ANNUAL REPORT 2017-18

Annual Report 2017-18

INTRODUCTION STATISTICS

I am pleased to present this report on another year of developments in Community Sector Training (CST).

Demand for training on safeguarding children remains strong and is reaching new audiences, with over 50% of requests coming from new contacts.

CST’s training and support enables local groups to provide much needed activities and services to improve health and wellbeing. It helps them create a safe environment for activities, meet their governance responsibilities and strengthens their ability to access external funding.

CST also worked closely with a number of partner organisations to improve access to training for small groups. Southern Childcare Partnership, ACBC Council, ABC Community Network, CACD and the Confederation of Community Groups in Newry are among the organisations

who have hosted training for local groups. This cross-sectoral support is integral to our programme delivery.

This year the Steering Group saw the introduction of a new CST course on adult safeguarding. The initiative responded to feedback from members of our networks and extends support to local community groups.

The new course is addressing a clear gap in provision and has been very well received.

CST is making a valuable contribution to increasing awareness of groups’ responsibilities under the regional adult safeguarding policy and procedures. We look forward to seeing this programme develop in the coming year.

Delivery statistics 2017/18 course delivery

87 courses provided

1,051 participants

236 organisations

Since CST started in 1998

14,552 people trained

Evaluation feedback 98% rated courses very good or

excellent

98% rated training delivery very

good or excellent

97% would recommend the

course

Foreword

“improving health and wellbeing through community education”

ANNUAL REPORT 2017-18

Profile of training delivery

This year saw further development and new initiatives in training delivery from Community Sector Training.

Course bookings increased by over 20% this year, with 1,051 participants accessing training.

Courses requested

Demand for training on safeguarding children has continued with a 36% increase in demand for the full course, as we reach new and emerging groups.

There was a slight increase in the number of courses on safeguarding children, with most of the growth due to the introduction of a new course on Adult Safeguarding Awareness. However CST continues to fully meet demand for its courses.

Overall, participant numbers showed a further 8% increase, but with smaller groups on each course. This is often the case with new groups or where new volunteers are being trained up. This supports more interactive training discussions and benefits the quality of the learning experience.

Areas of training demand

We were pleased to see training uptake in the Craigavon and Banbridge area more than double compared to 2016-17, now showing the strongest level of demand. We continue to engage with network organisations to strongly promote training across all locality areas.

Monthly profile

The trend in levels of training delivery (see red dashed line) has been steadily increasing across the year. Bookings for April 2018 are already double numbers for the previous year. We look forward to building on this as our programme develops in 2018-19.

ANNUAL REPORT 2017-18

CST TRAINERS

We couldn’t reach local groups without our team of freelance community trainers.

Their commitment and flexibility, enables us to meet training needs, by delivering in the group’s own venue, regardless of where you are located across the Trust area.

Our team of trainers includes:

Karen Clarke

Alison Daly

Seamus Donnelly

Áine Harrison

Lynne Harvey

Róisín McAliskey

Margaret McMurran

Fiona Mullan

Chris Mulholland

Sam Walker

Elaine Wright

CST STEERING GROUP

Chairperson John McGuinness ABC Community Network Members Laurence Bradley, CCG Loraine Griffin, COSTA Róisín McCann, SHSCT Brendan McCann, TADA David McMullen, CACD Donna Haughian, SHSCT

This year, 135 participants from 39 community and voluntary groups

completed our pilot Adult Safeguarding Awareness course.

Developed with the Adult Safeguarding Team, this introductory programme aims to increase awareness of adult abuse and the responsibilities of groups under the regional policies and procedures. The programme aims to support the objective of Adult Safeguarding: Prevention and Protection in Partnership (DHSS/DOJ 2015), which is:

Minimum standards All community and voluntary groups working with adults are expected to meet minimum safeguarding standards. In practical terms, this can start with ensuring everyone knows what behaviour is unacceptable and how to recognise it. CST’s training supports community groups to achieve these standards.

More robust governance Under the new regional adult safeguarding policy, introduced in 2015, groups providing services targeted at adults who may be more at risk of harm must meet higher governance standards.

This could include, for example, a good neighbour service for local elderly residents, a homelessness outreach project or running sports activities for adults with learning disabilities. These groups will have volunteers or staff who must be vetted under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (NI) Order 2007.

In addition to reviewing internal policies and practices, these groups must appoint an Adult Safeguarding Champion, responsible for leading on safeguarding issues within the organisation and reporting annually on these, producing an Annual Position Report and submitting data to the HSC Trust.

Increasing awareness CST’s course has made an important contribution under the Prevention Workstream of the Southern LASP. In addition to the awareness course, CST has also provided training to 18 community development workers in SHSCT and local community network organisations. Participants have been equipped with a toolkit of resources to help them support and advise local groups in meeting their governance responsibilities.

