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This paper aims to consider the opportunities for embedded methodologies for research into children’s social care and the ethics of this method.

This study draws upon embedded research from a two-year study into developing children’s social work approaches to extra-familial risk. Findings draw upon personal reflections from field notes, case reviews, practice observations and reflections.

Two findings are presented. Firstly, that embedded research provides numerous opportunities to develop child protection systems and practice. Secondly, a number of ethical questions and challenges of the methodology are presented.

This paper draws upon personal reflections from one study and is not intended to be representative of all approaches to embedded research methods.

Two practical recommendations are presented. Firstly, this paper outlines a number of recommendations to university researchers and host organisations on the facilitative attributes for embedded researchers. Secondly, questions are raised to support university ethics boards to assist ethical frameworks for embedded research.

This paper contributes original empirical data to the limited literature on embedded research in children’s services.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the opportunities of geographical child protection assessment methods for adolescents victimised in extra-familial contexts.

Presenting empirical evidence from an action research study within one child protection service in the UK, the study draws upon qualitative data from practice observations, case review, training and five context assessments.

Safety mapping and neighbourhood observations provide options to assess extra-familial contexts. Findings reveal that these methods support practitioners to build local knowledge of areas supporting interventions into community places rooted in principles of child protection.

While geographical methods are already used by the police to map the locations of crimes, these methods provide opportunities to account for young people’s own experiences of harm and support interventions into neighbourhood spaces supporting a contextual safeguarding approach to adolescent harm.

The paper highlights the need for further testing of contextual safeguarding approaches and policy guidance that outlines whose role it is to protect children in communities.

Geographical assessment methods provide a route to engage with young people’s lived experience of place. And develop interventions that target contexts and not just individuals affected by extra-familial harm.

The paper presents original research into the use of geographical assessment methods to be used within a child protection framework.

What makes a child vulnerable to harm? What is it about how we conceptualise vulnerability that draws us to thinking about individual traits and characteristics rather than broader systems and structures of power? In this chapter, we consider these questions by exploring student experiences of vulnerability in schools. Drawing on a case study of two student experiences of harmful sexual behaviour, we explore harm, abuse and vulnerability as spatial. In doing so, we present school responses to forms of harm, drawing a division between responses which focus on vulnerable individuals and the potential of responses which target the systemic, spatial and contextual causes of harm. We conclude by offering Contextual Safeguarding as an approach for addressing the social conditions of harm.

All school staff (teaching and support) now have a duty and obligation to protect and safeguard children in their care. To be able to do this, school staff need to understand what safeguarding is and how to respond, but also need to understand a number of other concepts such as: why children end up in vulnerable situation in the first place, how teaching practices reduce vulnerability, and how to engage with children and young people in an effective and efficient manner. This chapter explores these latter types of concerns and in doing so identifies that teachers and support staff are key professionals in identifying vulnerability, preventing the escalation of concerns, engaging with children and supporting them and their education over time as they engage with and attend school. This chapter also contains a detailed breakdown of the structure and the content of this edited collection and concludes with reflective comments about the implications of this collection for you as an individual and in your career: working with children and young people in educational establishments.

Economic adversity, geopolitical, and climate crises leading to the lack of decent and sustainable work are resulting in growing and diverse migratory movements. The precarious situation of many migrant workers in their countries of employment results in a state of social exclusion due to a lack of access to relevant information sources. The purpose of this paper is to further the understanding of the information behavior of migrants by examining the role that La Escuelita, a Hebrew night school for domestic migrant workers in Israel, plays as an information ground helping migrants struggling with social exclusion.

A qualitative methodology was used and data were collected using participation observation over a three-months period. Eight students at the school were interviewed using in-depth interviews.

La Escuelita served as a vehicle for social inclusion by providing valuable everyday information to the students in a caring environment. Information was shared in multiple directions between both the staff and the students and between the students. Language barriers were revealed as one of the main factors for social exclusion. Findings revealed that although the migrant workers who study at La Escuelita are information poor regarding their struggle for social inclusion into Israeli society, they wish to learn Hebrew as a way to overcome this exclusion.

Understanding the information behavior of marginalized populations is the first step into designing and implementing information services to help them toward social inclusion. This research presents an innovative contribution by examining the significance and roles of social connections in the setting of a unique information environment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a different perspective about the role that information plays in the integration process of migrant workers by exploring the views and opinions of individuals and organizations that work with these communities on a daily basis. The study proposes a new perspective of Ager and Strang’s framework of integration by looking at its different elements through the perspective provided by Gibson and Martin’s (2019) concept of information marginalization and Dervin’s sense-making notion of resistance.

