We’ve put together an overview of what has been happening in NACCC training – please see below.
Supervised training modules under development
Modules specifically tailored to meet the needs of centres offering supervised contact are currently under development. These will cover the following subjects:
- Case Recording
- Observation skills
- Listening Skills
- Recording Contact (what, how, when)
- Report writing
It is hoped that the new modules will be available at some point in the new financial year.
Training for management committees – governance and managing complaints
Are you a management committee member at a child contact centre? This role holds significant responsibility to ensure that that your organisation has a clear purpose and has a strategy to carry this out effectively. You will have to account for your organisation’s performance and ensure that it operates within the law. In order to support management committee members NACCC has developed a new ‘Governance’ training course specifically written for management committee members. This is a companion course to our ‘complaints’ module for management committees and will discuss the principles and practicalities of good governance, what is considered to be bad governance practice including common mistakes that can be made when governing an organisation. It will also give an insight on how a management committee can meet its goals and govern effectively.
The Governance training will be a face to face training course and centres will be informed when it is available.
The Complaints training can be downloaded from the Training section in the members’ area – go to ‘Additional Training’
GDPR training
In response to the new legislation coming into force NACCC is offering free GDPR training to all its members during February this year. John Douglas, Director at Information Age Ltd has been commissioned by NACCC to deliver the training which will be customised to the needs of child contact centres. The training will include an overview of the GDPR and the implications for child contact centres and training will cover the following
• an Introduction to GDPR, (background to providing assurance to information exchange partners, new legislation and threats – the NIST Cyber Security Framework)
• Cyber Essentials – the key requirements and messages for protection of IT systems
• IASME / ISO 27000 Recovery and Monitoring
• Compliance: Data Protection, including DPA(2018) and GDPR, requirements
• Policy and procedures, using document templates
The closing date for bookings is 31st January 2018
Training modules updated
We are currently revising the following modules which form part of our volunteer training programme: ‘Volunteer induction’, ‘Safeguarding and child protection’, ‘Responding to conflict and reluctant family members within a child contact centre’ and a new module ‘Understanding and managing children’s behaviour’. These will hopefully be available to download from the members’ area of the website in the next few weeks. Modules covering Family breakdown, Health & Safety Risk assessment, Understanding substance misuse and Family risk assessment wereupdated in October last year:
The aim of the family breakdown module is to enable participants to explore the impact of family breakdown on children’s emotional health and development, their safety and welfare. On completion of the module participants will understand what factors may lead to children’s emotional health problems after family breakdown; consider ‘typical’ views of family life and the various family structures; look at family breakdown from a child’s perspective; consider the importance of ‘good contact’ after family breakdown.
The purpose of the health and safety risk assessment module is to give staff/volunteers an understanding of legislation around health and safety risk assessments, employer and employees responsibilities and what to consider in carrying out a risk assessment. This module is in a workbook format and on completion of the workbook volunteers and staff will understand what a risk assessment is and why it is necessary, be able to identify the legal duties and responsibilities around risk assessment and identify and assess risk in the work place.
NACCC’s understanding substance misuse module has been written to give child contact centre volunteers a clearer picture of drug/alcohol misuse and how this impacts on families using centres. Once volunteers and staff have completed the module they will be able to recognise the signs and symptoms of the most commonly misused substances; explore some of the reasons why substances are misused; understand the effects of parental substance misuse on children and families; consider how families experiencing substance misuse may be best supported through child contact centres; and understand how to keep families and volunteers safe in the child contact centre.
The family risk assessment module has also been updated into a workbook format. This module aims to give child contact centre volunteers an understanding of family risk assessment, what to consider in carrying out a risk assessment and to understand equality in assessment. Participants will be able to understand the duties and responsibilities around the risk assessment of families, why we risk assess families and how to carry out a family risk assessment.
This training is free to members and is part of the training requirements for centre accreditation. Download your new material from the Training section in the members’ area – goto ‘Volunteer training’
Co-ordinator training
Are you a new co-ordinator? Has your centre recently joined NACCC? Is it time for you to do the refresher training? NACCC runs courses for new co-ordinators and refresher training in both supported and supervised centres. The 2018 programme is still being finalised – centres will be informed when dates become available but do check the training page for further info.
Why does Mental Health matter to all those involved in Contact?
Divorce and separation are a major challenge to mental health – a situation where perceptions of self, others and systems are all questioned. Contact helps preserve relationships and these are vital to mental well-being. Family breakdown is estimated to cost the UK £46 billion per annum and over one million children have no contact with one of their parents after separation. In the last three years Childline had 8,849 counselling sessions specifically relating to parental divorce and separation. It is estimated that 1 in 4 adults have a common mental disorder at any one time and 1 in 10 children have a diagnosable mental health condition.
Dr Kaplan (Director of the Transformation Programme at Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust and NACCC trustee) spoke at NACCC’s conference in November 2017 on the mental health needs of children affected by family breakdown and how awareness of child development theories can be helpful in understanding the needs of these children. Volunteers and staff attending the conference found Dr Kaplan’s speech very helpful and we have great pleasure in sharing this article based on the content of her speech.
‘Why does mental health matter to all those in contact’ article
–.>>Check out this article about children’s mental health and some training NACCC hopes to develop with Young Minds.
And finally… Want to get up to speed on ‘coercion and control’?
Check out this really useful webinar by Women’s Aid, introducing coercive control. Please go to http://coercivecontrol.ripfa.org.uk/
Louis Ruddlesden
NACCC Service Development Manager
