Designated safeguarding children officer training : NSPCC training course

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Designated safeguarding children officer training

A training course for individuals with a lead operational role for safeguarding within the voluntary, community and corporate sectors

Who should attend?

Participants will have operational responsibility for receiving concerns about the safety and welfare of children and young people, making decisions about what action needs to be taken and contacting and liaising with other agencies involved in safeguarding children, especially children’s social care. Some may have strategic responsibilities in addition to the operational role.

Please note: this course does not provide full training for applicants who work in a statutory agency, such as a school or college or in the Health Service, for whom separate training is available:

Applicants whose role is primarily strategic or where their organisation needs guidance in setting up its response to safeguarding children may find the course on Creating Safer Organisations more closely meets their needs.

Applicants who are expected to provide staff training should note that the Designated Officer training does not provide training for trainers. This is available in a separate course: Training for trainers in child protection.

Course aim

To enable participants to become familiar with the role and responsibilities of the designated safeguarding children officer and develop competence and confidence in carrying out this role.

Course objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

describe the role of the designated safeguarding children officer and state key areas of responsibility
state their own values regarding child abuse and the impact of these on professional practice
describe the key legislation and guidance underpinning the organisation’s policy for responding to concerns about a child’s safety or welfare
decide what steps the organisation needs to take to ensure the safety and welfare of children and young people with whom it has contact
state the blocks inhibiting children from disclosing abuse and respond effectively to a child who does disclose
state blocks to staff reporting concerns and how to overcome these
make appropriate decisions about the action to take when informed of a concern about a child or young person
state what is likely to happen following a referral to children’s social care and what further role they may have
explain the main issues in connection with recording and sharing of information, including that of confidentiality
demonstrate an awareness of the emotional dimension of safeguarding work and identify a network for personal support
state the main tenets of their organisation’s policy and procedures.

Venues, dates and costs

Two-day course:

16 - 17 December 2008 in Leicester
Cost: £325 per person including overnight accommodation.
11 - 12 March 2009 in Leicester
Cost: £325 per person including overnight accommodation.

A limited number of bursaries are available for small voluntary organisations on the NSPCC Staying Safe Commitment Scheme. Please ask on application.