Safeguarding Children Awareness

Children and young carers may be present during an adult care visit. This course helps care workers notice concerns, hear the child’s experience and respond within their role. Eight Modules cover signs of harm, disclosures, immediate danger, safe information sharing, factual records and professional boundaries. The teaching uses England’s safeguarding context and complements employer induction and local procedures. It is awareness training rather than a designated safeguarding lead qualification.

👥 Who This Is For

Adult social care staff who may encounter children, families and young carers during their work.

💻 What You Need

No previous qualification is required. You need a device and internet access for the learning materials, sufficient English to engage with the course, and access to relevant employer safeguarding procedures and local contacts. Request learning support where needed. Practical competence and task authorisation are assessed separately.

⏱ Learning at Your Pace

Allow approximately 2 hours 13 minutes overall, including videos, guided reading, scenario reflection and the final assessment. Study at your own pace; individual completion times vary.

🧒 Child Safeguarding Highlights

Eight modules keep the child’s voice and family context in view while examining harm, neglect and disclosures. They connect concerns about immediate danger with local referrals, appropriate information sharing, records and multi-agency working.

✓ Explore harm and neglect through the safeguarding role.
✓ Keep the child’s account and family context in the discussion.
✓ Understand the course’s disclosure and referral scenarios.
✓ Review factual recording, professional boundaries and working with other agencies.

📘 Module 1 — Children, Families and the Safeguarding Role

Adult care workers may meet children during home visits, support parents or grandparents, or notice a young carer providing extensive help. Safeguarding therefore extends beyond the person receiving the commissioned care.

By the end of this Module, learners will be able to:

✓ Explain why adult care staff may encounter child safeguarding concerns.

Workplace application: A home-care worker notices a child regularly missing school to provide personal care for a parent. Worked response: Record the observations and raise the child’s support and safeguarding needs through the local child pathway.

📘 Module 2 — Recognising Harm and Neglect

Possible harm includes physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and neglect. Exploitation, online abuse and risks outside the family home also matter.

By the end of this Module, learners will be able to:

✓ Recognise potential signs of harm without diagnosing abuse.

Workplace application: A child has repeated unexplained injuries and appears frightened when a particular visitor arrives. Worked response: Record the observable concerns and refer promptly without investigating or treating the signs as proof.

📘 Module 3 — The Child's Voice and Family Context

Child-centred practice asks what daily life feels like for this child. Listen in a way suited to age, language and communication needs, while staying within the worker’s role.

By the end of this Module, learners will be able to:

✓ Keep the child's experience central.

Workplace application: An adult says everything is fine, but the child says they are afraid to be left alone at home. Worked response: Listen to the child, record their words and raise the concern through the appropriate pathway.

📘 Module 4 — Responding to a Disclosure

A disclosure may be direct, hesitant or made during an ordinary conversation. Stay calm, listen and reassure the child that speaking was appropriate.

By the end of this Module, learners will be able to:

✓ Respond without promising secrecy or investigating.

Workplace application: A child says a visitor hurt them and asks the worker to keep it secret. Worked response: Listen without leading questions, explain the need to get help, and record and report the disclosure.

📘 Module 5 — Immediate Danger and Local Referrals

Respond according to urgency. Immediate danger or a medical emergency requires emergency help; do not wait for a manager’s permission.

By the end of this Module, learners will be able to:

✓ Identify immediate safety and local safeguarding routes.

Workplace application: During a visit, a young child is alone with an unresponsive adult and no safe caregiver is available. Worked response: Seek emergency assistance immediately and raise the child’s immediate safeguarding needs without waiting for a manager.

📘 Module 6 — Sharing Information Safely

Share necessary information with appropriate people for a safeguarding purpose, using a secure route and recording what was shared and why. Consent is not always required, but sharing is not automatically lawful simply because a concern exists.

By the end of this Module, learners will be able to:

✓ Apply proportionate lawful information sharing.

Workplace application: A worker needs to pass a child’s disclosure to the local safeguarding service but is unsure about the legal basis. Worked response: Share necessary protective information through the proper route, record the decision and seek organisational guidance without delaying urgent action.

📘 Module 7 — Recording and Multi-Agency Working

Useful records distinguish observation, the person’s exact words, information supplied by others and the worker’s actions. Include the relevant date, time, location, people present and referral details.

By the end of this Module, learners will be able to:

✓ Record observations and contribute within role.

Workplace application: A colleague asks the worker to rewrite a factual note so the concern appears less serious. Worked response: Preserve an accurate record and escalate pressure to misrepresent the concern through the appropriate route.

📘 Module 8 — Professional Boundaries and Scenario Review

Review the whole situation without expanding the worker’s authority. A family may need practical help, an adult-care review and a child safeguarding response.

By the end of this Module, learners will be able to:

✓ Identify next steps in a family-related case.

Workplace application: A family reports having no food, the child has missed school repeatedly and the adult’s care support has broken down. Worked response: Raise the observed child concerns and support needs, while arranging the appropriate adult-care escalation separately.

📝 Final Assessment

Complete 15 single-answer multiple-choice questions after the teaching and associated activities. Select one correct answer from four options for each question. The pass mark is 80% (12 out of 15).