NCB has published a report on online safety training needs for the children and young people's workforce in Northern Ireland.
Commissioned by the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland (SBNI) and delivered under the Northern Ireland Executive’s Online Safety Strategy, NCB's report draws on interviews with 23 professionals and a survey of 667 practitioners across education, health, social care, youth justice and the voluntary sector.
The analysis explores the current provision of online safety training and resources, identifies key risks facing children online, and highlights the challenges and learning needs of the workforce tasked with keeping them safe.
Key takeaways from NCB's analysis
Relevance of online safety training
1. There is clearly a focus on the importance of online safety for all those working with children and young people, and this should continue to be promoted.
2. Further research is required to consider whether there is a stronger focus on online safety for those working with older age groups, and if so, how training can be adapted for younger groups.
Availability of online safety training
3. Guidance on good quality training, and funding to access this regularly, would be valued by the workforce.
Content and focus of online safety training
4. Given the changing nature of technology, the workforce is keen to be kept up to date with emerging issues and themes, and to learn how to support young people with these, alongside the more serious issues.
Other sources of support
5. Practitioners should be supported to identify and access a range of quality-assured information.
6. Tailored resources to support those working with children and young people with SEN would be valuable.
Issues affecting young people’s safety
7. A mapping of workforce, and indeed parent and child concerns, against training content, is a critical step in training development to ensure the content matches real-life concerns and issues. Co-production of training resources and packages would maximise the usefulness and relevance of these for the target audience.
Challenges facing the workforce
8. Despite the wide range of online safety training and support available, a wide range of concerns still exist. Therefore, more needs to be done to best support the workforce, and therefore children and young people and those that support them, building on the range of training available, and listening to the views of the workforce to best address challenges.
Learning and development needs
9. Online safety is not a ‘one size fits all’ issue, therefore training and resources must build a suite of support to meet the range of needs and audiences and reflect the real-life situations for children and young people. Importantly, the workforce is keen that this includes emphasis on the positive benefits of the online world, as well as the challenges.