Adult safeguarding course

“to promote safer communities for adults to live in and safer organisations for them to be actively part of”

ANNUAL REPORT 2017-18 | 4

What do we evaluate? Our evaluation focuses on finding out from participants:

What did you learn?

What difference is that going to make?

How satisfied were you with the course?

How could we improve our training? How we used your feedback Feedback from participants and trainers was used to inform substantive revisions to our course programme and training materials. Changes implemented over the year include:

Full course condensed down to three sessions

Increased use of discussion activities in Refresher course

Participant packs now include slides and signposting content

Materials updated with new statistics, updated policy and the new regional child protection procedures (see page 8.)

Our first concern is to confirm that we are adding to the existing knowledge of attendees.

At the end of the course, we ask participants to rate their knowledge level before and then after the training.

Did we increase awareness?

We found that, on average, knowledge increased by a third. The greatest increases were seen in the Full Child Safeguarding Course and in the Adult Safeguarding Training with increases of well over 40%.

Participants attending the Adult Safeguarding Awareness course reported the lowest prior knowledge of the subject area. This confirms the need for widening access to this training at community level for all groups.

What was most useful?

The greater depth of the full course content resulted in almost half of all participants indicating topics related to policies and procedures as being most beneficial.

Top five most useful topics

Increased awareness 18% Policies and procedures 18% How to recognise abuse 15% How to report concerns 11% Code of behaviour 10%

Learning

Course Evaluation

The most important thing I learnt was…

“How to protect children and myself”

“procedures on what to do when suspecting abuse.”

“Support hubs for families”

“Developing policies and creating a safe environment”

“What to look for and to be more vigilant”

“more aware of when to seek help, advice and support”

ANNUAL REPORT 2017-18 | 5

The value of training is measured by whether it results in any changes to practice.

So we asked participants whether they were planning or had already made changes as a result of the course.

Planned changes

Similar to last year, 64% of respondents said they were planning or had already made changes as a result of the training.

Two-thirds were going to review, create or increase awareness of their policies and procedures.

Child centred approach

There was less of a marked focus on online safety this year, but 26% of respondents were looking at how they managed activities. This included taking a more child centred approach and looking at their code of behaviour for staff and volunteers.

The benefits of improvements already made to our training programmes were evidenced this year in the number of participants suggesting course improvements.

Of the 897 participants on our child safeguarding training, only 51 made any suggestions regarding course improvements.

The most consistent request was for the full course to be shorter.

Following a review of feedback from community groups and trainers, our full child safeguarding course has now been condensed down to three sessions.

The updated programme, introduced in February 2018, continues to meet the requirements of a Level 2 training course, in line with the Safeguarding Board NI’s Training Framework.

This makes the programme more accessible for volunteers, juggling multiple commitments. Initial feedback from groups and trainers has been very positive and we will continue to seek feedback during the year.

We also recognise that this increases our capacity to deliver more programmes, as we extend our portfolio to include the new adult safeguarding awareness course.

Participants on the new programme must now complete all three modules to receive their full certificate.

Course packs

We were particularly pleased to see a marked improvement in the ratings of our course packs.

96% or participants rated these as very good or excellent this year, compared to 90% last year.

We have also developed our web page at www.southerntrust.hscni.net/ services/1986.htm where you can now link to all the key policy, procedures and guidance documents on both child and adult safeguarding.

Impact

Improvements

Course Evaluation

Tell us about the changes you are planning

“As a club looking at our policies and procedures and focusing more on the child”

“To be more aware if there are any problems. Listen more attentively to what is being said.”

“Making sure that records are kept”…

“Need to have a Designated Person in organisation”.

ANNUAL REPORT 2017-18 | 6

LIST OF GROUPS (2016-17)

The host organisation for each training session is listed below.

Up to 10 different linked groups may have attended each session but may not appear on this list. Many groups will have completed more than one type of course.

ABC Community Network

ACBC Council

Armagh Elim Church

BCM Housing Support

Bessbrook Com Residents

Association

Brain Injury Foundation

Clann Eireann Youth Club

Coalisland Training Services

County Armagh Community

Development

Crossfire Trust, Keady

Cruse Bereavement Care

Drumbeg Community Association

Dungannon & Coalisland SureStart

Edgarstown Residents Association

Homestart Newry

Killeeshill Community Centre

Kilmore Archery

Kingdom Men's Shed

Laurencetown, Lenaderg &

Tullylish Community Association

Links Counselling

Little Treasures Nursery

Mid Ulster Child Contact Centre

Mid-Armagh Community Network

Milford Community Development

Association

More than Words (Autism Support

Group)

(Continued p7)

Satisfaction

Course Evaluation

98% of attendees rated the course overall as either excellent or very good

98% of attendees rated the

training delivery as either

excellent or very good.

