Multiagency Safeguarding Panels for Extrafamilial Harm: Ethnicity, Gender and the Type of Harm Discussed

Multiagency child exploitation (MACE) panels are increasingly used in the United Kingdom to manage cases of extrafamilial harm including child sexual exploitation and criminal exploitation. However, there is limited research on safeguarding panels for extrafamilial harm and who and what is the focus of this multiagency oversight. This quantitative study collected data from 17 social care departments across England and Wales who provided information on 131 children experiencing extrafamilial harm. Descriptive and statistical analysis was used to explore the ethnicity and gender of young people discussed at multiagency panels and the types of harm they were considered to be impacted by. The findings were that two thirds of ‘cases’ were about boys and a third about girls; two‐thirds of cases of extrafamilial harm related to child criminal exploitation and a third of cases were about child sexual exploitation; double the number of ethnically minoritised young people were discussed at panels or had multiagency oversight in the sample than could be expected based on the local population; the type of harm young people were considered to be impacted by differed across gender and ethnicity. This article is the first to present individual ‘case’ analysis on which young people are discussed at panels. It contributes to a growing international literature on safeguarding system responses to adolescent safeguarding.