- What Training Do I Need?
- Training Site and Account Questions
- Questions About Training
- Questions About Basic Awareness Cascade Packs
What Training Do I Need?
(Equivalent to Lv.1 Training in the Intercollegiate Document)
These packs are developed each year to support in-house, single agency training, usually as part of an annual update/refresher for all staff within a school, voluntary agency or other setting.
They provide a basic level of awareness of safeguarding topics and are designed to provide staff within an agency the ability to identify risk and know how and when it should reported to the safeguarding lead within the agency.
This training is suitable if:
You have some, infrequent contact with children and/or families but do not work directly with children as part of your job, however you do have a responsibility to contribute to the safeguarding of children.
The Basic Awareness training can also be used to fulfil statutory responsibilities to ensure that all staff within an organisation are provided with annual safeguarding information and updates.
Examples of this may include drivers, caretakers, HR staff, trustees, domestic staff, security staff.
This training is not inter agency, it should be provided by your own agency and will be referred to as Induction/Foundation/Awareness/In-house training.
Staff in this category do not need to complete any inter-agency Child Protection training.
All staff in this group should receive single agency in-house training from their employer.
How often should this be completed?
For education settings Statutory Guidance stipulates that annual safeguarding updates should be provided to all staff and so we recommend that these packs are used to comply with this requirement.
For non-education settings we also recommend that the best practice laid out in Keeping Children Safe in Education and other Statutory Guidance is followed.
(Equivalent to Lv.2 Training in the Intercollegiate Document)
The Introduction to Child Protection is designed to provide a greater depth of understanding on the forms of abuse, how to spot them and how to work with other agencies to support children, young people and families, including how to report these to the Safeguarding Lead within organisations.
Anyone needing to complete the Advanced Child Protection 2 Day training will need to complete the Introduction to Child Protection first, unless they hold a recognised Social Work qualification.
This training is suitable if:
You have contact with children and/or families on a regular basis, but the majority of these children do not have children social care involvement.
You need to recognise Safeguarding and Child Protection concerns and act on them appropriately. You might attend family meetings in relation to concerns, contribute to assessments and plans and work with other agencies and organisations to help keep children safe. You will do this with the support of your organisations safeguarding lead.
Examples of this may include, Teaching and Pastoral Support staff in schools, Early Years practitioners, Police, Probation Practitioners, Healthcare Practitioners working with children or families, Practitioners in VCFSE organisations, Youth Workers.
Staff in this category should complete inter agency training.
How often should this be completed?
There are no statutory timescales set to have to repeat/update the Introduction to Child Protection training; however in order to keep up to date with your knowledge we recommend that you should either attend Basic Awareness training each year within your setting, or repeat the Introduction to Child Protection every 2yrs if not progressing onto the Advanced Child Protection Training.
(Equivalent to Lv.3 Training in the Intercollegiate Document)
This course is designed for those people taking up the role of a Safeguarding Lead (known as a Designated Safeguarding Lead or DSL within education) and have previously completed the Introduction to Child Protection within the last 2yrs, unless you hold a recognised Social Work qualification.
This course is aimed at equipping practitioners and managers with the knowledge, skills and confidence of what to do should you have concerns, or if another member of your team raises concerns to you.
The course provides a strong foundation of the legislation and guidance which underpins safeguarding, explores local tools and resources to help you identify the needs of and appropriate support for families, and leads you on a journey from Early Help through to Child Protection.
This training is suitable if:
You have contact with children and/or families on a regular basis. You work intensively with children/families where there are safeguarding concerns and/or you have specific responsibility in relation to safeguarding within your setting.
Your job might include completing work with children/families directly related to reducing the risk of harm to the children, making decisions about when to request a service from children and families services, completing referrals for specialist services, completing assessments and reports for Child Protection conferences and Child in Need meetings and ensuring that actions allocated to your organisation are completed.
You might be responsible for offering advice and support to other staff in your organisation, delivering foundation level/induction/basic awareness child protection training for staff and ensuring that policies and practice within your setting is in line with current legislation and statutory guidance.
Examples of this may include: Children/Adult Social Care Practitioners, Designated Safeguarding Leads, Named Safeguarding GP’s, Specialist Health Visitors, School Nurses, Safeguarding Champions, Investigation Officers, Safeguarding Coordination Unit staff
This training is also suitable if:
You are an Operational or Strategic Manager in an organisation that employs staff to work with children and families (or you have responsibility for commissioning services for children and families).
You are responsible for ensuring that the safeguarding work undertaken within your setting is effective and efficient.
You have oversight for the development of systems, policies and practices within your organisation to keep children safe and work effectively in partnership with others.
How often should this be completed?
