HYNDBURN BOROUGH COUNCIL
Accrington-based, Hyndburn Borough Council describes itself as a ‘compact’ Lancashire borough having a population of 81,600 comprising people from a wide variety of backgrounds, faiths and ages. There’s a well-established Asian heritage community, migrants from Eastern Europe and a strong Polish community. The over 55′s form an increasing part of the mix, with approximately one third of the population under the age of 25.
The authority provides the usual gamut of advice and services spanning everything from housing to environment waste and recycling, social benefits to parks, and its front-line workers have lots of face-to-face contact with the public.
The Challenge
Hyndburn Council determined that working practices needed to reflect and be fully in-line with new, national legislation and minimum standards. To achieve this, employees (particularly those involved in face-to-face contact with children and vulnerable adults) were to receive full training in safeguarding.
The council understood its staff would be in a position to spot the signs and symptoms of abuse relating to both younger citizens and vulnerable adults. What they needed was to equip them with the relevant knowledge of how to respond in such situations; to provide awareness of what that means in terms of an individual’s roles and responsibilities towards safeguarding customers in the context of their own job but also, when working within multi-agency settings.
The requirement was for a training course tailored expressly to the needs of their workforce. To keep costs low, in a difficult economic climate, the council wanted to engage a local contractor who was good value for money to supply the training.
The Athena Solution
We put together a comprehensive session over a full-day.
Attendees included reception staff, welfare benefits advisers, welfare benefits assessors, council tax administrators, housing advisers, other front line council staff and councillors.
The training covered safeguarding in a national and, also, a local context and went on to explore:
- developing knowledge of categories of child abuse
- increasing awareness of the signs and symptoms of abuse
- reporting pathways
- how and who to report concerns about a child
- how to respond to allegations/concerns about a vulnerable adult
- knowledge of the signs and symptoms of adult abuse
- knowledge and skills on information sharing and multi-agency working
- reporting pathways and how to respond to allegations or concerns of adult abuse
We ensured from the outset that the programme was excellent value for money.
The Outcome
Ivy Crossley said: “We found working with Athena a very good experience. They were always at arms length, friendly, efficient, and delivered a course that was tailored to our needs.
We are extremely satisfied with our dealings with Athena and would definitely use them again. We would advise anyone who needed a course that matches their own specific requirements to consider Athena.”
