children's SOCIAL CARE COURSES

Explore our learning offer for children's services

Antser Learning engages within sectors where human feelings, vulnerabilities and safeguarding will always be priority. We believe we can change the face of this sector by changing behaviours, challenging “the standard responses” and ultimately facilitating better outcomes. We innovate, think outside of the parameters, continually change and progress, whilst always keeping human sensitivity at the heart of what we do.

We provide learning and development that enables positive change by focusing on the everyday challenges for those working with children, young people, families and vulnerable adults. This includes social work professionals, occupational therapists, other social care practitioners, provider services and partner agencies within social care, education and health sectors.

Achieving best evidence (ABE) · in-house

This is a highly specialised, intensive course that complies with current ABE legal requirements. It is delivered by professionals who have been interviewing and training in accordance in legislation for over 20 years. The aim of this course is to provide participants with the tools to plan, prepare and conduct an interview with a victim and/or witness by complying with the requirements and competences compatible with carrying out an interview and/or an investigation. This course equips the participants to carry out assessments effectively and can be tailored to your organization’s needs.

Adolescents at risk · in-house

The aim of this course is to provide participants with a greater understanding of the types of high-risk behaviours adolescents engage in and may be faced with. The course uses neuroscience research and considers the psycho-social factors to better-equip participants to identify what could influence development in young people. This interactive course uses case studies and scenario-based exercises to enable practitioners to understand the role that multi-agency working parents/carers & professionals can play in children’s and adolescents’ development and enable them to offer advice on how to become more involved in risk reduction amongst children, along with introducing techniques and tools used to assist engagement and assessment.

Assessment and analysis · in-house

The aim of this course is to provide practitioners with the ability to form accurate, insightful and well-rounded assessments, essential for good social work. This course will support participants to use the assessment process in an accurate, analytical and inclusive way.

Attachment · in-house

The aim of this course is to provide participants with the opportunity to explore the concepts of attachment and attachment disorder whilst considering techniques for its assessment. In particular, this course considers the experiences of looked-after children and children on the edge of care, exploring the implications of attachment and parenting capacity.

Awareness of gangs and serious youth violence · in-house, VR-enabled

This course raises awareness of issues facing young people who are affected by youth violence and gangs by encouraging practitioners to consider implications for safeguarding and child protection practice. By taking part in this course, practitioners will have the opportunity to explore the meaning and effects of serious youth violence and the potential reasons why young people may become involved in criminal behaviour. The course is delivered by highly experienced front-line professionals and also looks at impact of
gangs on themselves and victims.

Behind the mask (understanding identity) · in-house

The aim of this course is to explore the importance of using different ‘masks’ when communicating with children and young people. What can this concept bring to our understanding of the young people we support? How can it help us understand ourselves and our ways of relating to others and to the world? Many of us use masks as a coping mechanism. This course encourages participants to recognise the positive and negative effects of ‘masking’ our identity and emotion, and to develop skills that support children and young people in building the confidence to be their true selves.

Child criminal exploitation (county lines) · in-house, VR-enabled

The aim of this course is to equip delegates with the knowledge and skills to identify, support and deal effectively with children and young people who may be involved in Child Criminal Exploitation.

Child and young people development · in-house

The aim of this course is to provide participants with an overview of children’s physical, emotional and cognitive development as well as the influence of culture, parenting and attachment.

Child sexual abuse · in-house

The aim of this course is to enable professionals to develop their knowledge and skills in recognising, identifying and managing the behaviours/physical indicators that may be present in children who have or who are suffering sexual abuse. The course will also raise the participant’s knowledge and understanding of who are the perpetrators of child sexual abuse. The course looks at strategies for working with children and young people at risk, their families and carers, handling disclosures and exploring the behaviours and signs that become indicators of sexual abuse.

Child sexual exploitation (CSE) · in-house, VR-enabled

The aim of this course is to provide a multi-agency overview of CSE and equip participants with the tools they need to use in identifying and working with children at risk. This course is vital for frontline staff working with children and families, enabling them to feel confident in recognising the signs of child sexual exploitation and acting on them appropriately.

Communicating with children · in-house

The aim of this course is to ensure that the child’s voice is heard, and the communication skills of children’s workers can make all the difference to whether this is achieved. This skills-based, experiential training will explore the therapeutic role of direct work and play when working and building trust with vulnerable children, young people and their families. This training incorporates supportive play activities that can then be used by participants within their own organisations when undertaking direct work.

Contact with birth families · in-house

This course aims at exploring the foster carers’ crucial role in supporting children’s relationships with their birth families. This course gives participants the opportunity to explore research findings and contact issues in order to empower foster carers when working with birth families.

