Nottingham Community and Voluntary Service (NCVS) is leading the way in promoting safeguarding best practice within Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, by providing free safeguarding training to the community and voluntary sector.
The accredited training, endorsed by the Nottingham City Safeguarding Adults and Safeguarding Children Boards, is targeted at the smallest voluntary and community groups who would otherwise struggle to train their employees and volunteers in how to appropriately respond to safeguarding concerns.
Funded through the Nottinghamshire Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (Community Safety Fund 2019-2020), the training is being launched in response to a previous NCVS initiative aimed at tackling Hidden Harm – abuse and crime that could go unrecognised and unreported.
The initiative, which saw Nottingham’s voluntary sector take part in a Hidden Harm skills-building conference and series of awareness workshops in March, identified an opportunity to build stronger safeguarding skills within the city.
Jules Sebelin, Head of Business Development and Deputy CEO of NCVS, said:
“Protecting vulnerable children and adults from harm is a top priority for our community and voluntary sector – unfortunately many of the sector’s smallest groups don’t have the funding available to train their employees and volunteers.
“This became clear when we ran our Hidden Harm awareness programme earlier in the year. Over the past 18 months, we also identified that smaller groups weren’t accessing our paid safeguarding training, whereas when we ran free safeguarding training for them back in 2017, we were inundated with bookings.
“We, therefore, think that this training will make a big difference in making Nottingham and Nottinghamshire safe, by ensuring that every voluntary and community organisation – no matter what their size, gets to know their safeguarding responsibilities and how to report concerns and access local advice.”
Safeguarding training breakdown workshopsRoss Leather, Nottingham City Safeguarding Adults Board Manager, said:
“Safeguarding is the business of every organisation, no matter how small.
“Nottingham City’s Safeguarding Adults Board is pleased to endorse this training and would encourage partner agencies to support as many staff and volunteers as possible to attend.”
Paddy Tipping, Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner, said:
“It’s vital that we protect and support those who are affected by crime but for one reason or another, do not, or cannot, report it to someone from whom they could receive help. That’s why I’m so pleased that I have been able to fund this training, which will help smaller voluntary organisations to spot potential problems and react appropriately. If it helps just one person receive help and support to report a hidden crime, then it has been more than worth it.”
To be eligible for a free place, small voluntary and community organisations should have an income below £30,000 or be in receipt of a Community Safety Fund Grant for the year 2019-2020. Places are limited to two people per organisation, per training session. Some places will also be available for medium-sized charities and public and private sector organisations at a small cost.
The training, which will take place at the NCVS office on Mansfield Road from July (2019) until January (2020), will include sessions on the following topics:
• Introduction to Safeguarding Children
• Introduction to Safeguarding Adults
• Introduction to Safeguarding for Trustees
• Introduction to Safeguarding Children for New Leads
All sessions will be run by Paul Langley, whose career background includes youth work, as well as involvement in Nottingham’s Safeguarding Children and Safeguarding Adults Boards.
To see the full programme of training on offer and to book your place, visit www.nottinghamcvs.co.uk/safeguarding.html