Navigating tensions in children’s safeguarding: A longitudinal qualitative study examining practitioner responses to tensions in multi-agency safeguarding processes

Abstract

Practitioners directly involved with safeguarding children are confronted by the ‘inherent messiness and ambiguity’ that the everyday practice of working with risk as part of a complex multi-agency network brings. Not only are there the pressures of working with uncertainty and risk in an increasingly risk-averse society, but the challenges of working in a public sector landscape transformed by austerity policies, resulting in generalised resource shortages. This combination of working practices framed by risk alongside working conditions constrained by resource pressures contributes to interrelated tensions for safeguarding practitioners. For example, the combination of service closures due to austerity policies and increased risk aversion has been attributed to the significant rise in referrals to children’s services before the COVID-19 pandemic. This increase saw the number of child protection investigations rise 139% in the ten years to 2017–18 and prompted the Commons Select Committee to describe children’s services as ‘at a breaking point’. Those operating at the ‘front line’ of service delivery – practitioners working directly with ‘at risk’ children and families – have had to navigate the conflicting pressures associated with higher demand and fewer resources to carry out the day-to-day work of keeping children safe. This study aims to advance our understanding of factors contributing to tensions like these in multi-agency safeguarding practices and the process by which practitioners manage these in their everyday work. Deploying a longitudinal qualitative research design, using interviews and audio diary methods, I explore these questions in two contexts: the period immediately before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the first 11 months of the UK pandemic experience. I direct attention to the multi-agency dynamics fundamental to children’s safeguarding practices yet often missing in street-level research. I develop a conceptual framework which draws from and expands on key theoretical contributions, including Michael Lipsky’s Street-Level Bureaucracy and Patrick Brown and Nicola Gale’s Tensions in Risk Work framework. By evidencing the applicability of the conceptual framework in the two contexts, I demonstrate the longer-term relevance of the research.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Rebecca Taylor: orcid.org/0000-0002-8677-0246

ORCID for Rosalind Edwards: orcid.org/0000-0002-3512-9029

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