to not do Safeguarding training?

[Sausagenbacon]

I belong to a church, and occasionally serve coffee at the end of the service. I am being asked to take Safeguarding training, which I think is utterly pointless.
I have expressed this and been told that it's policy, and I have to do it.
AIBU to just stop doing coffee?

@Itsdifferentnow why would the OP want to make herself even more useful? Maybe this is much useful as she wants to be?

Just do the training it's not gonna kill ya.

herewegoagainy Because she volunteers to help, presumably she would like to be the best help she could be? If you are going to do something why not do it well? Most people who volunteer to help like to try and do it well.

You're clutching at straws now ...

Came here to say something like this. The need for safeguarding awareness and training is subtle and nuanced in exactly this way.

@Sausagenbacon I'm not sure of your church/denomination but In the Catholic Church, there are going to be regular, mandatory SG audits of dioceses and part of that will be having a policy where volunteers have a refresher of their SG training. There is a big push across all dioceses to make SG a priority: it must be an agenda item at every meeting, heavily advertised and a visible presence in every parish, etc.

There is a huge difference between creating a safeguarding culture and training everyone within an inch of their life.
As a safeguarding lead surely you're well aware that the training given to general volunteers is nowhere near training everyone within an inch of their life?

I mean I'm sure some people would rather not be made aware how they can keep themselves safe, their fellow volunteers safe and be part of a culture of safeguarding and/or think safeguarding isn't relevant to them and/or think they're so awesome they don't gain anything by refreshing their safeguarding (usually whilst showing a limited or very simplistic understanding of safeguarding), but I'd say those sorts of attitudes are part of the reason why safeguarding training and refreshers are needed.

@LolaSmiles I gained nothing from doing my safeguarding training again in December. Nothing.

LolaSmiles I gained nothing from doing my safeguarding training again in December. Nothing.

I spend many of my general volunteer safeguarding training sessions thinking it's a repeat at a much lower level than the training I have done for work, but then there's follow up with volunteers, or discussions, or we reflect on our policies and procedures, or discuss things linked to our organisation.

If people's attitude (or the organisation's overall attitude in the way they handle things) towards safeguarding is that it's a bit of red tape, tick a box and nothing more then a culture of safeguarding is unlikely to be strong and the box ticking outlook will continue.

@LolaSmiles it was an online course. There was no discussion at all.
I have been a safeguarding lead, the basic safeguarding course is so basic, All these people talking about subtle signs make me laugh. The signs they cover are things like unexplained bruising. Its hardly subtle.

I think one of the problems is that everyone thinks their safeguarding is better than everyone else's. So in the last 6 months I've done 4 different but very basic level safeguarding. Two of them are really very similar organisations; just one was definitely better than the other.
It's a bit like when I had 4 DBSs all done by the county council; two were for schools (one infant, one junior - and they were done at the same time too). It felt a bit of a waste of their time.

Now I don't really mind it, and they were all subtly different, but I do kind of feel that maybe it would have been better to have done a basic level and a less basic one at least. Perhaps there could be a basic training online which everyone should do, and then a range where you can do different extra ones.

I've done a more substantial one in the last year too.

I think it would be better to have an annual basic to remind people, and a more substantial one related to what you're actually doing every three years.

@LolaSmiles it was an online course.There was no discussion at all.
I have been a safeguarding lead, the basic safeguarding course is so basic, All these people talking about subtle signs make me laugh. The signs they cover are things like unexplained bruising. Its hardly subtle
That to me is an organisational issue because it suggests their attitude is to tick the box, so they send the volunteers to do an online course and that's the box ticked.

I think where I would probably differ from some posters on this thread is that my position there would be the organisation needs to raise its game, not decide safeguarding training is a waste of time for volunteers.

The best organisations I've volunteered with have a proper culture of safeguarding eg. It's normal for volunteers to think about scenarios linked to their teams or discuss safeguarding when planning. There is a culture of looking out for one another, choosing to find a reason to lurk if you see a fellow volunteer might be more comfortable with another person around, having a culture where people say "have we thought about how we could do.... differently".

Edit to add- I agree with you the basic safeguarding training is basic. That's why I found it funny that it's apparently training everyone within an inch of their lives to expect basic safeguarding awareness.

There’s quite a difference between a test and training. Def worth flagging up.

I think you knew it wasn’t a test? If so, why say it was?

It is usually 25mins to a hour of an online depending on you own pace, that you can do in small bits, answering a few questions about what you have just heard. You can listen or just read the transcript. Not a huge job. No cost.

Do it or not. Honestly, if this is the "cost of entrance" to an activity you like being a part of, then suck it up.

It seems a rather petty and antisocial stance to take against a thing that is designed to increase the levels of good in the world. You must be so super-duper fun at dinner parties.

Good god haven’t you got anything better to do? Give it a rest.

OK so let's say little / big, old / young, ladies / gentlemen from the congregation not volunteers. If you check out the odd church these days, I think you might not find many kids or teens waiting for coffee and biscuits after service;

The training isn't hard, safeguarding it's in everything now, it's best to have the training to cover your back and theirs

@Nantescalling I've no idea how many 'odd churches' you've checked out recently but you may be suprised just how many kids, teens, men, women go to churches for the many things offered in these community spaces, including, but not limited to, religious services.

I guess because you might have a brief chat with that elderly person you hand a cup to and they might say something that might not be obvious that they need some kind of help. But doing the training can help with that. I guess any kind of volunteer role comes with obligations now like this type of training so if you’d rather not do the courses I’m sure they will understand you stepping back (if they insist the courses are compulsory)

Sure if you don't want to volunteer any more then don't. But it's perfectly reasonable for them to ask you to do training.

@MargaretThursday Same here - 5 organisations - but only the church one covered elder abuse. Worth signing up for the DBS update service though, saves a lot of effort.

If you check out the odd church these days, I think you might not find many kids or teens waiting for coffee and biscuits after service;

Not sure which "odd Church" you are looking at, but there are plenty of teens and kids at my Church.

I could sit in front of the computer whilst writing my shopping list or playing on Facebook (and I have in the past whilst being thoroughly bored by a training session). I'm logged in as present but I’m not listening with more than half an ear.

Still the box is ticked so all is good.

At the very least there must be some form of test but it seems not from what PP have said.

No wonder the number of volunteers are dropping fast.

Glad you said this... I found that post worrying I thought churches and schools had upped their game.