Transitional Safeguarding in Further Education: Why It Matters and How the UK Narrative Must Evolve

The concept of transitional safeguarding is gaining traction within policy and practice circles, yet its application in the Further Education (FE) and post-16 sector remains underdeveloped.

Transitional safeguarding refers to an approach that recognises the fluid and connected nature of adolescence and young adulthood, and the unique risks, vulnerabilities, and needs of young people at this critical life stage. This is particularly crucial in FE settings, where students aged 16–25 often fall between the cracks of children's and adult services. To truly safeguard this age group, the UK's safeguarding narrative must shift from rigid age-based thresholds to a more nuanced, developmental, and relational understanding of vulnerability and risk.

Further Education and post-16 providers are well-placed to champion the importance of multi-agency working, because of their close proximity to the issues affecting young people. Their efforts, however, must be supported by robust data-sharing practices and clear, coordinated processes. While these providers play a crucial role as boundary spanners (across health, care, and justice systems) their impact is limited without systemic support. It is essential that policymakers urgently recognise and act on this, embedding these approaches within a broader, joined-up strategy.

Why Transitional Safeguarding is Crucial in Further Education

Traditional safeguarding frameworks are often split into two distinct categories: children's safeguarding (under 18) and adult safeguarding (18+). This binary approach fails to reflect the reality of young people’s lives. Students in FE, especially those aged 16–25 may experience ongoing or emerging risks such as exploitation, homelessness, mental health crises, or coercive relationships. When they turn 18, young people can face reduced support or even complete withdrawal of support, despite continued vulnerability.

FE institutions educate a diverse population, including care leavers, young carers, students with SEND, those involved in the youth justice system, and others facing complex social and psychological challenges. These learners often require sustained, consistent safeguarding support that bridges adolescence and early adulthood, rather than one that terminates at an arbitrary age.

Without a Transitional Safeguarding approach, FE settings risk missing opportunities for early intervention. Young adults in these institutions are often navigating newfound independence while still processing trauma or developmental needs. Ensuring that safeguarding measures are responsive to this reality could prevent longer-term harm and help embed a culture of resilience and self-advocacy.

So, What is Stopping Effective Transitional Safeguarding?

Children’s and adults’ services are commissioned and delivered separately, often with different thresholds, priorities, and professional cultures. This makes collaboration often difficult, and FE providers are frequently left to coordinate complex cases without adequate support.

Current safeguarding policy frameworks, such as Keeping Children Safe in Education, do not provide enough clarity or emphasis on the needs of young adults in FE. This results in inconsistent practice and confusion over responsibilities.

Many safeguarding leads and pastoral staff in FE are not adequately trained to address adult safeguarding concerns, particularly where risks are non-criminal but still deeply harmful (e.g., digital exploitation or trauma-related behaviour).

What Needs to Change in the UK Safeguarding Narrative

National safeguarding guidance should explicitly recognise and mandate Transitional Safeguarding approaches, particularly in post-16 education. This includes clearer expectations for local authority engagement with FE providers and better integration between child and adult services.

Safeguarding should be seen not just as risk management, but as relational, contextual, and developmental work. This involves understanding how trauma, social disadvantage, and neurodiversity shape behaviour and vulnerability throughout a young person's transition into adulthood.

The safeguarding narrative must promote systems that share responsibility across education, health, social care, police, and the voluntary sector. This means formalising partnerships and ensuring FE institutions are not left isolated in supporting high-need learners.

Young people’s lived experiences must inform how we design and evaluate safeguarding responses. This includes co-producing policies, peer-support programmes, and ensuring safeguarding interventions empower rather than alienate.

In conclusion, the concept of Transitional Safeguarding challenges the UK’s traditional age-bound safeguarding systems and asks us to do better for young people in Further Education. It urges a shift in narrative—from safeguarding as a statutory tick-box to safeguarding as a relational, developmentally informed practice that bridges adolescence and adulthood. For this to happen, policy, practice, and professional identity must evolve together, guided by the needs and voices of the young people at its heart.

Isabelle King, Director, the Safeguarding Collective.

If you have any comments or questions please contact Steve Baguley, Community and Education Lead at NWG Network: steve@nwgnetwork.org

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