The Advanced Child Protection Training should be undertaken only if you have first completed the Introduction to Child Protection within the last 2yrs.
Once you have completed this course you will then need to undertake the Advanced Child Protection Update training every 2yrs.
If your certification from this course has expired past the 2yrs then you will be required to undertake this course again before progressing onto the Advanced Child Protection Update course.
(Equivalent to Lv.3 Training in the Intercollegiate Document)
This training is for those professionals who have previously completed the Advanced Child Protection (Interagency) 2 Day training, or the Advanced Child Protection (Interagency) Update (for those who have previously completed the 2 Day training) within the last 2yrs, or are an Independent Registered Childminder.
The course works on the basis that you are familiar and confident in the materials contained in the Introduction to Child Protection and Advanced Child Protection courses and provides all of the key updates and changes in relation to safeguarding children in the last 2yrs.
In particular this course covers changes to legislation and guidance, local resources, policies and pathways, learning from reviews and fulfilling your safeguarding responsibilities.
This training is suitable if:
You have previously completed the Advanced Child Protection (Interagency) 2 Day training within the last 2yrs, or
Have previously completed the Advanced Child Protection (Interagency) Update training within the last 2yrs, having previously completed the 2 Day course, or
You are an Independent Registered Childminder
How often should this be completed?
Every 2yrs after you have completed the Advanced Child Protection training.
IMPORTANT!
If your training certification has expired (2 years since you last completed your training) but is less than 6 months past its expiration, then you will need to return to the previous level of training.
If more than 6 months has expired, you will need to return to the Introduction to Child Protection training.
Training Site and Account Questions
Once you log into your account you’ll be taken to the ‘Your History & Bookings’ page, where you’ll find the training event listed, with the online meeting link below the course title.
Training certificates are not emailed to you but kept on your training account for you to access at any time.
You can keep them on the system if you like, or download and print it off as many times as you’d like.
Once logged into your training account you will be taken to the ‘Your History & Bookings’ page, where you’ll see all training booked and attended with the SSCP listed.
Underneath the training listing on the left hand side you’ll see a link to access the course material.
The link to access your certificate is to the right of the training listing. If the link reads ‘Complete Evaluation’ you need to first click on this link to complete the online course evaluation and when you go back into the ‘Your History & Bookings’ page you will be able to download your certificate.
This may occur when your account details are incorrect and typically means the email address you created when you registered your account is an old one, or has a typo.
Once logged into your account click on ‘Your Account’ where you’ll be able to check your contact details are correct and amend if necessary.
If you’re unable to log into your training account please contact us at SSCPTraining@somerset.gov.uk and we’ll be able to help you out.
Generally calendar invites are not sent out for training, however when you receive the automatic booking notification email there is a link you can click to download and add to your calendar.
Alternatively if you log into your account and go to the ‘Your History & Bookings’ page you’ll see the training you booked listed and links to add it to your calendar there as well.
If a course is fully booked you have the option to ‘Join the Waiting List’.
If someone who has already booked a space on this event then cancels their booking everyone who has joined the waiting list will receive an automatic email informing them that there is now a space available.
Booking for this space is then on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.
Nb – if you join a waiting list this applies to that specific event and does not cover all dates that course is being delivered.
Joining a waiting list does not guarantee you a space on that event.
Log into your account and go to the ‘Your History & Bookings’ page.
At the bottom of that page you’ll see any payments that you’ve made and by clicking on the download arrow to the right in the ‘receipts’ column you can download your payment receipt.
No.
If you create a new account this will become a duplicate and not only means you won’t be able to access any training you’ve previously undertaken through your new account, but may also cause confusion with bookings.
If you change roles you can edit your own account details by logging in to your account and clicking on ‘Your Account’.
If you think you have created a duplicate account don’t worry, contact us at SSCPTraining@somerset.gov.uk and we can merge both account and you won’t lose anything.
Training must be booked under the name of the person attending the training as it needs to then appear in their personal training record and the certificate will be generated in their name.
The system allows this once your account has been promoted to what’s known as a ‘Delegate Manager’. Delegate Managers can book people on training on behalf of a member of their team, as well as view their training history and access their certificates.
To request to have your account promoted to a ‘Delegate Manager’ just email us at SSCPTraining@somerset.gov.uk
You can also find out about Delegate Managers in our handy video tutorial and written guide.
Don’t create a second account for them as this just creates a duplicate account.
To get someone who has an existing account linked to you as their Delegate Manager just contact us at SSCPTraining@somerset.gov.uk and we’ll take care of it for you.
Questions About Training
Due to the SSCP training covering information, including policies, protocols, pathways and resources specific to safeguarding children in Somerset, training completed through other training providers is not accepted.
