Home Safer Young Lives Completed Projects

Safer Young Lives is part of the Institute of Applied Social Research

Completed Projects

  1. Learning from the Experts Young people’s perspectives on how we can support healthy child development after sexual abuse. This was a participatory action research project focusing on supporting mental health and wellbeing after sexual abuse in adolescence.
  2. Small steps can make a big difference (Albania) was a participatory action research on young people’s experiences of seeking justice and support in Albania in relation to sexual violence
  3. Learning about the Lighthouse As part of a wider evaluation of the Lighthouse (London’s Child House), undertaken by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), we were commissioned to elicit children and young people’s perspectives on the service to ascertain what they thought worked well and what could be improved.
  4. The RISE Learning Network: This network aims to promote and facilitate learning on recovery and reintegration (R&R) approaches that improve outcomes for children and adolescents affected by child sexual exploitation (CSE).
  5. Being Heard: Collecting and reviewing international evidence on young people’s involvement in research on sexual violence – including a consideration of the meaning, purpose, challenges and opportunities of doing so.
  6. Life Skills, Leadership and Limitless Potential: Supporting children and young people affected by sexual violence in Europe by strengthening and facilitating participatory practice. November 2017.
  7. Making Noise: Children’s voices for positive change after sexual abuse, commissioned by the Children’s Commissioner for England and published on 20 April 2017.
  8. Children's Voices: Children and young people's perspectives on the police's role in safeguarding.
  9. The Contextual Safeguarding team, supported by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, have created a range of resources for schools, multi-agency partnerships and inspectorates for tackling harmful sexual behaviour in schools. Beyond referrals: levers for addressing harmful sexual behaviour in schools
  10. FCASE Evaluation: Evaluation of Barnardo's Families and communities against sexual exploitation (FCASE) project.
  11. Making Justice Work: Having received internal investment from the University of Bedfordshire Research Investment Programme, Dr Camille Warrington and Dr Helen Beckett undertook a pilot participatory, action research study exploring how experiences of police investigations and the courts could be improved for those affected by CSE.
  12. Evaluation of Barnardo's Police Service of NI Pilot Missing Initiative: The centre was commissioned by Barnardo's NI to undertake an evaluation of a pilot missing initiative developed by the Barnardo's Safe Choices NI service (a specialist CSE and missing service) and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
  13. ESRC Series: 'Teenagers in Foster Care': The ESRC Seminar Series 'Teenagers in Foster Care' ran from 2013 to 2015 and was a collaboration between the Rees Centre at the University of Oxford, Department of Education, the Social Policy and Intervention Department of the University of Oxford, the Institute of Applied Social Research at the University of Bedfordshire and the Department of Social Work at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
  14. Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation: A Study of Current Practice in London: In autumn 2013, London Councils and the London Safeguarding Children Board commissioned a team of researchers from the University of Bedfordshire to map current responses to child sexual exploitation (CSE) across London.
  15. Research into gang-associated sexual exploitation and sexual violence: The research was commissioned by the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England as part of its Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups.
  16. Four films on gang-associated sexual violence and exploitation made by young people for their peers, professionals and policy makers: We worked with young people from eight different youth projects across England to produce a series of films about what needs to be done to address the issues of gang-associated sexual violence and exploitation.
  17. Harmful sexual behaviour in groups: The individual and contextual characteristics of young people who sexually harm in groups. A briefing on the findings from a study in four London boroughs
  18. Evaluation of Barnardo's Safe Accommodation Project for Sexually Exploited and Trafficked Young People: In 2011 Barnardo's received grant funding from the Department for Education to deliver a two-year 'Safe Accommodation Project'.
  19. The 'Be Healthy' Project: This project aimed to empower young people affected by CSE to understand their health needs and share this understanding with others.
  20. MsUnderstood: This project aimed to build local responses to peer-on-peer abuse. The final report can be accessed here [PDF].
