Aims and objectives:
To comply with our statutory duty to train all staff who come into contact with children to an acceptable standard of child protection processes and needs. We had to accept that we did not have the resource to allow all staff (5000+) to have access to external training and that in a practice environment, which has multiple demands for training and heavy workloads, we had to be creative.
Support for the change:
We agreed a package of child protection training with an NSPCC trainer and produced a CD ROM and video to deliver this training. This was done in-house with our Medical Illustration Department and a number of staff as "actors". Doing this in this way gave us the luxury of making child protection very real for staff not normally involved. We know that in the past generic/multi agency training had not been evaluated well by these staff. Although they generally had previously enjoyed the training they could not see the direct relevance to their practise.
Patient and public influence:
This was largely driven by our statutory and inter-agency obligations, but all the survivor research available tells us that children who were abused did want adults and professionals to recognise what they were not able to tell them.
Impact on the workforce:
We have delivered 2000+ training sessions now across the whole organisation, which means that for some non-paediatric areas it is the first exposure to child protection training they have had. This also means that scarce resources for more advanced development can be focused on particular staff groups and/or particular subjects.
Measuring the results:
This work has been shared with the network of child professionals and has been received enthusiastically. Others are considering this approach but professionally produced packages carry huge cost.
Improved performance:
In a little over 6 months we have trained 2000+ professional and support staff with no loss of clinical / work time. There have been no further training costs other than the cost of developing the CD and producing copies (between £2 - 3 k).
Reflecting diversity:
In order to produce training for a range of professionals - from consultant radiologists to receptionists in non-paediatric areas - it was necessary to tailor training to their experience and de-mystify the sometimes overwhelming issues involved in child protection work. Simple things are addressed: "How would I know? What would I do? What if I am wrong?"
Sharing the learning:
This has been shared with child protection professionals. I am preparing an article for publication - possibly the Health Service Journal, but this is not yet completed.
Outstanding features:
Coming up with a creative solution to a knotty problem faced by Acute Trusts all over the United Kingdom.
- real, measurable results in staff training
- reduction in time lost
- no backfill (agency) costs
- a novel way of being trained which staff like
This has lead to successful spread and sustainability for the future.