Culture competency / safeguarding across different faiths and cultures · in-house

The aim of this course is to raise awareness and explore issues of race, culture, faith, ethnicity and diversity, and how these affect the process and safeguarding of children, for professionals and families.

Designated Safeguarding Lead · in-house, open

Our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) course gives delegates a firmer understanding what the role involves and will help them to understand the safeguarding levels of needs and referral process in more detail. It ensures that delegates can work more collaboratively with key agencies, and that the DSL will be able to support colleagues in making decisions in relation to Safeguarding concerns.

The course uses a variety of interactive exercises and tools to help delegates review and apply their child protection procedures within the organisation are able to keep detailed, accurate, secure written records of concerns and referrals.

The DSL course focuses on roles and responsibilities with regards to safeguarding, the importance of effective communication across agencies, and contributing to assessments. The difficult issue of challenging colleagues and how to escalate concerns would also be explored using local procedures and scenario-based exercises

Open course prices are £60+VAT per person as an introductory offer
Time and dates available for open courses:

21st September 2021 | 09.30am – 15.30pm

Developing complex decision-making skills · in-house

This course aims at enabling practitioners to make consistently sound decisions that take into account risk, critical thinking, safe outcomes and safety plans.

Domestic abuse and its impact on families · in-house, VR-enabled

The aim of this course is to explore the impact of domestic abuse, not only on children which are victims of it, but also within the surrounding family. Domestic abuse has its roots in political, cultural and economic forces which shape our response and interventions. This course explores the impact of domestic abuse on the child and looks at how to conduct effective risk assessments, the benefits of close inter-agency collaboration, and strategies for working with families where violence has been an issue.

Emotional harm and neglect · in-house

This training provides participants with a great understanding of the various risky behaviours that they may be faced with and helps them to be better equipped to identify factors that can influence the development in young people. It will enable them to understand the role parents/carers & workers can play in the process and be able to give advice on how they can be more involved in risk reduction with their children. Along with introducing techniques and tools used to assist engagement and assessment.

Keeping children safe online · in-house

The aim of this course is to equip professionals to identify a child or young person’s activity online and some of the risks they are exposed to. This course provides a better understanding of the impact of social media, gaming and chat room apps and websites, as well as to explore ways of utilising tools and resources to help effectively engage children and young people.

Level 3 multi-agency child protection (MACP) · open

Our Level 3 training is a multi-agency child protection course that will provide an opportunity for participants from various agencies to gain and share knowledge, explore feelings and increase confidence in relation to child protection.

Open course prices are £60+VAT per person
Time and dates available for open courses:

11th June 2021 | 09:30am – 15:30pm

19th October 2021 | 09.30am – 15.30pm

Level 3 multi-agency child protection with a focus on child abuse · open

The course covers prevalence of child sexual abuse, appropriate/inappropriate sexual behaviours for different age groups, and has brief sections on forced marriage, female genital mutilation and child sexual exploitation.

We provide participants with research and practice-based information that will help them to effectively identify the sexual abuse of children and young people.

Open course prices are £60+VAT per person
Time and dates available for open courses:

7th September 2021 | 09.30am – 15.30pm

The course is aimed at staff who have previously attended Multi-Agency Child Protection training. The course aims to give you a deeper understanding of the impact of sexual abuse on children and young people growing up.

Level 3 multi-agency child protection with a focus on neglect · open

Neglect is the leading cause of child abuse. This is a Level 3 course raising awareness and exploring the issues relating to Neglect and to help you to spot the signs and develop your skills in practice.

The course is aimed at staff who have previously attended Multi-Agency Child Protection training, but no specialist knowledge is required. The course aims to give you a deeper understanding of the impact on children and young people growing up.

Open course prices are £60+VAT per person
Time and dates available for open courses:

23rd September 2021 | 09.30am – 15.30pm

Level 3 multi-agency child protection with a focus on child sexual exploitation (CSE) · open

A Level 3 course raising awareness and exploring the issues relating to Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). This course considers the different models of CSE, vulnerability and resilience factors in young people, what the evidence says, and what we have learnt from serious case reviews.

The course aims to give you a deeper understanding of the impact of sexual exploitation on children and young people growing up. No prior specialist knowledge of the subject is required.

Open course prices are £60+VAT per person
Time and dates available for open courses:

13th July 2021 | 09.30am – 15.30pm

14th December 2021 | 09.30am – 15.30pm

Level 3 multi-agency child protection with a focus on domestic abuse · open

This is a Level 3 course raising awareness and exploring the issues relating to Domestic abuse and violence and to help you to spot the signs and develop your skills in practice.

