Virtual College reports renewed interest in abuse awareness skills among housing providers
North West housing provider Adactus has stepped up its abuse awareness training following the case review into the death of ‘child U’ in September 2011. Recommendations published earlier this year, revealed that child U’s mother had extensive contact with front line housing staff from Adactus, as well as other agencies.
According to Chloe Weatherhead from the Housing e-Academy, a division of Virtual College, the UK’s leading online training provider, many housing providers are looking into ‘abuse’ awareness training owing to the number of cases hitting the headlines.
“There has been no end of stories about the abuse of children, vulnerable adults and the elderly,” she said. “In this particular case it was recognised that Adactus had done all it could have done, as its housing maintenance workers reported concerns to social services, but many other housing providers have recognised they have a major gap in their operations which they are keen to plug with the right training.”
Housing providers and their contractors employ front line staff who are often in a unique position to be able to look out for and report any concerns they may have. A lack of training has resulted in some social housing providers being identified in case reviews for not doing enough to raise the alarm and trigger the necessary procedures to help the victim.
Recognising hate crime and domestic violence can also come under the umbrella of abuse training but formal face to face training can be expensive and time consuming, especially if an organisation is trying to pull its entire frontline staff together in one place at the same time to undertake the training; e-learning provides a more cost effective option.
Chloe said: “Housing professionals and contractors are ideally placed to spot signs and raise concerns of abuse and even while resources are being cut, it is heartening to see that helping vulnerable adults and children remains a priority for the sector and hence the increase in abuse awareness training.
“The nature of abuse training means there could be some uncomfortable images and facts presented to an audience,” adds Chloe. “E-learning means that trainees can work in privacy if they prefer and can even access the training at home where they may feel more comfortable.”