  21. Learning Action Partnership to Prevent CSE in Bulgaria: working with the Bulgaria Family Planning Association to develop a 'learning action partnership'.
  22. Evaluation of AVA project: empowering young people to challenge domestic and sexual violence.
  23. NSPCC Mapping: mapping audit of therapeutic services
  24. Victim Support - Adult Support Services: Developed a model of provision for adults who have experienced child sexual abuse.
  25. Pace Evaluation: Evaluation of the 'Parents as partners in safeguarding children and young people in Lancashire' programme run by PACE.
  26. Nightwatch: CSE In Plain Sight: A 12 month pilot programme working in 12 Local Authority areas across England.
  27. Public Health England Literature Review: Public Health England commissioned the centre to undertake a review of UK literature on child sexual exploitation and elicit learning of relevance to public health.
  28. The Children's Social Care Innovation programme: This programme sought to support the development, testing and sharing of effective ways of supporting children who need help from children’s social care services. There was approximately £100m committed to the programme over 2014-16, funding 60+ innovation projects.
  29. Our Voices: Supporting young people's participation in preventing sexual violence across Europe
  30. Our Voices Too: Working with children, young people and professionals in Europe to develop a strengths-based approach to addressing sexual violence.
  31. CSE and Policing Knowledge Hub: This project aimed to develop a knowledge hub to support policing responses to child sexual exploitation (CSE), other forms of sexual abuse and associated vulnerabilities in adolescence.
  32. Policing Models and CSE: Research on models of policing in child sexual exploitation (CSE), and how they may contribute to improved detection, disruption and prosecution outcomes.
  33. Rotherham Project: This project aimed to provide strategic evidence to inform practice development on child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.
  34. Learning about online harm: Researching children and young people's perspectives on how they are educated about online sexual harm and how this could be improved.
  35. The Alexi Project: Evaluation of the Hub and Spoke model of CSE service development.
  36. Policy: Guidance and Definitions: The centre works across a range of projects to develop practice guidance and support the development of policy definitions of CSE.
  37. The London Safeguarding Adolescents Steering Group Creating contextual policy through targeted programmes of work with inspectorates, commissioners, safeguarding boards and Pan-London decision-makers to ensure policy frameworks facilitate contextual practice.
  38. Contextual Safeguarding Audit Toolkit A free audit toolkit for reviewing operational and strategic responses to peer-on-peer abuse within multi-agency partnerships.
  39. Contextual Case Reviews a methodology to review the extent which services are equipped to recognise and engage with extra-familial risks when safeguarding young people.
  40. Contextual Safeguarding Programme Developing contextual responses to the abuse and exploitation of young people.
  41. Faith-sensitive RSE research: In line with the new requirement for relationships and sex education (RSE) to take account of the religious background of pupils, Faiths against Child Sexual Exploitation (FACES; a Luton-based coalition of Christian and Muslim leaders) have commissioned us to elicit children and young people’s views on what faith-sensitive RSE might look like.
  42. ‘Cross-Border Peer-on-Peer Abuse and Child Criminal Exploitation Thematic CSPR’. This has been commissioned collectively by Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership, South Gloucestershire Children’s Partnership and North Somerset Safeguarding Children’s Partnership and pulls together the learning from recent serious incidents involving young people and concerning child criminal exploitation and serious youth violence.
  43. A Modern Slavery Practice Manual has been commissioned by Justice and Care as part of the Modern Slavery Expert Practitioner Network project which is being delivered over a two year period. The project aims to increase the number of successful prosecutions of traffickers/exploiters, increase justice for victims and ultimately work towards the prevention of human trafficking.
  44. The Tackling Child Exploitation (TCE) Support Programme worked with local areas to support the development and delivery of effective strategic responses to child exploitation and extra-familial harm, culminating in a set of Practice Principles designed to support multi-agency partners responding to these forms of harm.
  45. Our Voices III was the third phase of work led by the Safer Young Lives Research Centre, and co-funded by Oak Foundation. It focuses on the participation of young people impacted by child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSA/E) in research, policy and practice.

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