impact, and one safeguarding course using real-life scenarios played by
actors helped Ann Hall and her team understand what good practice feels
like.
According to its creators, the Safeguarding course is like 'watching a serious case review unfold before it happens'. Delivered in ten soap opera-style episodes, the training shows fictional characters reacting as two interweaving stories - neglect and physical abuse - start to unfold. Practitioners are confronted with the emotional impact of the situation, such as whether they believe or sympathise with the parent or not.
Author of the programme Sue Overton says, 'We were approached by a local authority to do a practical safeguarding programme because it had spent a lot of money in training its early years practitioners and chldminders but it didn't seem to be as effective as it hoped and it wasn't getting the referrals through to social care.'
She adds, 'The course is not just telling people what they need to know; we tell them what it looks like and how it feels.'
Ann Hall, manager of Tiny Steps nursery, Manchester, says one of her previous safeguarding training sessions involved spending an entire day in a hall taking notes while someone spoke from a podium. 'People were on their phones,' she says - but this training was a bit more flexible. 'We did it an hour at a time after every meeting. Everybody was involved. They absolutely loved it; they said it didn't feel like training. They could identify with the characters.'
The course consists of three modules, demonstrating concepts such as boundaries, why things go wrong, and the legal duty of care, with a panel of experts discussing the 'case' at the end of each to explore the key points for learning.
'These were very useful because many staff would never get to go to these discussions themselves - they are more for managers to have with parents,' says Ms Hall.
As a result of the training,Tiny Steps has changed its incident forms, using a form from the training pack showing the outline of a human body, which makes it hard to give unclear answers about where an injury is.
