Risk, Vulnerability and Complexity: Transitional Safeguarding as a Reframing of Binary Perspectives

Transitional Safeguarding is emerging as a new concept in social work and care, inviting us to reconsider the binary divides of existing adult child safeguarding systems. These often fail adequately meet needs young people, particularly those experiencing extra-familial risks harm. acknowledges ‘in-between’ position people adolescence, relating both their physical psychosocial development but also rights services, participation wellbeing. As such, transitional challenges conventional ideas about how we frame risk vulnerability, requiring narrow conceptualisations systems practice. From perspective, splitting involved creating binary, ‘either/or’ categories (such who presents ‘a risk’ ‘at risk’) may be defensive response overwhelming anxiety complexity, familiar characteristic care This conceptual paper intended help inform underpin practice responses based on from first phase four year Economic Social Research Council funded research project innovations practices can improve service experiences outcomes for facing