Search for Learning and Development Services and Pathways

If you work with Children please book onto the Children's Services version of this course

Please note you have to do this training programme in order.

For SGC staff only:
Additional learning resources here: Mental Capacity and Deprivation of Liberty (Sway resource)
Request to shadow a MCA assessment here: Peer Shadowing Network Yammer Group


South Gloucestershire Council has launched a new interactive training programme that gives Health and Social Care Workers the skills, knowledge, confidence and practice to apply and comply with the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The programme is made up of interactive learning workshops. The new skills and knowledge gained from the workshops are then applied in the workplace.
The programme is designed for Care Provider managers, Social Worker and Occupational Therapy staff and managers, nurses and all other professionals working in health and social care.

The standard charge for this course is £49. Please refer to our Course Charges on the Home page for information on discounts and exemptions.

Please note that by booking this course you are giving permission for you email address to be sent to the trainer.


It is recommended that you attend the "Raising Safeguarding Concerns" course before you attend this training

Safeguarding Adults is an important part of effective practice within social and healthcare.
The role of a manager/practitioner in ensuring that staff respond appropriately to a safeguarding concern is vital. Staff need to be well informed and confident about their own responsibilities in safeguarding adults so that they respond appropriately when concerns are identified.

This 1-day course will support managers/supervisors, Social Workers/OTs and other practitioners including in healthcare to be clear about their role, how Making Safeguarding Personal impacts on it, and how to make decisions about what to do next.

The standard charge for this course is £103.50 per day. Please refer to our Course Charges on the Home page for information on discounts and exemptions.

By booking onto this course, you are consenting to your contact details being passed onto the trainer. This is so they can send the invitation, and any further resources, to you.

Please join the meeting prior to the 9.30 start, so you have time to check that the technology is working.

This workshop is for South Gloucestershire Council Adult Care practitioners ONLY.

The session will explore the importance of legally literacy and defensible decision-making in effective practice. Included will be a focus on:

• defining and developing an understanding of what is meant by both terms, from both a theoretical perspective and from your experience/practice
• ways to continue to develop your knowledge of the legal framework and how to ensure that it underpins your practice
• professional accountability and the importance of accurate analysis, free from bias, to inform your professional opinions and defensible decisions

This is a 3 hr workshop to explore direct work skills that can be used when working with young people.

The focus of these sessions will be to give awareness of Therapeutic life story work as well as general life story work which can help children understand their life story and promote their identity and attachments.

The workshop will be facilitated by Rhian Phillips and Grace Beckett who will use principles from Richard Rose’s Therapeutic Life Story Work Diploma.

A session for people working with children and families in South Gloucestershire to be able to explore and gain confidence in creating words and picture explanations for children and families.

Please note: All attendees must have already attended Signs of Safety Awareness session or Signs of Safety 2 day training to be able to attend this course.

The Virtual School value the time they spend with carers, and to enable this to be an even more successful partnership between school and home, have arranged four sessions to take place over the school year.

This fourth session is a being held as a twilight 'Drop in'.  There is no specific focus for this session, rather it is a means for you to have access to the Virtual School and to raise any questions/concerns that you may have.  Equally if there are any Virtual School updates or developments, these will be shared with you at this session.

The WAYPOINT (Working Alongside Young People & Others In Networks Therapeutically) Team is part of the Fostering Service. WAYPOINT provide therapeutically informed support to children, families, foster carers, and professional networks. This support is additional to the support provided by your supervising social worker and children’s social workers.

The monthly WAYPOINT Drop-in sessions are facilitated by Dan Charnock, WAYPOINT Senior Social Worker and are open to all mainstream foster carers. The aim of the WAYPOINT Drop in is to provide a reflective and open space for foster carers to come along and discuss issues or concerns you may be facing. While each session includes a space to reflect on challenges, there is also a significant focus on sharing strategies and thinking about therapeutic approaches to difficult situations and celebrating successes.

You don’t have to be going through a difficult time to attend – peer support, learning and reflection is always valuable, and there is no pressure for anyone to share within the sessions. Topics for each session tend to arise on the day, ensuring the focus is relevant to the content brought to the drop in. However, there is also the option to agree a topic for a future session to enable a more in-depth focus. Discussion often includes topics such as attachment, trauma, and use of therapeutic approaches such as PACE and NVR, and ideas come not only from Dan but from within the group.

Please note that you must be able to attend both sessions in order to complete this training.

This course is deemed Mandatory by the Adult and Childrens Senior Leadership Team. The Learning and Development will be contacting the line managers of South Gloucestershire Council staff to ensure that your work time will be protected (i.e. that you will be deemed ‘unavailable’ to work that day and free of all distractions).

If you are unable to complete both sessions within the course you will be asked to complete both sessions at a future date – it will not be possible to attend your second session on another cohort.

This new 1.5-day training programme is for staff who work with adults, children, young people and families based within statutory and voluntary/independent sector organisations across South Gloucestershire.

The aim of the programme is to promote effective multi-agency working between professionals and organisations aligned to national/local legislation, policy, guidance and best practice. A key focus will therefore be person/child-centred practice that promotes positive outcomes for those who lives are affected by domestic abuse.

The first half-day session will be delivered virtually via MS Teams. This will provide an opportunity to refresh and develop your knowledge base including in relation to the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and key learning from Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews, Safeguarding Adult Reviews and Domestic Homicide Reviews. The importance of trauma informed practice underpinned by professional curiosity will be explored.
Throughout the session delegates will be encouraged to generously share their practice experience with colleagues, learn from others and move beyond knowledge, understanding and theory to application in their practice.

Delegates must attend day 1 and undertake an individual research/reflective task before attending day 2 of this training.

The second session will be delivered in-person, with a primary focus on exploring, developing and embedding best practice within the landscape of effectively multi-agency/disciplinary working. A broad range of topics will be included, e.g. intersectionality, child-centred practice within a whole family approach, effective risk assessment/monitoring and safety planning, professional self-care.

Throughout the session delegates will be encouraged to generously share their practice experience with colleagues, learn from others and move beyond knowledge, understanding and theory to application in their practice.

The individual learning task, along with active participation in both sessions are integral to the completion of the programme.

If you are from an external organisation and fail to attend one of the sessions you will still be charged for both sessions.

• Managing allegations
• Allyship and Role Model Behaviour
• How to identify and manage racism within the team and in social care workers practice
• Encouraging managers to integrate race equality into their agenda at their team meetings

What is it? This is a new dedicated Induction, Training and Support Group for Connected Carers, Including Special Guardians Why are we running it? We recognise that your situation is very different to that of main stream foster carers. The new role that you find yourself in now, is often not a pathway you may have planned on taking. Unlike foster carers, you are thrown in at the deep end without having had a course to prepare you for what lies ahead, and how ‘The System’ works. This course aims to do that as well as recognise the particular difficulties that you as ‘Kinship Carers’, whatever your role, face. How will it run? There will be six sessions, each lasting approximately 2-2.5 hours, which will take place over the course of a year. It is hoped that you will attend all six, but as new carers arrive, they can join the programme at any stage. The sessions will be led in the main by Social workers from our team.  This session will focus on: Trauma and Attachment