A resource for professionals and students

The increased movement of children and families across Europe, the heightened vulnerabilities associated with this, and the variation in the response suggests the need for more consistent training for social workers and NGOs involved with migrant families.

This e-learning module has been designed to help you understand the cahllenging policy and practice environments in which social work practitioners and NGO workers increasingly find themselves when working with families in tranit from a variety of countries with diverse cultural backgrounds and complex needs.

An academic article you may find useful for further reading is:
Sarkin, J (2017). Respecting and protecting the lives of migrants and refugees: the need for a human rights approach to save lives and find missing persons. The International Journal for Human Rights. 22 (2), p 207-236

Learning Outcomes

• Describe international policy and practice frameworks relating to children on the move and the obligations they place on the member states
• Describe the main elements of the asylum process and reflect upon the role of professionals within this system
• Consider and appraise the practice issues faced by professionals whose role it is to assess and support families on the move
• Understand and reflect upon the issues faced by families on the move
• Analyse and appraise the challenges of transnational child protection work.

 This e-learning module is part of a wider Erasmus+ funded project in which colleagues from Universities in Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Moldova, Romania, in partnership with Terre des hommes and the Universities of Kent and Stirling (UK), collaboratively developed child protection modules to sit within the qualifying social work programmes in each of the partner countries.

The project ran between 2015 and 2018 and identified five core modules for which we developed trainign and educator materials to provide consistency of content, improving quality of teaching and assessment, enhance student learning and development, and ultimately improving outcomes for children. Further information on the intellectual outputs is available via this link.

This e-learning module builds on the knowledge and is again the product of a collaborative process between the project partners and is avaialble to use as a "standalone" resource for universities and organisaitons across the world. This resource poses questions and provides brief prompt answers which are a result of the collaborative knowledge from social work practitioners and academics across the 10 organisations of this Erasmujs project.

The course is aimed at professionals who are involved in carrying out assessments where there are concerns about the safety and wellbeing of a child.  In addition it will also be of interest to those who want to have a broader understanding about assessments and how they can be used to support efforts to protect children.

It is worth noting that some organizations and countries use a different word for “assessment” - such as a ‘social report’, ‘social enquiry’ or a ‘case study’.

Outcomes:

By the end of the course, participants should:

• Recognise the value of assessment and the different types of assessment that made be carried out in connection with chid protection
• Understand the ethical considerations that need to be ensured through the assessment process
• Identify ways of promoting the meaningful participation of children and families
• Know four key steps in any assessment process
• Identify appropriate sources of information on which to base assessment
• Be able to identify risk factors, strengths and protective factors
• Be able to Identify the main forms of abuse, symptoms and manifestations
• Appreciate the links between risk and vulnerability in terms of being able to manage risk
• Understand the importance of analysing information, and have a model for doing this in a structured way.

The six modules are:

Module 1: Introduction to Assessment
Module 2: Steps in the Assessment Process
Module 3: Dimensions to be Assessed
Module 4: Understanding & Assessing risk
Module 5: Anlaysing Information
Module 6: Skills for Assessment

Each module is self-directed using a variety of exercises, such as quizzes and case studies.  Links are provided to additional information and resources. In total the course should take approximately 6 - 8 hours for you to complete.

Welcome to this short online training course about multi-disciplinary working for addressing child abuse concerns.

This training is designed for professionals working in the field of child protection against abuse, neglect, violence and exploitation and whom may be required to work in a multidisciplinary team.  This includes:

• Social workers
• Child Protection Workers
• Psychologists
• Staff working in children’s NGOs
• Counsellors
• Coordinators working in the field of domestic violence
• Staff working in residential institutions for children
• School Psychologists
• Doctors and Nurses
• Teachers
• Police Officers specialising in domestic violence or children's issues
• Lawyers and prosecutors
• Judges

This course will take about 2 hours to complete, although this does not need to be done in one session and you can skip between the different pages / parts of the course.