97% of respondents would

recommend the course

“Very informative and well resourced. Interesting content and the range of activities was

very appropriate.”

“It was a very useful course and delivered brilliantly.”

“Absolutely found this course invaluable. It was

extremely informative and the speaker made the

course enjoyable.

“This has been the first safeguarding course I have attended that has offered

the participants the chance to question

comfortably. [The trainer] was first class and I wouldn’t hesitate to

recommend the course to others.”

“Excellent facilitator with a wealth of knowledge. Made course very

interesting and interactive.”

“A thoroughly enjoyable course which really

helped my awareness and understanding of

child protection issues - highly recommend”

“Great training - well set out and had a good flow to the programme- easy to engage with facilitator and room for open discussion”

“I thought the video clips were very thought provoking”

ANNUAL REPORT 2017-18 | 7

This year, 135 participants from 39

community and voluntary groups

completed our pilot Adult

Safeguarding Awareness course.

Feedback from participants has been

extremely positive, with 98% rating

the course very good or excellent.

Three-quarters of respondents

indicated that they would use the

training to help them recognise and

respond to concerns.

A further 21% indicated that they

would use the training to increase

awareness or to develop policies and

procedures within their own group.

We look forward to extending this

programme to more groups over the

coming year.

Some of the attendees from Brain Injury Foundation receive

certificates from Ruth Allen, CST Coordinator

LIST OF GROUPS (2017-18) CONTINUED

Mourne All Blacks ABC

Moyraverty Drama Society

National Autistic Society

(Dungannon branch)

Neighbourhood Renewal Health

Sub Group

Newry and Mourne Dyspraxia

Group

Newry and Mourne Senior Citizens

Consortium

NIACRO

Ogras Centre Youth Club

Phil's Farm

PIPS Newry

Polish Supplementary School

Portadown Youth FC

Poyntzpass Silver Band

Regenerate Community Hub &

Parkmount Community

Partnership

Schomberg Society

Seal Spraoí

SHSCT Trust Volunteers

Social Integration Group

Southern Childcare Partnership

Table Church

Tada Rural Network

The Bands' Forum

The Fitzone Foundation

Verve Network

WALD Centre

Woodford Hall

Zero-8-Teen

Thanks to all groups who hosted

individuals from other

organisations joining their session!

Adult Safeguarding

“Very good course, enlightening and informative”

“I will be more aware of signs of abuse and be more confident

reporting them”

We will “focus on identifying sources for future support,

advice and training and put a plan in place to reduce risks

within our organisation”

ANNUAL REPORT 2017-18 | 8

NEW Regional child protection procedures

In November 2017, the Safeguarding Board NI launched a new Procedures Manual to replace the Area Child Protection Committee Regional Policies and Procedures (2005).

All groups should familiarise themselves with the changes contained in the new procedures and ensure these are reflected in their own reporting and referral procedures.

The revised core child protection policies and procedures are hosted online at www.proceduresonline.com/sbni/ On the site you will find handy guidance documents on the main changes from the old procedures and tips on how to use the Procedures Manual.

The procedures will be regularly developed and updated, so we recommend signing up for their email updates to ensure you stay informed.

Online safety resources

Last year, course participants told us how useful they found our content on online safety, with relevance as parents, as well as for their groups.

In response, we have sourced a selection of new leaflets to share in course packs.

Respectful Sharenting looks at how we as parents often share information and images of our children online. Whilst there are benefits in this, there are also risks involved. This booklet provides top tips for how to ensure we are ‘sharenting’ in a safer and more respectful way.

One of the best way we can use social media more safely is to understand and use privacy settings. We are also sharing handy checklists for Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram which will ensure you know and actively choose how much you share online.

We will be providing these leaflets to all course participants, but copies can also be requested from pwb.resources@southerntrust.hscni.net

Cooperating to Safeguard policy updated in 2017

An updated version of the regional policy on safeguarding children, , was published in August 2017.

Cooperating to Safeguard Children and Young People in Northern Ireland (DHSSPS) provides the overarching policy framework for safeguarding children and young people across all sectors. It outlines how communities, organisations and individuals must work both individually and in partnership to ensure children and young people are safeguarded as effectively as possible.

The key change is inclusion of a revised definition of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). Access the new policy at www.health-ni.gov.uk/publications/co-operating-safeguard-children-and-young-people-northern-ireland

Contact us: Ruth Allen, CST Coordinator T. 028 3756 1441 ruth.allen@southerntrust.hscni.net Community Sector Training Promoting Wellbeing Division Southern Health and Social Care Trust, Moylinn House, 21 Legahory Centre, Brownlow, BT65 5BE www.southerntrust.hscni.net/live well/1986.htm

Updates