Open course prices are £60+VAT per person
Time and dates available for open courses:

7th July 2021 | 09.30am – 15.30pm

24th November 2021 | 09.30am – 15.30pm

Level 3 multi-agency child protection with a focus on parental mental illness · open

Parental mental illness was a significant factor in 40% of Serious Case Reviews. This course explores values and attitudes, identification and working together, thus helping you understand the experience and voice of children and young people. It will conclude with an emphasis on analysis and joint planning for effective intervention with these families.

The course is aimed at staff who have previously attended Multi-Agency Child Protection training, but no specialist knowledge of mental illness is required. The course aims to give you a deeper understanding of the impact of parental mental ill health on children and young people growing up.

Open course prices are £60+VAT per person
Time and dates available for open courses:

11th May 2021 | 09.30am – 15.30pm

28th September 2021 | 09.30am – 15.30pm

7th December 2021 | 09.30am – 15.30pm

ParentAssess Training · open

The ParentAssess training course is undertaken by Sarah Lowe, the creater and founder of ParentAssess.

ParentAssess is a framework developed for assessing parents who have learning disabilities and other additional needs within childcare proceedings. It addresses both the emotional and practical aspects of parenting and seeks to identify both the strengths and concerns. The traffic light system means the assessment outcomes are measurable and easy to read.

The framework can be used where children remain with their parents or where the children have been placed in foster care and supervised contact is in place.

This course is priced at £420+VAT per person.
Time and dates available:

21st & 22nd July 2021 | 09.30am – 16:00pm
8th & 9th December 2021 | 09.30am – 16:00pm

Life story work · in-house

This course aims at providing participants with knowledge and skills to grasp the importance of their contribution to a child’s understanding of her/his own life story. This course explores the importance of a Foster Carer and Social Worker’s role in helping children grow into becoming adults by understanding their history, and why they could not live with their birth family.

LGBTQIA+ awareness · in-house

This course aims at developing the participant’s knowledge and awareness of LGBTQIA+. By attending this course participants will look at the language they use and consider whether this promotes the rights of people who identify as LGBTQIA+. Throughout this course we will explore how they can support those they work with to express their sexuality and actively establish relationships as well as recognising mental health issues that can arise as a result of LGBTQIA+ issues. In addition to this, we will emphasize on understanding the legislation in relation to LGBTQIA+ and the duties that this places on us as social care workers. This course is ideal for mixed groups of adult and children’s practitioners as well as partner agencies.

Managing risk for social workers and managers · in-house

This course aims at helping participants identify and learn how to assess and minimise risks in order to be able to make better, more informed decisions as social workers and managers.

Motivational interviewing · in-house, VR-enabled

This course aims at looking at a directive, person-centred structured approach to working directly with children, young people, families and adults alongside health, education, police, and social care. Its goal is for the individual (not the worker) to recognise and express concerns about current behaviour and generate their own arguments in favour of change. It pays particular attention to ambivalence, decisional balance and change talk. Experts agree that Motivational Interviewing can effect real change in behaviour.

Neglect · in-house

This course aims to provide a group of multi-agency practitioners with the ability to understand what neglect is, identify the indicators of neglect, understand the threshold for a referral, gain knowledge about legislative and local framework and reflect upon research and learning from Serious Case Reviews. Through interactive and small group work this course intends to provide participants with new opportunities to learn about assessment tools and share how to apply these tools in their workplace.

Permanency and care planning · in-house

This course aims at exploring the different routes through which permanence can be achieved for children in care including with existing or reconstituted birth families, friends or relatives, adoption, long-term fostering with new or existing carers, child arrangements’ orders, special guardianship orders and, for a minority of children, permanent residential care. This course also explores themes from national serious case reviews and learnings from local SCRs, and quality assurance activity, and will consider a range of models of best practice. Additionally, this course will provide social workers with skills for direct work with children and young people and effective casework to ensure best outcomes.

Physical harm · in-house

The objective of this course is to provide an understanding of physical abuse and effectively equip practitioners with research-based information to understand its impact on children.

Recording and Reporting Skills · in-house

This course aims to ensure reports and recording accurately reflect information gathered and are written in a style that parents, children and young people can understand. The course explores the legal & policy framework for recording & information sharing along with developing skills in maintaining quality written accounts, whilst understand the impact of maintaining written recording on service users.

Reflective supervision · in-house

This course aims at ensuring that supervision is given the correct priority when meeting the needs of children, young people and their families, and working to achieve best practice for all. This course explores the fundamentals of supervision by encouraging workers to reflect upon their own work, whilst providing adequate support in the workplace. This course can be tailored to the workforce or managers.

Safeguarding children with disabilities · in-house

The aim of this course is to recognise ways in which disabled children can be more vulnerable to harm by introducing participants to the interface between disability and safeguarding.

