Safeguarding training for RWP staff

Mandatory training courses

A variety of mandatory safeguarding courses that cover both adults and children provide RWP staff with essential learning on safeguarding.

Mandatory training courses include:

• Safeguarding Adults level 1
• Safeguarding Adults level 2
• Safeguarding children level 1
• Safeguarding children level 2

Specialised training course for RWP staff

Our internal No Whispers course is designed to help staff understand their safeguarding role and responsibility and duty of care required as part of RWP for children, young people, and adults.

No Whispers training also covers the following:

• Understanding the definitions related to County lines, child criminal exploitation, child sexual exploitation, human trafficking, and adults at risk
• Understand the grooming process and the business model of County lines
• Recognise signs and indications of abuse, including cuckooing and mate crime
• Understand how children, young people, and adults at risk can be vulnerable to exploitation and abuse
• Understand the importance of early intervention and disruption to prevent children and adults from becoming victims of exploitation and abuse
• Understand barriers to disclosures and reporting
• Recognise the importance of professional curiosity

Ann Craft Trust sessions

We have been holding Safeguarding Adults and Children training, delivered by the Ann Craft Trust. This training develops awareness and confidence to signpost individuals where appropriate, report where appropriate, and promote wellbeing and support. We held two sessions earlier in the year which covered areas including the Care Act (2014), modern slavery, decision making, recording concerns, and our internal process.

RWP housing officer Lyndsey attended the safeguarding training delivered by the Ann Craft Trust.

“I really enjoyed the safeguarding training and felt that I learnt a lot that I can use in my job. Our facilitator Robert was very knowledgeable having been a social worker himself.  It was great that he had knowledge of the law relating to safeguarding in the different UK countries too as we have supported living properties in Scotland and Wales. 

We explored the different kinds of abuse that people might experience and what signs to look out for.  We discussed how to make a good safeguarding referral, what information we would need to include, and how to record and follow up on these.  We also learned about the Mental Capacity Act and how to involve tenants in the safeguarding process as much as possible. Robert pointed out how this links to the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, one of the consumer standards, which was really interesting! 

We discussed real-life examples that we had experienced as housing officers and reviewed the actions and outcomes.  This led us to discussing how to record concerns internally, especially if the concerns do not quite meet the safeguarding threshold," says Lyndsey.

Safeguarding annual report

Progress Housing Group, which RWP is part of, published their 2023-24 Safeguarding Annual Report and it is available on the PHG website. It identifies where we need to focus our efforts in the year ahead around preventing harm and safeguarding our employees, tenants, their families and communities. This year, 71 safeguarding concerns were raised, a reduction of 52 compared to the previous year, and 11 of those concerns were raised by RWP. 

Safeguarding Annual Report: Safeguarding Annual Report 2023-24