ADCS president warns of gaps in teenage safeguarding and digital risks

The new President of the Association of Directors of Children's Services has warned that safeguarding systems are failing to keep pace with the realities of adolescence, particularly in relation to online harms and risks outside the home.

Speaking at the organisation’s Presidential Reception in London, Ann Graham set out her priorities for the year ahead, highlighting the need for better coordination across agencies, stronger recognition of teenagers’ experiences, and greater government accountability for reform.

Graham told sector leaders that professionals must better understand the digital environments shaping young people’s lives.

“Today’s teens have never known a world without smartphones or the internet,” she said, noting that digital life is now embedded across education, relationships and leisure.

However, she warned that risks - including exposure to violent, extremist and misogynistic content - are often hidden from both families and practitioners.

“Without a lens on online activities, it is difficult for families and professionals to fully understand the child’s whole world, and their lived experiences,” she said.

Her comments come amid a national consultation on restricting children’s use of social media and increasing international debate about tighter regulation.

Graham identified adolescence as a key focus for her presidential year, arguing that services have not adapted to the complexity of risks faced by teenagers.

“There continues to be a gap in how we support teenagers,” she said, particularly where harm occurs outside the home.

She pointed to issues such as children going missing across local authority boundaries, involvement in county lines activity and exploitation within shared locations, arguing that current systems are too fragmented.

“Our safeguarding systems are set up for separate local authorities and different police services to respond to the children individually,” she said. “It’s incumbent on us to join the dots.”

Graham also highlighted work with the Metropolitan Police to reframe stop and search as a safeguarding issue.

She said the project, developed over six years, has led to a London-wide approach where information is shared more effectively between agencies to identify and respond to risk.

“As a society, we know that children are stopped and searched on our streets but adults are not routinely informed about this serious state intervention,” she said. “Children are left to deal with this intrusion on their own.”

She added that the work has enabled more coordinated responses between services, but acknowledged ongoing concerns about disproportionality.

“In London, it is predominantly Black boys who are stopped and searched, and for the vast majority nothing is found,” she said, raising “very important questions about inequality and fairness”. A report on the project’s findings is expected later this year.

Turning to wider system challenges, Graham described children’s services as operating under “unprecedented change”, with multiple reforms being introduced simultaneously by different government departments.

“The day job has never felt busier,” she said, warning that initiatives are often developed in isolation without considering their cumulative impact on local systems.

While welcoming elements of the children’s social care reform programme—particularly renewed investment in early help—she cautioned that key “conditions of success”, such as workforce capacity and system enablers, have not been fully addressed.

“The DCS is a system leader — our role is to challenge, advocate and ultimately bang the table for children,” she said, urging government to take greater responsibility for overseeing delivery and progress.

Graham also addressed ongoing challenges in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), describing the current system as “broken”.

She welcomed the government’s commitment to reform and investment but stressed that meaningful change will require stronger partnership working.

“I can confidently say that creating an inclusive education system where every child and young person can achieve and thrive is our collective number one priority,” she said.

However, she warned that directors of children’s services lack the formal powers needed to drive change across all partners, particularly in health.

“The reality on the ground is that DCSs do not have the formal levers needed to effect change where partners are not willing or able to step into this space,” she said, pointing to the role of the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care.