Nottingham City Council has become one of the first councils in the country to launch innovative safeguarding awareness training for all staff, irrespective of the job they do or which department of the council they work for. Basic Safeguarding Awareness is being rolled out to about 10,000 staff and is seen as useful to them in their personal lives as well as in their professional roles.

The interactive sessions will give information on signs and indicators of abuse to staff in groups of no more than 20. Around 500 sessions will be delivered between now and March next year in various venues and at different times to accommodate the needs of the whole workforce. Areas such as safer recruitment and procedures for dealing with allegations will be included where necessary. The programme is being led by a pool of volunteers.

The City Council’s Chief Executive, Jane Todd, who has endorsed the programme will be amongst the first to undertake the awareness training. “Safeguarding is an issue we take extremely seriously, which is why we have taken this new approach to the training. We all need to take responsibility for protecting vulnerable individuals, children and families whatever our role within the council or indeed the community as a whole,” she said.

The initiative is linked to a campaign recently launched in Nottingham to raise public awareness around vulnerable adults by encouraging family, friends, neighbours and colleagues to look out for and report signs of abuse.