The father of a teenager once asked me, “What qualifies you to work with my son?”
Good question! And certainly one I would be asking in his position…

Image courtesy of ©CCW & WCVA

Image courtesy of ©CCW & WCVA


Looking back, the answer I gave wasn’t the best. Basically, I gave him a run through of my qualifications.
But knowing stuff doesn’t necessarily mean we know what to do with that knowledge…

How good is your child protection practice?…


I ask this because most of us know a lot about child protection. We’ve been in the job a while; maybe a very long while.
But how good are we at knowing what to do with that knowledge? It’s practice backed up by sound knowledge that really makes the difference to young people.
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Events in Rotherham and elsewhere have hammered home the need to stay sharp. Knowing something is only half the story. Doing what that knowledge tells us – that’s what saves lives.

Test your knowledge & your practice…

Image courtesy of ©CCW & WCVA

Image courtesy of ©CCW & WCVA


The Care Council for Wales and the Wales Council for Voluntary Action have produced a smartphone app to do just this.
Sioned Williams, Senior Workforce Development Manager at the Care Council, said:

“It has a refresher section about key concepts and a quiz to test understanding of safeguarding. So, once someone has completed safeguarding training, the quiz helps them test their ability to apply the concepts in practice. The app is a great way to support knowledge and understanding and uses innovative ways to provide information.”

The app has the following sections:

  • Refresher – this gives practitioners a chance to review important bits of basic knowledge. For example: key things to do during disclosures, principles of good recording and the reporting of concerns. It could act as a refresher for reinforcing existing knowledge or a crib sheet before going into a safeguarding situation. Like the quiz section, the refresher asks practical “what to do” type questions – it’s not just about learning facts.
  • Safeguarding quiz – this is a 20 question quiz that takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. Once you’ve finished answering the questions (some of which have more than one possible correct answer) the app gives you your score. The pass rate is 80%. Each time you do the quiz the questions change, so it’s something you can come back to. If you get less than 80% the app provides guidance links to help you plug the gaps.
  • Resources – here are quick links to key resources in the safeguarding field. These include the All Wales Child Protection Procedures, the CCW Code of Practice for social care workers and the CCW/WCVA basic safeguarding training materials. It’s an easy-access resource section that takes you quickly through to documents you may use at work – though ideally you need to be able to get online via wifi to use them (they takes a while to load using mobile connectivity!).
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  • About us – this is the usual obligatory info about the app developers; in this case the Care Council for Wales. There’s a link to the CCW website and basic info about its purpose.
  • Contact us – a basic section providing contact details for the Care Council for Wales, including their Facebook account and twitter feed.

Overall, I think this app provides some useful value and easy access to good information.
For those of us who’ve been around a while, we’d do well to take the quiz now and again – it’s quite humbling and just might keep us on our toes!
For troubled young people, that can only be a good thing!

Get it here…

For more details about the app and how to download it, click here.

Your thoughts?

  • Are you aware of any other apps that can help us to help troubled young people? 

Please let me know – join the conversation by leaving a comment below or by clicking here.

Related previous posts…

Pass it on…

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© Jonny Matthew 2014

Material for this post was taken from the Care Council for Wales website – with thanks!

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