ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case to highlight and underline the role of the community in safeguarding children within the bio-ecological framework. The chapter proposes that common vigilance may serve as a more robust concept than does community in efforts to produce social conditions that secure children's safety from maltreatment. Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological framework proposes that any State action in the private life of a child must be understood as mediated by different but interrelated social systems. The French social theorist Pierre Bourdieu offers further insights regarding the intricate nature of power and culture within communities and indeed the wider ecosystems as described by Bronfenbrenner. The Department for Education (DfE) analysis of 175 serious case reviews (SCRs) describes some historical instances of the difficulty in aligning individual responsibility for safeguarding children with collective, systems-level responsibility. A community of children's safeguarding is coalescing in the light of the Inquiry's investigations into the scale and prevalence of child abuse.
