Transitions and Transitional Safeguarding

Transitional Safeguarding is an “approach to safeguarding adolescents and young adults fluidly across developmental stages which builds on the best available evidence, learns from both children’s and adult safeguarding practice and which prepares young people for their adult lives.” It focuses on safeguarding young people from adolescence into adulthood, recognising transition is a journey not an event, and every young person will experience this journey differently.

As Transitional Safeguarding is not simply transition planning for people moving from children to adult social care services, the RBWM Safeguarding Partnership believes that it can, and should, be applied to any transition between services and organisations.  Because it is about activity that often falls outside of traditional notions of both ‘transitions’ and ‘safeguarding’, the Partnership is emphasising a needs-led, personalised approach, requiring practitioners, leaders and all involved in services for children and adults, to consider how they might work together and think beyond their traditional boundaries for the benefit of people at any key life stage.

The Social Care institute for excellence (SCIE) have a variety of learning briefs and training courses around Transitions which may be of interest to you. To find out more information please click here: Learning Together to safeguard adults and children: a multi-agency systems approach (scie.org.uk).

Transitions task and finish group – RBWM Safeguarding Partnership

Transitions was identified as a safeguarding priority back at the first annual safeguarding conference in February 2020. Since then, the workstream has undertaken a significant amount of work over the past year and has recognised that transitions can happen at any point in a person’s life, not just the transition from children’s to adult services.  The group has produced a principles tool to support single agency annual assurance, a case audit tool to support multi-agency auditing of transition cases through the Quality and Effectiveness Group and a transitions protocol which sets out our aspiration for good transitions in the borough, regardless of when and where the transition happens.

Download the protocol

Download the single agency assurance tool

Download the Individual case audit tool