Learning and development

Single- and multi-agency agency training should be available to promote the knowledge, skills and values needed to support effective inter-disciplinary work. Child Protection Committees will ensure mechanisms are in place for the delivery and evaluation of local training. They will publish, implement, review and evaluate an inter-agency child protection training strategy.

Recognising that there are different levels of awareness and specificity in training needs within the workforce, the Scottish Government first published a National Framework for Child Protection Learning and Development in 2012. Individual agencies are responsible for ensuring that their staff are competent and confident in carrying out their responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting children's wellbeing.

Child Protection Committees should have an overview of the training needs of all practitioners involved in child protection activity. This includes practitioners with a particular responsibility for protecting children, such as lead professionals, named persons or other designated health and education practitioners, police, social workers and other practitioners undertaking child protection investigations or working with complex cases. Others who work directly with children, young people and parents/carers and who may be asked to contribute to assessments, will need a fuller understanding of how to work together to identify and assess concerns, and how to plan, undertake and review interventions. Practitioners who have regular contact with children as part of their role, (such as housing officers and school bus drivers), may recognise signs of abuse or neglect and should understand how they may share such concerns appropriately.

Training and development for managers is also essential, at both operational and strategic levels. As well as "foundation level" training, this may include training on joint planning and investigations, chairing multi-disciplinary meetings, supervision and support of practitioners, and decision-making. Specific training will be necessary for those managers supporting inter-agency referral discussions (IRD). Some managers will also need training on undertaking Learning Reviews.

Training should be relevant to different groups from statutory, Third and other sectors, including volunteers. Training must be regularly reviewed and updated to reflect research, learning from Learning Reviews and practice experience.

In Highland, information about multiagency child protection training can be accessed at www.hcpc.scot 

A Scottish Knowledge and Skills Framework for Psychological Trauma and accompanying Trauma Training Plan, commissioned by Scottish Government and developed by NHS Education for Scotland is now accessible to the broader workforce, with a range of accompanying training resources. This is particularly relevant to child protection work and will help workers to understand the impact of trauma on children's lives. It will also support in successfully delivering quality, evidence-based trauma-informed and trauma-responsive services to people affected by adverse experience. The Trauma Training Plan will also help managers and supervisors to identify and explore practitioners' strengths and address any gaps in their knowledge and skills.

A contextual understanding of child protection can be encouraged by clear leadership, training and supervision. Although every situation is unique, there may also be similar factors and experiences – such as poverty, exclusion, isolation, gender-based violence and racial discrimination – which could interact and accelerate the chemistry of some risks and harms.