Generally no, unless specifically stated in the event listing.
This is to keep the cost of all training to a minimum.
The SSCP has one of the largest offer of training which is fully funded by the SSCP to practitioners and managers working in Somerset. Although this training is free to access there is still a cost to them and training and events are actually expensive to provide, with this cost being funded by the SSCP.
Nationally attendance at all training is around 50%, however in Somerset attendance figures are significantly higher, except on courses offered as fully funded.
What we have found is that for funded courses often people will book on them but not attend, which denies spaces to others wishing to attend and reduces the ability to disseminate key learning.
Therefore, in order to encourage attendance on funded courses, from July 2023 we amended our training T&C’s so that when you book on fully funded training you will initially be charged at the full rate (£70) which will then be refunded in full within 2 weeks of the training date once we have marked you as attending.
For those who pay for training courses via Somerset Councils Transfer Journal system (for LA professionals and LA Maintained Education settings) the transfer request will not be made if you attend the training, but will be charged for non-attendance.
If the event is taking place within the booking cancellation period (typically 10 working days prior to the event) then you can cancel the booking yourself without charge by logging into your account, going to ‘Your History & Bookings’ where you’ll see the booking listed and clicking on ‘Cancel’.
If you are wishing to cancel with less than 10 working days to go until the event, you can cancel your place by contacting us at SSCPTraining@somerset.gov.uk, however you will still be charged the full amount for the booking. Alternatively if another member of your team qualifies to attend the training (e.g. has completed the Introduction to Child Protection prior to attending the Advanced Child Protection 2 Day Training) you can contact us and request the booking is transferred to them free of charge.
Please see our Training Terms & Conditions for further details.
‘Find & Book Training’ which takes you to our training site. Once there click on ‘eLearning’ in the tabs at the top of the page and scroll to find the eLearning module you need.
Basic Awareness eLearning is also available here.
Questions About Basic Awareness Cascade Packs
The ability to access the cascade packs last for 2yrs following the date you attended the training.
To access the pack you’ll need to go to the ‘Register & Access Cascade Packs Online’ and complete the registration form.
After this we’ll check your eligibility (you’ve attended the Advanced CP Training in the last 2yrs) and accept your registration.
You’ll then be sent an automatic email confirmation of your successful registration.
After this you’ll be able to access the packs by going to the same page you registered and inputting your account details.
Yes – as long as you’re eligible you can access either of the packs (Education or Non-Education) and are free to deliver it wherever you like.
KCSiE and other Statutory Guidance states that all staff must be provided with regular updates in relation to safeguarding children, which should be undertaken by all staff at least annually.
How this is done is not specified in legislation or guidance, however by purchasing and delivering the annual Basic Awareness training the SSCP takes on the responsibility of ensuring all material is up to date, covers all major legislative and guidance changes and all aspects are covered.
The SSCP Basic Awareness additionally covers local learning, resources and resource updates, providing practical exercises on how to use these to support children and young people in Somerset and by delivering the pack the SSCP takes on the responsibility of ensuring that all annual updates needed are covered and accurate.
No. This is strictly against the Training Terms & Conditions, which can found HERE
The SSCP do not advise using older packs due to the requirement for all staff to be provided with regular updates relating to safeguarding and using older packs will not provide contemporary information.
Whilst you can disseminate the information to your team(s) through them completing the eLearning, we strongly advise that training should be carried out as a whole-team exercise wherever possible as this facilitates whole-team discussions and supports the development of a safe culture within your setting.
By delivering the pack to staff teams, safeguarding leads will also be able to identify strengths and areas of development within your staff group and ensure a consistent understanding and approach to safeguarding children in your setting.
As with booking on other training and events, these must be purchased in the name of the person who will be undertaking the eLearning.
If you are a delegate manager on the training system you can purchase these in another persons name in the same way you would book other training for them.
If you are not a delegate manager you cannot book training in your name for someone else.
If you would like to find out more about being a delete manager please see our handy VIDEO TUTORIAL or WRITTEN GUIDANCE and email us at SSCPTraining@somerset.gov.uk to request to promote your account to a Delegate Manager.
No. eLearning must be purchased in the same was as someone booking onto other training – it must be booked in the name of the individual undertaking the training. This is so that it appears in the training history record of that individual and the certificate will be automatically generated in that persons name.
With the new online cascade packs, rather than undertaking large annual updates once a year, we’ll now be updating the material whenever any relevant guidance, legislation or learning is available – so you’ll know you always have the most up to date information for your staff teams.
The packs currently available were last updated in June ’24, with new material being available by Sept. ’25 following the publication of updated Statutory Guidance.