Our current training

Upcoming training events

We have a multi-agency pool of trainers who deliver a wide range of training for all partner agencies across services and interventions achieve the very best for our children and young people in Westmorland and Furness.

This pool of trainers is made up of colleagues from health, social care and other partner agencies, delivering subjects in their own areas of expertise, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience to each training event. The training pool is supported by the Westmorland and Furness Safeguarding Children Partnership (WFSCP) Business Team who co-ordinate the training and provides practical support.

The WFSCP are always looking for experienced practitioners who may be interested in joining the training pool.

For more information, email WFSCPtraining@cumbria.gov.uk

The training programme is under development. It will be reviewed regularly as part of the Learning and Practice Improvement Subgroup remit.

This will help to ensure that we are offering courses that are effective, appropriate and reflect any issues or developments arising in safeguarding practice.

Take a look at the full programme below.

WFSCP Working Together to Safeguard Children: Level 3

This was formally known as Level 3 Safeguarding Training. WFSCP Working Together to Safeguard Children is intended for professionals who are required to work at level 3 competency within their statutory framework, particularly where responsibilities include keeping children safe. You will need to have completed Level 2 Safeguarding Children (eLearning). To access the basic Level 2 eLearning course, log in to the Virtual College using the link below. Virtual college Any queries regarding this training course, please contact us at wfscptraining@cumbria.gov.uk
Date(s):	Time:	Venue:
Tuesday 29 September 2026 (fully booked) Wednesday 14 October 2026 (fully booked) Wednesday 11 November 2026 (fully booked) Thursday 14 January 2027 Wednesday 10 March 2027 Thursday 13 May 2027 Tuesday 6 July 2027 Thursday 16 September 2027	12:30 - 16:30 12:30 - 16:30 12:30 - 16:30 12:30 - 16:30 12:30 - 16:30 12:30 - 16:30 12:30 - 16:30 12:30 - 16:30	Kendal Town Hall Kendal Town Hall Barrow Town Hall Kendal Town Hall Voreda House, Penrith Barrow Town Hall Kendal Town Hall Voreda House, Penrith
Learning Outcomes:
The aim of the training is to develop a common understanding of risk management and to provide support to all professionals working with children so that everyone is clear about: the thresholds for access to services which support the actions needed to improve the outcomes for children understanding of roles and responsibilities identifying exemplars of good practice individual responsibility when working with children, young people and families responsibility of different agencies; and the tools in place to support professionals in their role
Who is this training for?:
This training would be valuable for anyone who works with or supports children, young people or families.
To book:
To book your place or if you have any queries, please email WFSCPTraining@cumbria.gov.uk All participants should arrive 15 to 20 minutes before the start time.

LADO

This session will cover the reporting of concerns and managing allegations, LADO Threshold criteria including low level concerns and transferable risk, and compliance and responsibility.
Date(s):	Time:	Venue:
Wednesday 13 January Wednesday 12 May Wednesday 15 September	12:15 - 12:45pm 18:00 -18:45pm 12:15 - 13:00pm	MS Teams MS Teams MS Teams
Who is this training for?:
This session is suitable for any practitioner or partner agency working with children and families in Westmorland and Furness. Together, we’ll explore how we can ensure a consistent, collaborative approach in the way we engage and work with children and families in our area.
To book:
To sign up, please email: wfscptraining@cumbria.gov.uk with your full name, job title, organisation & email address.

Trauma Informed Training

The Trauma Informed training is a full-day session designed to help professionals and practitioners understand how trauma affects the brain, body, and behaviour and how this understanding can transform the way we support individuals, communities, and our teams.
Date(s):	Time:	Venue:
Wednesday 14 October (fully booked)	09:30 - 16:30	Barrow Town Hall
Learning Outcomes:
To begin to understand the transformation to becoming Trauma Informed Lancashire. To begin to explore how trauma affects our body, brain and behaviour To be able to recognise how trauma may present in people we work alongside To consider how a Trauma Informed Approach impacts on individuals and communities To begin to think about changes we can make to our working practices, services and organisations
Who is this training for?:
This training would be valuable for anyone who works with or supports children, young people or families.
To book:
To book your place or if you have any queries, please email WFSCPTraining@cumbria.gov.uk All participants should arrive 15 to 20 minutes before the start time.