Ten intermediaries working with migrants were interviewed using semi-structure interviews. They were analyzed using an integrative approach of deductive and inductive content analysis and rendered categories drawn from the theoretical frameworks and categories that emerged from the data.

The content analysis of the data revealed that information marginalization is characterized by the lack of cultural knowledge and lack of language proficiency that impact the migrants abilities to fulfill their everyday needs, experience a safe and stable environment. Information marginalization results in migrants experiencing self-protective behaviors such as secrecy and an inability to trust information sources that are not contextualized by insiders. Findings show that information resistance can be overcome by making information available in relevant formats and distributed through trusted sources.

The study revises the notion of information marginalization by trying to understand the social and cultural gap that from both sides of the issues of integration.

The study presents a different perspective of the role of information in the integration process of migrants by examining the views and opinions of intermediaries working with these populations. Also, the study reframes existing notions of information marginalization and resistance by addressing both sides of the cultural and social gap embodies marginalization.

Home-based work results in a specific spatiotemporal arrangement: one location serves as both the family home and the workplace. This mode of work shapes the everyday family life and at the same time has to be adjusted to suit the divergent needs of all family members involved, especially if children live in the same household. So far, research on home-based work has predominantly examined home-based workers’ and adults’ perspectives. Therefore, this chapter puts children’s perspectives at the centre of the inquiry and recognises the wider web of family relations and home by focussing on the spatiotemporal coordination of everyday family life.

This chapter examines how children conceptualise parental home-based work in relation to their everyday family life and home, and how they participate in family practices in the context of home-based work.

The contribution is based on original empirical data that were collected during fieldwork with 11 families in Austria. It builds on observations of daily routines in these families, photointerviews and guided tours through the home with kindergarten and primary school-aged children as well as qualitative interviews with home-based workers living in these households.

From children’s perspectives, the findings show various independences between paid work and family life when work and home coincide. The in-depth analysis of these everyday situations emphasises how children actively modify and shape everyday family life and home in the context of parental home-based work arrangements. Family practices are constantly done and in so doing turn temporarily both the house and the workspace into a home.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the life stories of migrant workers in Israel by analyzing different aspects of the information behavior that emerged from their narratives through a transitional perspective.

Narratives are a human way of communication that focuses on the stories people tell about themselves, their inner thoughts, their states of mind and how they perceive their own reality. In total, 20 Spanish-speaking domestic migrant workers were interviewed. The data collected form the narratives were study draws from the transitional theory.

The holistic phase of the content analysis revealed that participants experienced information poverty based on socioeconomic factors and perceptions of social exclusion, vulnerability and hostile surroundings. The content analysis yielded a theory of transitional information behavior that reflects the three stages of the migration process: ending of a new reality, a period of confusion and a sense of belonging. The theory encompasses four elements: process, disconnectedness, perceptions and patterns of response.

The study proposes an innovative look at information behavior of migrants by integrating a transitional perspective into the life stories of participants.

Research within the fields of youth sexuality and safeguarding, and ethical governance more broadly, has traditionally prioritised risk aversion over the rights of young people to participate in and shape research. This excludes younger people from setting agendas and directly communicating their lived experience to those in power. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper describes and draws upon findings from an innovative two year participatory action research study exploring sexual consent with young people through embedded and participatory research across seven sites. The project was designed with young people and practised non-traditional approaches to research consent. As well as co-producing research data, the findings highlight how methods of co-enquiry and being explicit about the research consent process enabled young people to develop competence that can be applied in other contexts.

The paper addresses ethical tensions between young people’s rights to participation and protection. It argues that alongside robust safeguarding procedures, there is equal need to develop robust participation and engagement strategies with an explicit focus on young people’s competence, agency and rights to participate regardless of the perceived sensitivity of the topic.

The paper concludes with proposals for future youth-centred research practice. These relate to research design, ethical governance processes around risk and sensitive topics, emphasis on working collaboratively with young people and practitioners, a greater focus on children and young people’s rights – including Gillick competence and fluid models of consent. In doing so, it presents an essential point of reference for those seeking to co-produce research with young people in the UK and beyond.