Prerequisites & Considerations before applying for a Course
By requesting to enrol in any of these courses, you are confirming that you:
- Are part of the General, Specific or Intensive Child Protection Workforce within your own organisation (confirm this with your CP Lead or contact Hilary.Moy@argyll-bute.gov.uk (Childminders are included in these groups)
- Have line manager approval .
- Are willing to share learning with your team and/or organisation/networks.
- Your single agency training is fully up to date.
Our training courses are designed to meet the needs of the different workforces, as described in The Framework identifies four ‘workforce groups’ who require different competences, knowledge and skills. Most people will find that their job role fits broadly into one of these four categories
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National Framework for Child Protection Learning and Development in Scotland 2024
Core Competencies: Key Learning
- Intensive Workforce: recognise, respond, record, support, advocate, report, assess, analyse, plan, implement
- Specific Workforce: recognise, respond, record, support, advocate, report
- General Workforce: recognise, respond, record, support, report
- Wider Workforce: recognise, respond, record, report
"It's everyone's job to make sure I'm alright."
All workers who have contact with children and young people or other family members as part of their role should have the core competences and key knowledge and skills required by the wider contact workforce.
Those working within the general, specific and intensive contact workforce will require additional competences, knowledge and skills relating to their role.
The child protection core competencies, knowledge and skills have been identified as a guide, and should be underpinned by the values and principles of GIRFEC and be considered alongside other requirements and competence frameworks (e.g. the KSF and Intercollegiate Document for workers in the NHS).
All multi-agency child protection training in ºúÌÒÅ®Éñ & Bute aligns with these groupings to help you know which courses are appropriate for you to attend.
The Wider Contact Workforce
Everybody, regardless of role and remit, where they do not fit into any other professional groups or workforces below, require at least a minimum, baseline awareness of core messages about child welfare, safety and protection.
Key learning is to:
- Recognise (harm or risk of harm when they see it)
- Respond (by sharing concerns with others whose job it is to follow up on what has been reported)
- Record (keep records according to agency requirements)
- Report (sharing information and concerns with child protection services (social work or police)
All staff who have contact with children and their families are expected to have at least this minimum level of child protection awareness.
You can find out more about the knowledge and skills for the general contact workforce on Page 12 of the National Framework for Child Protection Learning and Development in Scotland 2024.
General Contact workforce
The general contact workforce describes those who, as part of their job are likely to come into contact with children, young people and other family embers. The frequency of the contact will vary, but these workers will not usually be involved in any in-depth personal work with them, or have an in-depth knowledge of their circumstances. Workers in the General Contact Workforce need to have the confidence and awareness to recognise when a child or young person may be in need of protection and know how to respond.
As part of their job/role/remit, people in this workforce group are likely to:
- Require a protecting vulnerable groups (PVG) check
- Recognise potential signs of harm and abuse
- Raise a protection concern through the appropriate route
- Contribute relevant and appropriately recorded information to assessments/reports
NB. Key learning is the same as the Wider Workforce, with additional expectations of:
- Support (offering comfort, reassurance, listening, seeking additional help from relevant family or services)
You can find out more about the knowledge and skills for the general contact workforce on Page 13 of National Framework for Child Protection Learning and Development in Scotland 2024.
The Specific Contact Workforce
The specific contact workforce describes those who carry out direct or regular work with children, young people and their parents/carers, and form more in-depth relationships with them. Contact may take place in the home or other setting (e.g. office, school, community facility etc). These workers may be asked to contribute to the risk assessment and risk management process and may be providing on going support. In addition to the skills of the General Contact Workforce these workers require additional competencies, knowledge and skills to reflect the nature of involvement with children & young people, including protecting and promoting their well-being and contributing to identifying and implementing potential interventions Specific Workforce:
All staff who, as part of their role, work directly with children or their family. People in this workforce group are likely to require a PVG and to:
- Routinely work closely with children and their family, including supporting learning, health, practical or skill development in children, parents or supporting family time between children/parents
- Keep routine records, write reports and/or assessments for multi-agency child protection meetings, participate in child protection support plans
- Contribute to single agency recording and chronologies
- Contribute to generic or specific risk assessments
- Contribute to identifying and implementing appropriate support/ intervention plans
- Attend and contribute to formal protection or risk management meetings.
NB - Key learning is the same as the Wider and General Workforces, with additional expectations of ‘advocate’ for children and their families.
You can find out more about the knowledge and skills for the specific contact workforce on Page 14 of the National Framework for Child Protection Learning and Development in Scotland 2024.
The Intensive Contact Workforce
The Intensive contact workforce describes those who have specific designated responsibility for child protection issues as part of their role e.g. Linked into their post, where they are the Named Person or Lead Professional, and/or those involved in undertaking child protection investigations or working with complex cases. This group will have fulfilled all relevant learning and developments of The General and The Specific Contact Workforce and also require a thorough understanding of managing / working together to protect and meet the needs of children and young people
As part of their role, people in this workforce group will need a valid PVG and are likely to:
- have a lead role in compiling and implementing a multi-agency Child’s Plan and/or in decision-making relevant to a child’s welfare
- oversee the implementation of protection plans
- have a specific, designated role in formal protection processes, including carrying out a child protection investigation
- carry out specific, focused or specialist risk assessments
- compile multi-agency or integrated chronologies
- produce assessment/analytical reports on a child’s behalf for formal statutory decision-making
- provide leadership, specialist advice, support and reflective supervision to colleagues, including the creation of safe working practices and safer cultures that support a ‘whistleblowing’ policy Key learning is the same as the Wider, General, Specific Workforces, with additional expectations of:
- Assess (gather, collate relevant information)
- Analyse (make sense of what collated information is conveying)
- Plan (determine support required on basis of assessment)
- Implement (act on plan by organising or providing the identified support
You can find out more about the knowledge and skills for the intensive contact workforce on Page 15 &16 of the National Framework for Child Protection Learning and Development in Scotland 2024.