Designated safeguarding children officer training

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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?

This training is for individuals with a lead role for safeguarding within the voluntary, community and corporate sectors. 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. It should be noted that this course does not provide training for trainers, which is available as a separate course: Training for trainers in child protection.

It is assumed that applicants for this course will have already received at least basic awareness training in child protection .

This course does not provide full training for applicants who work in a statutory agency. Designated staff in schools and colleges should apply for the course Designated senior person for safeguarding children training (schools and colleges). 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.

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 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.

Dates, venues and costs

This is a two-day course.

22 - 23 September 2010: Leicester (full)
Venue: NSPCC National Training Centre, 3 Gilmour Close, Beaumont Leys, Leicester LE4 1EZ
10 - 11 November 2010: Leicester (full)
Venue: NSPCC National Training Centre, 3 Gilmour Close, Beaumont Leys, Leicester LE4 1EZ
19 - 20 January 2011: Leicester
Venue: NSPCC National Training Centre, 3 Gilmour Close, Beaumont Leys, Leicester LE4 1EZ
3 - 4 February 2011: London
Venue: NSPCC Alexandra Ciardi House, 7-8 Greenland Place, London NW1 0AP [non-residential]
9 - 10 March 2011: Leicester
Venue: NSPCC National Training Centre, 3 Gilmour Close, Beaumont Leys, Leicester LE4 1EZ

Costs: £175 per day (non-residential) or £225 per day (residential). We can also arrange accommodation for the night before a course if the National Training Centre has availability. Please contact us for details.