Knowledge Centre
Safeguarding with young people who are questioning, leaving, changing, or deepening faith
Essential information for practitioners, managers, leaders, and policymakers, recommended by the contributors and conversation leaders of our one-day conference.
Explore research papers, practical guidance, resources, and more.
Work with young people
Practice and approaches for nurturing youth agency and wellbeing, and protecting from harm.
Recommended by Dr Rachael Owens, Associate Professor, GCCS, Durham University.
Towards Safety (PDF resources)
Contextual Safeguarding. A self-assessment wheel for youth-facing organisations developing a rights-based approach to safeguarding.
Beyond Risk in Adolescent Safeguarding: Creating Conditions for Young People to Flourish (PDF book chapters). Bristol University Press, open access. A book on the conditions young people need to flourish, looking past a focus on risk alone.
Why ‘Common Sense’ Is Complicated (Articles and resources). Contextual Safeguarding. On the organisational culture that helps young people feel safe.
Relational epistemic safety (Journal article)
Journal of Youth Studies. What young people facing harm want from professionals, and supporting young people’s own ways of understanding what is happening to them.
Project articles
Safeguarding young people through changes in faith and Contextual Safeguarding values
Colin Michel for GCCS blog.
How social workers can support young people in faith transitions.
Colin Michel and Sarah Robbins for Professional Social Work Magazine at BASW.
Youth work responses to young people who are questioning, leaving, or changing faith.
Colin Michel and Naomi Thompson for Youth and Policy.
Faith, families, and communty
Resources for support with parents, carers, and families, when young people are in faith transitions.
Recommended by Canon Dr Andrew Smith, Diocese of Birmingham, Chair and Founder of The Feast.
The Feast guidelines (website)
The Feast. Guidelines for young people of different faiths and beliefs meeting and talking together safely and respectfully.
Ethical Guidelines for Christian and Muslim Witness in Britain (PDF guidelines)
Christian Muslim Forum. How to share faith without pressure, manipulation or coercion.
Recommended by Matt Mahmood-Ogston, Founder and Chair of Naz and Matt Foundation.
Understanding the Impact of Coming Out to Religious Parents, UK 2020 (PDF article)
Naz and Matt Foundation. Research on what happens when LGBTQ+ people come out to religious parents, and what helps families stay together.
Naz and Matt Foundation (website)
Support for LGBTQ+ people and their religious families.
Recommended by Rachael Reign, Founder and CEO or Surviving Universal UK.
The Exit Kit (PDF guidance)
Surviving Universal UK. Practical guidance for anyone leaving a high-control group, with a section for under-18s.
Fear and Control: Safeguarding Risks in High-Control Groups in the UK (PDF article)
Surviving Universal UK. UK data on abuse and harm in high-control groups.
Rights, legislation, and policy
Evidence, leglislation, and policy papers on faith, non-faith and tackling discrimination.
Recommended and created by Dr Lucy Potter, University of York.
Protecting the Non-Religious (PDF guidance)
A toolkit for recognising and supporting asylum claims based on non-religion and apostasy.
Recommended by Rachael Reign, Founder and CEO of Surviving Universal UK.
An Open Letter to the UK Government (PDF)
Surviving Universal UK. Calls on the government to open a national call for evidence on abuse in high-control groups.
Recommended by Dr Shereen Shaw, Senior Lecturer, Liverpool John Moores University.
Discrimination, harassment and abuse against Muslim women (PDF) House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, January 2026. Evidence and recommendations on hate crime reporting, education, employment, healthcare and online abuse.
Gendered Islamophobia: Evidence of Disproportionate Abuse Against Muslim Women and Girls (Online evidence)
Written evidence to the same inquiry, March 2025, including the impact on girls in education.
Contested belonging: Britishness in post-Brexit education (Journal article)
Societal Impacts, 2025. Research with young people on how Prevent and Fundamental British Values shape their sense of belonging.
