The purpose of this first module is to help you to assess your current knowledge of safeguarding. You will look at a series of scenarios set in an equestrian environment, which will start you thinking about some of the ways in which you could encounter potential abuse and what actions you might take in response.

Sadly, abuse and neglect do happen in sometimes surprisingly large numbers. Often, children and adults at risk will find it hard to speak to someone about the abuse they are suffering, or they may have very few people who will listen. The stables may be the safe haven they need to encourage them to open up to someone about their situation. This module will look at what child protection and safeguarding adults actually means, preparing you should you find an individual discloses something to you, or if you suspect there is a problem. On completion of the module, you will have a much better understanding of keywords and phrases and how they relate to safeguarding and protecting children and adults. 

Safeguarding and protecting children, young people and adults at risk must operate within a framework of guidance and legal procedure. This module offers an overview of the framework of protection and how it is applied, and takes into account guidance from the British Equestrian Federation on your duty of care. Of course, you will not be expected to be able to quote detailed laws directly, but you will gain a general understanding of what they are. This module will also look at the organisations that may be part of safeguarding, their responsibilities and the guidelines for protection.

By the end of the module, you will have a much clearer understanding of safeguarding guidance, the associated agencies and the legalities of protection. The module also looks at the safeguarding roles within the Equestrian setting so that you are familiar with the different roles both locally and nationally.

To effectively detect, reduce and hopefully prevent abuse, we need to strictly define what it is and how it manifests itself. Understanding the categories of abuse will help you to recognise the tell-tale signs that it is taking place.

At the end of this module, you will have a better understanding of what we mean by abuse and what the specific areas of abuse are, and how to spot them.

People, regardless of age, often find it very difficult to talk about the abuse they are experiencing. The anxiety that they feel may manifest in different ways, such as displays of challenging or changed behaviours, and we need to be able to recognise these signs of abuse. Abusers are often adept at covering their tracks and may appear to be very caring people, so recognising the signs of abuse can often be the first alert to a situation.

At the end of this module, you will be more familiar with the definitions of abuse and the signs and indicators of the different types of abuse.

The focus when working on safeguarding or dealing with potential abuse must be the safety of the child or adult at risk who is experiencing the abuse. Taking a person-centred approach places the possible victim at the heart of your safeguarding and helps reduce the time taken to get help where it is needed

The learning you complete in this module will include example scenarios in realistic and equestrian situations, so that you can see how a person-centred focus can be achieved.

By the end of this module, you will have a better understanding of what it means to be person-centred in your approach.

This part of the course builds on the work we did in module three, where we looked at effective consultation between agencies and the increased understanding of the signs of, and the different types of abuse we discussed in modules four and five. People can disclose in a number of ways, so, while you want to maintain confidentiality where appropriate, you also need to know when to report and to whom. It is vital that you respond quickly and appropriately when presented with a disclosure of abuse, and this module will cover the right process to follow and what to do (and what not to do) to achieve the desired outcome.

By the end of this module, you will have a better understanding of the correct procedures to follow in response to a potential abuse situation and will know what to do if you have concerns about the behaviour of an adult.

Using a range of scenarios, you will now take all that you have learned and apply it to an assessment of your knowledge. The final assessment is your opportunity to show how much you have absorbed and why it is so important to have safeguarding training.

Once you have passed your assessment, you will be able to download your certificate. Your pass rate will be 80% but don’t worry if you do not pass the first time, as you can take the test multiple times.