As part of Bristol City Council’s transformation of children’s services, the new Safer Connections team has been established to strengthen citywide responses to Harm Outside the Home, replacing the previous Safer Options approach.
Harm Outside the Home (HOtH) refers to abuse and exploitation experienced by children in settings beyond their family environment, such as peer groups, schools, public spaces, and online platforms. It encompasses a range of risks including child sexual and criminal exploitation, county lines, peer-on-peer abuse, online harm, modern slavery, and radicalisation
The Safer Connections team is responsible for responding to HOtH through a contextual safeguarding approach, supporting both statutory and partnership services to target the social conditions that enable abuse, aiming to create safety within the environments children inhabit through prevention, disruption, support, and recovery.
The Children’s Practice Team work directly with children and families where risks outside the home have been identified. The team aims to disrupt harm and build safety through intensive support, including strategy discussions, missing child coordination, family network meetings, and direct work with children and families.
The four Children’s Practice Leads supports lead professionals with consultations and contributes to multi-agency planning, ensuring that interventions are tailored, trauma-informed, and responsive to the child’s needs.
The Partnership Team leads on inter-agency coordination to address harm occurring in the spaces children inhabit, such as schools, peer groups, public areas, and online environments. They work closely with education settings, police, health, youth services, and community organisations to improve their response to HOtH as well as assess and intervene in locations and networks where exploitation or abuse is suspected.
Their responsibilities include reviewing daily incident briefings, conducting peer group and location assessments, supporting complex strategy discussions, and facilitating joint planning to reduce risk. The team also provides training, consultation, and community engagement to strengthen contextual safeguarding approaches and ensure a coherent, citywide response to harm outside the home.
Please find the 2025 Weapons in School Guidance here.
For all urgent referrals, requests for service (including Weapons and Drugs in Schools), and threshold advice, contact First Response: 0117 903 6444
The Safer Connections team reviews all HOtH-related referrals alongside the First Assessment Service, supporting triage and signposting to ensure children are connected to the right support — whether statutory, targeted, or universal.
If a child is at immediate risk or a crime is in progress, call 999.
For non-urgent concerns, call 101 or submit an intelligence form via Avon and Somerset Police’s website: https://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/forms/vul
The Safer Connections team holds daily incident briefings with police and interagency partners to review incidents, intelligence, and missing episodes, ensuring timely, coordinated safeguarding action.
To request non-urgent, non-case-specific support from the Partnership Team, such as consultations, training, or coordination around emerging concerns, email: saferconnections@bristol.gov.uk
The team will triage the request, and a Partnership Advisor will follow up with a tailored offer of support.
Please do not include sensitive or personal information. This is not a referral pathway.