Child Protection for Equestrian Volunteers

This course is an introduction to safeguarding and child protection and encompasses the content of the British Equestrian Federation (BEF) guidelines. As someone who is likely to come into regular contact with children and young people, the content will help you to recognise potential abuse and also have the knowledge to report the incident and take appropriate action.

On completion of this course, the learner will:

• Have an awareness of the range of legislation and guidance surrounding safeguarding and the protection of children
• Be able to define the different types of child abuse
• Be able to demonstrate an awareness of the range of indicators of abuse and neglect
• Be aware of the effects of personal values and attitudes towards abuse
• Understand their responsibility to report concerns
• Be aware of the importance of maintaining a child focus
• Be able to demonstrate an awareness of the actions to take in the event of suspected abuse

The purpose of this first module is to help you to assess your current knowledge of child protection. You will look at a series of scenarios set in an equestrian environment, which will start you thinking about some of the ways in which you could encounter potential abuse and what actions you might take in response.

Sadly, abuse and neglect do happen in sometimes surprisingly large numbers. Often, children will find it hard to speak to someone about the abuse they are suffering, or they may have very few people who will listen. The stables may be the safe haven they need to encourage them to open up to someone about their situation. This module will look at what child protection and safeguarding actually means, should you find a child discloses something to you, or should you suspect there is a problem. On completion of the module, you will have a much better understanding of key words and phrases and how they relate to safeguarding and protecting children. A better understanding of what terms such as ‘child in need’ and ‘significant harm’ mean in real terms will help you put the language of child protection in context.

Safeguarding and protecting children and young people must operate within a framework of guidance and legal procedure. This module offers an overview of the framework of protection and how it is applied, and takes into account guidance from the British Equestrian Federation on your duty of care. Of course, you will not be expected to be able to quote detailed laws directly, but you will gain a general understanding of what they are. This module will also look at the organisations that may be part of safeguarding, their responsibilities and the guidelines for protection.

By the end of the module, you will have a much clearer understanding of safeguarding guidance, the associated agencies and the legalities of protection. The module also looks at the Nominated Welfare Officer role and the duties and responsibilities they are expected to undertake. You will also see how the agencies work together to tackle the problem of abuse, and how a good child protection policy will help coaches, instructors, stable staff and, of course, children to have a positive and safe experience.

To effectively detect, reduce and hopefully prevent child abuse, we need to strictly define what it is and how it manifests itself. Understanding the categories of abuse will help you to recognise the tell-tale signs that it is taking place.

At the end of this module, you will have a better understanding of what we mean by child abuse and what the specific areas of abuse are.

Children and young people often find it very difficult to talk about the abuse they are experiencing. The anxiety that they feel may manifest in different ways, such as displays of challenging or changed behaviours, and we need to be able to recognise these signs of abuse. Abusers are often adept at covering their tracks and may appear to be very caring people, so recognising the signs of abuse can often be the first alert to a situation.

At the end of this module, you will be more familiar with the definitions of abuse and the signs and indicators of the different types of abuse.

The focus when working on safeguarding or dealing with potential abuse must be the safety of the child or young person. Remaining child-centred is key to the process of identification and reporting, because sadly, children sometimes report several times before any action is taken. The learning you complete in this module will be contextualised in a realistic situation, so that you can see how a child focus can be achieved.

By the end of this module, you will have a better understanding of what it means to be child-centred in your approach.

This part of the course builds on the work we did in module three, where we looked at effective consultation between agencies, and the increased understanding of the signs and different types of abuse we discussed in modules four and five. Children can disclose in a number of ways, so, while you want to maintain confidentiality where appropriate, you also need to know when to report and to whom. It is vital that you respond quickly and appropriately when presented with a disclosure of abuse, and this module covers the right process to follow and what to do (and what not to do) in order to achieve the desired outcome.

By the end of this module, you will have a better understanding of the correct procedures to follow in response to a potential abuse situation and will know what to do if you have concerns about the behaviour of an adult. A step-by-step guide is included, which will help you to refer any concerns you may have.

Using a range of scenarios, you will now take all that you have learned and apply it to an assessment of your knowledge. The final assessment is your opportunity to show how much you have absorbed and why it is so important to have child protection training.

Once you have passed your assessment, you will be able to download your certificate. Your pass rate will be 70% but don’t worry if you do not pass the first time, as you can take the test multiple times.