Safeguarding level 2 course · in-house, VR-enabled

The aim of this course is to provide participants with an overview of general safeguarding practice for children and young people. All of our courses help practitioners to better support vulnerable children and young people – taking on board their perception of events that surround them, understanding their emotions, and encouraging them to take part in the processes that may surround them.

Safeguarding level 3 courses (MACP) · in-house, VR-enabled

This course aims at providing participants with a better understanding of some of the key specific and complex safeguarding issues, such as child exploitation and FGM. Participants then explore effective multi-agency responses to concerns raised, including assessment frameworks and the full range of child protection meetings, before reflecting on a number of practice messages from serious case reviews.

Safer recruitment · in-house, open

This aim of this course is to provide all those involved in recruitment to help spot warning signs that a candidate may be unsuitable to work with children, young people and vulnerable adults, helping to mitigate the risk when hiring new personnel, and to create safer workforce processes.

Open course prices are £60+VAT per person
Time and dates available for open courses:

9th July 2021 | 09:30am – 15:30pm

6th October 2021 | 09.30am – 15.30pm

Train the trainer refresher · open

A day to Refresh and Enhance practice.

The day will provide an update of the latest level 2 training material with a focus on adapting the material to fit the context in which it is being delivered.

The day offers an opportunity to share positive practice, consider approaches to some of the challenges of training delivery and ensuring that taught knowledge is reflected in practice.

Delegates must have attend the 2 day Level 2 Safeguarding Train the Trainer course

Open course prices are £60+VAT per person
Time and dates available for open courses:

1st July 2021 | 09:30am – 15:30pm

Undertaking Form F Assessments · open

Roger Chapman author of ‘Undertaking a Fostering Assessment’ will present this CPD accredited two day training event. It will provide assessors with the knowledge and skills to meet all statutory requirements when preparing and presenting reports to a fostering panel.

This course is suitable for experienced assessors wishing to reinvigorate their skills or to those embarking on a career as a fostering social worker. To attend this training you must be a registered social worker with the Health and Care Professionals Council.

This course price is £195+VAT per person.
Time and dates available for open courses:

This course price is £195+VAT per person.
Time and dates available for open courses:

Section 47 training · in-house

The aim of this course is to provide participants with a good understanding of the policies and procedures surrounding Child Protection, as well as the roles and responsibilities of different professionals involved in the Child Protection process.

Supporting young people who self-harm · in-house

The aim of this course is to help staff who work directly with people who come into contact with a person who self-harms. The course will provide participants with knowledge and skills in Positive Behaviour Support, how to apply this model and reduce episodes of people who are displaying self-harming behaviours.

Systemic practice · in-house

The aim of this course is to explore the fundamentals of systems theory and systematic practice as a key methodology in understanding a child’s experience, and using tools that can lead to positive outcomes for children. Through this course, families will be better supported to stay together, and practitioners will become more satisfied with their outcomes. This course focuses on the concept that every conversation is an opportunity for change and, as such, practitioners must be given the tools to become more adaptable and react to different and complex situations as they arise.

The Impact of Trauma on children · in-house, VR-enabled

This course aims to better equip the delegates understanding and assessment of the impact of trauma on the emotional and behavioral development of children. This course focuses on how to develop skills for intervening with trauma.

Toxic trio · in-house

The aim of this course is to support participants in developing a better understanding of the impact of the Toxic Trio by considering Mental Health, Drugs and Alcohol, Domestic Abuse, cognitive in terms of the ‘family development’. Looking at the impact on the family, family’s strengths, difficulties and building resilience. This course will ensure participants build a comprehensive understanding of the link between parental mental health and child protection.

Understanding the impact of parental mental illness · in-house

This course aims to help participants understand the stigma that can be attached to mental illness and what professionals can do to offer their support. This course develops an increased understanding of the link between parental mental health and child protection, helping practitioners remain child-focused at all times.

Working with difficult dangerous and evasive behaviours · in-house, VR-enabled

This course aims to better equip safeguarding practitioners that regularly have to deal with difficult situations where adults may behave in ways which are resistant and un-cooperative. This course provides an opportunity for delegates to learn about and practice tools and techniques to effectively work with challenging behaviours and situations and is also one of our ‘flagship’ courses which routinely receives exceptional feedback from participants. It is ideal for mixed groups of adult and children’s practitioners as well as partner agencies.

Working with fathers and other significant males · in-house

This course aims at engaging with fathers & significant men as an important part of the child protection and safeguarding practice. Men may be involved in families in a range of ways and may need support throughout the process of becoming effective parents. This course explores the historical context of fatherhood and considers learnings from SCRs, research and evidence-based practice when working with men, and the risks of ‘hidden’ men.