A CSPRP commissioned report was published in March 2025, with the purpose of exploring ‘how race, racism and racial bias influence how professionals identify, understand and respond to the safeguarding needs of’ Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage children and their families (‘C&F’).
Details
The report analysed 40 rapid reviews which local safeguarding partners must undertake promptly following every notified serious incident involving C&F (e.g., serious harm or death)– and 14 Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review (LCSPRs) (formal, lengthier reviews) relating to incidents between January 2022 and March 2024.
Key findings
- Reviews do not consistently explore how race, ethnicity and culture influence practice responses to C&F. Most reviews (39) were silent on race-related inequity or barriers to accessing services.
- Similarly, reviews do not mention whether racism could have had an impact on service and practice responses (with only one review implicating this element).
- By contrast, if the review’s ‘Terms of Reference’ or key lines of enquiry focused on the implications of race/ethnicity, racism, or bias, the reviewer more often considered these factors for the learning points.
- Reviews sometimes omitted featuring the child’s voice or experience, or did so only to a limited extent.
Learning points
Resultingly, learning points were subpar, often lacking detail. In particular:
- Practitioners lacked insight into how race, ethnicity and culture interplay with children’s identities and how these shape their lived experiences. Consequently, practitioners had a poor understanding of children’s vulnerabilities and the risks they face.
- Only some reviews identified and acknowledged service barriers for C&F, such as racialised trauma from previous interactions, or language barriers.
- Discussion around the impact of community was limited.
- Agencies lacked full knowledge about known risk of harm factors, and incidents were often viewed in isolation. Moreover, risks were not appropriately responded to or followed up by practitioners.
- C&F were both ‘hyper-visible’ and ‘invisible’ at the same time: C&F were visible when harmful or suspicious behaviour was involved; by contrast, the need to safeguard C&F against (unique) risks was often ignored.
Commentary
More emphasis needs to be placed on the role of race and racism when professionals try to identify, understand and respond to the safeguarding needs of C&F. To this end, the full report’s recommendations may be useful for any youth justice professional working with C&F, including that practitioners should:
- Start from the position that C&F will have experienced racism in their lives;
- Help create the conditions and foster environments where professionals feel confident to explore race, culture and ethnicity robustly and to identify and challenge racism when it occurs in practice;
- Review local strategies and approaches to addressing race, racism and racial bias in relation to work with C&F; and
- Remember that race and racism often stay silent in many professionals’ or agencies’ works/reviews, and both consider the implications and be mindful of the need to voice these issues.