Safeguarding Adolescents in London (SAIL) Talking Heads Series w/ Abi Billinghurst — Transcript

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1. 0:14Hello, I'm Abi. I am the founder and chief exe.  Abianda is a charity that works with girls and
2. 0:21young women who are affected by criminal  exploitation and violence that's typically
3. 0:25associated with gangs and county lines. and  we've been delivering services across London
4. 0:30and working nationally for over 10 years. I'm very  pleased to be talking to you about the concept of
5. 0:36participation is protection and how we safeguard  in partnership with girls and young women who are
6. 0:43affected by criminal exploitation and violence.  So when safeguarding girls and young women who are
7. 0:50impacted by criminal exploitation and violence,  there is a very real and understandable tension
8. 0:56at play. On one hand, we have a duty to protect,  to act, to intervene, to prevent serious harm
9. 1:03wherever possible. And in high-risk, volatile  contexts, protection quite understandably takes
10. 1:09priority. But at Abiandza, we are also deeply  aware that when protection is prioritized without
11. 1:17participation, safeguarding can unintentionally  replicate the very dynamics of control, coercion,
12. 1:24and powerlessness that young women are already  experiencing. Dr. Camille uh Warrington is someone
13. 1:31who speaks uh extensively on that topic. So the  question for us is not whether protection matters.
14. 1:38Of course it absolutely does. The question is how  we hold protection rights and participation rights
15. 1:46together, especially when the risks are complex,  networked, and urgent. Girls and young women
16. 1:53affected by criminal exploitation and violence are  not living single issue lives. They're navigating
17. 2:00layered harm across relationships, families,  communities, systems, structures, and places,
18. 2:06often under constant surveillance, threat, or  pressure. And we know that this harm is not
19. 2:14experienced evenly. It's frequently exacerbated by  intersectionality by the way gender, race, class,
20. 2:23care experience, immigration status, disability,  and poverty intersect in young women's lives.
21. 2:29And certainly at Abiandza, we see many girls,  particularly black and global majority girls,
22. 2:34um where this means increased visibility to  systems of control and often criminalization, and
23. 2:42sometimes reduced access to care, protection, and  belief. And these intersecting identities shape
24. 2:48how on one hand risk is perceived, how behavior  is interpreted, and how safeguarding responses um
25. 2:54are applied. and they also shape whether a young  woman is seen as vulnerable, culpable, or simply
26. 3:00overlooked altogether. Um, and if you haven't  yet, please do refer to Janine Davis's work on
27. 3:05safeguarding child protection and adultification  bias. So, in this context, safeguarding decisions
28. 3:12don't land in a vacuum. They land inside  unequal systems and power dynamics and
29. 3:18inside relationships that can either deepen harm  or begin to um interrupt it. And this is why
30. 3:24Abiander's safeguarding approach is deliberately  relational. We work from the principle that we
31. 3:30cannot safeguard young women effectively if she is  not present and involved in the conversation. Not
32. 3:36because participation is comfortable or an easy  option. Far from it. But because safeguarding
33. 3:42that happens without her, we think is far more  likely to break trust, to trigger disengagement,
34. 3:49and to collapse potentially under pressure. When  safeguarding becomes something that's done to her
35. 3:55rather than done with her, it becomes another  system to survive rather than a relationship
36. 4:01that can hold her and actually allow her to  experience what power holding and decision
37. 4:07making might feel like in systems and structures.  Our works underpinned by really four really
38. 4:13important pillars um of practice participatory,  contextual, ecological and solution focused. So
39. 4:22a participatory approach is not about consultation  after decisions have already been made. It's about
40. 4:28actively creating and protecting a space for  her voice to shape decisions even in high-risk
41. 4:35moments. This might mean slowing down processes  which can feel counterintuitive. Um it might
42. 4:42mean explaining decisions transparently, seeking  consent from her wherever possible and supporting
43. 4:49her to understand not just what's happening but  also why is it happening and these moments build
44. 4:55something critical relationship and trust. A  contextual approach recognizes that harm doesn't
45. 5:01sit neatly within individuals in their remediate  environment. risk and harm is produced through
46. 5:08environments, relationships, systems, structures,  networks, many of which she has little control
47. 5:15over. And again, if you're not familiar, please  do look at the work by Professor Carlen Furman and
48. 5:21her team in the contextual safeguarding network  at Durham University. An ecological lens allows us
49. 5:27to see how safeguarding action in one area of her  life can actually escalate risk in another and why
50. 5:34decisions must be made with a deep understanding  of her wider world. And being solution focused
51. 5:40means we ask not what is the problem but what  helps. What changes does she want to see in her
52. 5:46life? What increases safety now? What works and  what doesn't work in keeping her engaged? and what
53. 5:54strengthens her ability to navigate risk beyond  our involvement because we cannot be involved in
54. 5:59her life every hour of the day. Central to all  of this is a deliberate shift away from what we
55. 6:06call a deficit model which focuses on behavior  compliance and control and where she can often
56. 6:14become the problem. Instead, we work from a  strengths and competence-based position where
57. 6:19her expertise is valued and central. We ask,  for example, how she survived, what strategies,
58. 6:28strategies, and skills is she already deploying to  get navigate harm and trauma. What knowledge does
59. 6:34she hold about people, places, and timings that no  system holds about her life? Charlie Cross, a much
60. 6:44valued member of the Abiandanda team, articulates  wonderfully how a young woman's insight allows
61. 6:51safeguarding to move beyond paper plans and  procedures and into something far more protective,
62. 6:57a relationship that's grounded in trust, realism,  and respect. In practice, this often means
63. 7:04sitting with risk a little longer than can feel  comfortable. It means pausing instead of reacting
64. 7:10and it means risk assessing our own actions asking  whether they will strengthen safety or fracture
65. 7:17trust and increase danger. We use participatory  tools such as contextual safety planning,
66. 7:25relationship and location mapping all on the basis  of her expertise and also the deconstruction of
67. 7:31exploitative narratives not just to manage risk  but to deepen understanding and critical thinking
68. 7:38together. And when we must act without consent  because sometimes we must when serious harm is
69. 7:44present, we do so transparently wherever possible.  We explain what's happening, what may come next,
70. 7:51and how she can remain informed and involved.  Because even when protection must take precedence,
71. 7:58relationship still matters. This is not  soft safeguarding. Again, Charlie's words,
72. 8:05it's careful, ethical, and defensible safeguarding  because when safeguarding is experienced as
73. 8:11control, young women generally disengage.  But when it is experienced as a relationship,
74. 8:18there's a much greater chance that they stay.  And it is relationships, not surveillance,
75. 8:25not compliance, not control, that keep young  women safer, more connected, and more able to
76. 8:31imagine a different future for themselves.  At Abiander, we don't see participation as
77. 8:36an optional extra. It's in our DNA. We see it as  the mechanism through which safeguarding works.
78. 8:43That's why we say participation is protection.  So if you'd like to learn a bit more about
79. 8:50Abiand's safeguarding approach, specialist  training, and systems change work, including
80. 8:54our work on criminal exploitation, contextual  safeguarding, and participatory practice,
81. 8:59you can explore our resources and expertise at  abiander.com. It's been lovely to talk to you.