Safer recruitment training for schools

Online and face-to-face courses to help schools, academies and colleges recruit the right staff and volunteers to keep pupils safe

Learn how to make sure safeguarding is embedded in every stage of recruitment for your education setting - from initial shortlisting through to interviewing and vetting to making the final offer.

Developed by specialist child protection and human resource safeguarding experts, the NSPCC's online and face-to-face courses will teach you how to protect children and young people through a safer recruitment process.

Looking for our non-education courses?

We also provide safer recruitment training for organisations and sports and leisure settings.

What will I learn?

The online and face-to-face courses cover:

preparing to recruit
shortlisting for interview
vetting and barring checks
dealing with concerns identified through vetting and barring checks and assessing risk
managing allegations of inappropriate behaviour or abuse by a member of staff or volunteer.

Our online and face-to-face courses have been developed in line with current legislation in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and will teach you what you need to do to comply with statutory guidance.

Choose how you want to learn

This course is available in a range of learning styles to meet your training needs. Choose from elearning, live virtual training or in-person on location.

Benefits of the course

CPD certified.
Online course updated in October 2023
Covers government guidance relevant to safer recruitment, including Working together to safeguard children.
Choose your training style: elearning, live virtual sessions with an expert trainer or face-to-face on location.
Regularly updated to reflect changes in legislation, guidance and best practice advice.
Personalised certificate of achievement.
Once you've taken the course, it doesn’t stop there. We have a range of further information, training and downloadable resources to help you protect the children you work with.
Income generated from the sale of our training courses is reinvested back into the NSPCC to help protect children.

98%

of our customers would recommend NSPCC training

* We received 35,644 evaluation forms from people who had taken our elearning courses between 1st April 2023 - 31st March 2024. 35,074 (98.4%) said they would recommend the course they had taken.

Who is this course for?

Our Safer recruitment in education courses are for anyone working in education or recruiting for roles in the education sector including:

teachers
head teachers
governors
human resources staff.

They are relevant to all education settings, such as:

nurseries
primary and secondary schools
higher education establishments
pupil referral units
academies
SEN schools.

We recommend that everyone taking these courses has an up-to-date understanding of safeguarding principles and has received child protection training. Our safeguarding training for schools, academies and colleges course provides a good introductory overview to safeguarding.

If you work in a non-education setting see our Safer recruitment (non-education) online training course.

Your learning options

All NSPCC Learning courses are up-to-date with the latest information about legislation, guidance and best practice and provide a certificate of achievement.

And it doesn't stop there. As experts in safeguarding and child protection, we have a range of further information, training and downloadable resources to help you protect the children you work with.

Elearning benefits

Developed in line with current legislation in the UK's four nations – and regularly updated with changes.
Train anytime, anywhere and as many times as you like within one year.
Includes film interviews with experts, quizzes, film scenarios and reflective tasks to help you develop your understanding.
Purchasing courses on behalf of your team? Easily download reports to show who has completed the course.
Each section takes around 30-45 minutes to complete and is followed by a set of questions. You’ll be given a full explanation of the correct and incorrect answers to help develop your understanding and confidence.

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Live virtual training benefits

Remote sessions delivered live by expert trainers.
Share your ideas, experience and learning virtually with participants from a wide range of sectors and organisations.
Receive real-time feedback.
Learn from the comfort of your own home or office.
No travel costs.
Participate in interactive exercises and get direct support and guidance as you learn.

Book virtual training now

Face-to-face training benefits

Delivered by expert trainers.
Share your ideas, experience and learning with participants from a wide range of sectors and organisations.
Learn in a dedicated learning space, without distractions.
Participate in interactive exercises and get direct support and guidance as you learn.

Book face-to-face training now

Why take your training with the NSPCC?

At the NSPCC, we work to keep children and young people safe from abuse and neglect every day.

As experts in safeguarding and child protection, we understand the issues organisations and people working with children can face. That’s why professionals trust us to provide the support, training and resources they need to help protect the children and young people they work with.

Our highly-rated training courses are developed by experts. We work with a number of organisations, experienced consultants and subject matter experts in a range of sectors to develop courses that are clear, easy-to-use, up-to-date and in line with the latest statutory guidance, and tailored to your needs.

And as a charity, income generated from the sale of our training courses is reinvested back into the NSPCC to help protect children.

CPD-certified online course

This elearning course is CPD certified by the CPD Certification Service. This means you can be confident that the training meets the highest standards.

Continuing professional development, or CPD for short, helps professionals keep their skills and knowledge up to date. It demonstrates your commitment to safeguarding children and upholding the standards of your profession.

Some professional associations have mandatory CPD or safeguarding training requirements for their members, but all professionals will benefit from investing time in their CPD. And taking an online CPD course means you can train at your own pace, wherever suits you.

Technical requirements

Technical requirements for elearning

Our online courses will work in most browsers, though we recommend that you use Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Safari (not Firefox). You will need to make sure your browser is up to date for the course to run.

This course can be taken on PCs and Macs, as well as iPads or other tablet devices. Please note, we are unable to provide full technical support for tablet users. We do not support other mobile devices.

Having trouble with the course?

Try:

• clearing your cache
• accepting our cookies (essential cookies are required for the purposes of undertaking our elearning)
• turning off private browsing
• permitting access to videos on Vimeo
• setting the following web domain to ‘trusted’: https://mylearning.nspcc.org.uk

Call us on 0116 234 7246 or email mailto: learning@nspcc.org.uk if you have any questions.

Technical requirements for live virtual training on Zoom

We use Zoom Pro to deliver our live virtual training.

You'll need to sign up to Zoom and agree to the Zoom Privacy Notice in order to attend virtual training.
No confidential or sensitive data should be shared during the virtual event.
In order to take your training securely and for the best possible experience please use Zoom version 5.0 or above.
We recommend installing the latest version of your web browser before beginning your course.
Prior to the event, you can test your internet connection at https://zoom.us/test
Your trainer will contact you prior to your training date with details of how to login on the day of your session and setting up Zoom. You can also visit the Zoom website for technical support.

Quantity	Price per person
1-9	£35.00
10-49	£31.50
50-99	£29.75
100-999	£28.00