Serious Case Reviews and Extra-Familial Harm: Missed and Emerging Opportunities to Develop Contextual Practices.

Green Lights and Red Flags: The (Im)Possibilities of Contextual Safeguarding Responses to Extra-Familial Harm in the UK (2022)
Journal Article
Firmin, C., & Lloyd, J. (2022). Green Lights and Red Flags: The (Im)Possibilities of Contextual Safeguarding Responses to Extra-Familial Harm in the UK. Social Sciences, 11(7), Article 303. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11070303

Young people experience significant harm in a range of social contexts and from adults and peers unconnected to their caregivers. The recognition of this by policymakers in England, Scotland, and Wales has resulted in child protection policy framewor... Read More about Green Lights and Red Flags: The (Im)Possibilities of Contextual Safeguarding Responses to Extra-Familial Harm in the UK.

Holding It Together? Professional Perspectives on the Role of Relationships when Relocating Young People due to Extra-familial Harm (2021)
Journal Article
Firmin, C., & Owens, R. (2022). Holding It Together? Professional Perspectives on the Role of Relationships when Relocating Young People due to Extra-familial Harm. International Journal on Child Maltreatment, 5(2), 231-255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42448-021-00106-5

When young people come to harm in extra-familial contexts, professionals may move them a distance from their home community to protect them, and in doing so disrupt relationships in which they have encountered harm. However, relocations can also frac... Read More about Holding It Together? Professional Perspectives on the Role of Relationships when Relocating Young People due to Extra-familial Harm.

From ‘no further action’ to taking action: England’s shifting social work responses to extra-familial harm (2021)
Journal Article
Firmin, C., Lloyd, J., Walker, J., & Owens, R. (2022). From ‘no further action’ to taking action: England’s shifting social work responses to extra-familial harm. Critical and Radical Social Work, 10(1), 57–75. https://doi.org/10.1332/204986021x16231574711145

In 2018, England’s safeguarding guidelines were amended to explicitly recognise a need for child protection responses to extra-familial harms. This article explores the feasibility of these amendments, using quantitative and qualitative analysis of c... Read More about From ‘no further action’ to taking action: England’s shifting social work responses to extra-familial harm.

Last Resort or Best Interest? Exploring the Risk and Safety Factors That Inform the Rates of Relocation for Young People Abused in Extra-Familial Settings (2021)
Journal Article
Firmin, C., Wroe, L., & Bernard, D. (2022). Last Resort or Best Interest? Exploring the Risk and Safety Factors That Inform the Rates of Relocation for Young People Abused in Extra-Familial Settings. The British Journal of Social Work, 52(1), 573–592. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcab106

When young people are harmed in extra-familial settings children’s services may place them into care at a distance from their home authority to remove them from contexts in which they are considered ‘at risk’. Guidance and regulation suggest such int... Read More about Last Resort or Best Interest? Exploring the Risk and Safety Factors That Inform the Rates of Relocation for Young People Abused in Extra-Familial Settings.