Children and young people who come to the attention of services must always be recognised and treated as children, regardless of their circumstances and safeguarded accordingly. It is vital to gather and share information from a range of sources, including the child or young person themselves, their family, peers, community, and the practitioners they engage with. This holistic approach enables a more accurate assessment of both risk and protective factors, ensuring that interventions are appropriately tailored to reduce the likelihood of further harm.

Addressing CCE is a complex and evolving challenge that demands a shared responsibility across agencies. Multi-agency collaboration is essential, not only to safeguard those at risk but also to disrupt exploitation networks. Effective disruption tactics and the prosecution of perpetrators are critical components in reducing the prevalence and impact of CCE.

Northern Ireland presents a unique safeguarding landscape, shaped by its socio­political history and complex community dynamics. The legacy of conflict, combined with ongoing socio-economic challenges, has created conditions in which children and young people may be particularly vulnerable to CCE. A nuanced understanding of these contextual factors is essential to ensure that assessment, intervention, and support strategies are both effective and appropriately tailored to the local environment.

Contextual Safeguarding is an approach to child safeguarding and protection that extends beyond the traditional focus on abuse within the family setting. It recognises that the relationships children and young people form in their neighbourhoods, schools, peer groups, and online environments can also expose them to violence, abuse, and exploitation.

Perpetrators are often well organised and use sophisticated tactics. Research would indicate that they target areas where children and young people gather without much adult supervision, for example party-houses, parks or shopping centres or sites on the internet, hostels, food outlets, taxi ranks, outside schools. CCE can affect children and young people living at home and those living away from home. Going missing from their home, care or school can render a child or young person particularly vulnerable to CCE.

Vulnerability to exploitation does not occur in isolation. It is shaped by interconnected factors, sometimes referred to as “nested challenges” that compound risk and make children and young people more susceptible to harm. These challenges and contextual harms often overlap and reinforce each other, creating complex safeguarding needs. Examples include: poverty, family stress, peer influence, domestic violence, and community violence. Dr Colm Walsh’s 2023 report provides critical insights into the intersection of contextual and criminal harms in Northern Ireland. Together, these factors significantly increase a child or young person’s susceptibility to exploitation. His studies highlight that these contextual harms often go unrecognised by young people themselves, making them more susceptible to grooming and coercion. Young people require safer spaces where they can reflect on and process both contextual and criminal harms, reinforcing the importance of community-based, trauma‑informed supports to reduce risk and promote safety.

Exposure to violence, including being witness to and/or victim of it, can normalise it, resulting in the young person being unable to recognise their own victimisation. This approach is particularly relevant in addressing CCE, where perpetrators often exploit these external environments to coerce, control and manipulate individuals. This approach emphasises the need for child protection systems to engage with individuals and sectors that have influence over these extra-familial contexts.

Recent research commissioned by the Department of Justice and led by Dr Gillian Kane (Ulster University) highlights significant obstacles to identifying CCE in Northern Ireland. These include the absence of a legal duty to identify victims, safety concerns for those making referrals, and statutory definitions that fail to capture the hyper-local nature of exploitation. The study underscores the need for tailored referral processes and greater awareness among practitioners, reinforcing the importance of engaging with extra-familial contexts where harm is often normalised.