Tom’s Story: Domestic Homicide Review

This powerful and thought-provoking multi-agency training shares Tom’s voice—the voice of a child who lived through domestic abuse and tragically lost his mother to it. Developed as part of a Domestic Homicide Review, this session gives practitioners a rare and moving insight into the lived experience of children impacted by parental domestic abuse. Using Tom’s own words, the training promotes child-centred, trauma-informed practice, encouraging professionals to reflect deeply on how domestic abuse, coercive control, and neglect affect children’s emotional wellbeing and development.
Date(s):	Time:	Venue:
Tuesday 1 December 2026 Tuesday 26 January 2027	09:30am - 12:30pm 13:30pm - 16:30pm	Voreda House, Penrith Kendal Town Hall
Learning Outcomes:
Participants will learn to: listen to Tom’s story and recognise what his and his family’s experiences can teach them explore the key themes of domestic abuse, coercive control and neglect, and understand how these can affect mental health reflect on how trauma and adverse childhood experiences shape children’s lives and future outcomes
Who is this training for?:
This training would be valuable for anyone who works with or supports children, young people or families.
To book:
To sign up, please email: wfscptraining@cumbria.gov.uk with your full name, job title, organisation & email address.

Social Care Reforms Partnership Briefing

Partner agencies across Westmorland and Furness are invited to attend the Social Care Reforms Partnership Briefing. This session aims to develop a shared understanding of the Families First Partnership Programme, what it means in practice, and how we collectively support children, young people and families. What the Briefing Will Cover The briefing will: Introduce the Families First Partnership Programme and its local implementation. Provide an overview of the core principles underpinning the national children’s social care reforms. Explore the key pillars of the social care reforms and how these translate into everyday practice. Create space for colleagues to share insight, professional experience and local knowledge to help shape delivery across Westmorland and Furness. Why This Matters The Families First approach depends on strong partnership working. This briefing will help to ensure that: Everyone understands their role within the social care reforms. Services are aligned, working to a shared language, vision and approach. Through shared understanding and collaboration, we can deliver more coordinated, consistent and effective support for families across Westmorland and Furness.
Date(s):	Time:	Venue:
Thursday 5 November 2026 Friday 11 December 2026	16:00 - 17:00 12:00 - 13:00	MS Teams MS Teams
Who is this training for?:
Children’s services Health and 0 to 19 teams Education settings Youth, community, and voluntary sector partners Police colleagues
To book:
To book your place or if you have any queries, please email WFSCPTraining@cumbria.gov.uk

Domestic abuse

Responding well domestic abuse training
Westmorland & Furness Council, in partnership with SafeLives, are offering the training opportunity to complete ‘Responding Well’ Domestic Abuse Training. This training has been agreed as the consistent, baseline DA Awareness across Cumbria. SafeLives are a UK-wide charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, for everyone and for good. They are independent, practical and evidence-led, with survivor voice at the heart of our thinking. They work with organisations across the UK to transform the response to domestic abuse.
Date(s):	Time:	Venue:
Please see the link	Full Day	Face-to-Face
Learning Outcomes:
define Domestic Abuse with an update on the DA Act 2021 and the changes to current practice/legislation. ensure a thorough understanding of controlling and coercive behaviour and how abusive relationships develop. explore typologies of abuse using Michael Johnson’s model and consider how this impacts our assessment of risk and intervention for families. understand the importance of risk assessment- using tools such as the SafeLives DASH (as specific to Cumbria which uses a combined DASH) but also our professional judgement identify how trauma impacts survivors and how we can work in a more trauma-informed way. understand best practice when working with those impacted by DA and how to use our knowledge of DA to respond in a non-victim-blaming way.
Who is this training for?:
This training would be valuable for anyone who works with or supports children, young people or families.
To book:
For available dates and to book a place, please click on the link below Book your place (Eventbrite) If you have any queries regarding the training or you are having issues with booking, please contact Alison Goodfellow by email: alison.goodfellow@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk Important Information - Police Officers/staff need not attend as Cumbria Constabulary have their own DA Matters Training.

Domestic abuse risk assessment and combined homicide timeline training
In conjunction with Victim Support and Cumbria Constabulary, the following training is available for all professionals potentially working with victims of Domestic Abuse.
Date(s):	Time:	Venue:
Please see below	Please see below	Please see below
Learning Outcomes:
identify the signs of Domestic Abuse to be able to effectively assess risk with the use of the DASH Risk Assessment and combined homicide timeline
Who is this training for?:
This training would be valuable for anyone who works with or supports children, young people or families.
To book:
The training is recorded and can be accessed at any time. It is 3 hours and 33 minutes in duration Domestic abuse, stalking, harassment and honour-based (DASH) training - YouTube

Family Help Partnership Training Offer

The Family Help Partnership team have many training sessions on offer.

These are:

Early Help Assessment Overview - An introductory session (duration 1 hour) – available online or in person

How to support children and families through Early Help – EH assessment training (duration 2 hours) - available online or in person

The Family Help team – introductory session detailing our community model and collaborative approach (duration 1 hour) – available online or in person

Domestic Abuse awareness and Operation Encompass training for schools – this training is delivered by The DA Team, Police and EH Team in collaboration. See advertised dates – available online

Bitesize – Voice of the Child (VOC) training (1 hour)

Bitesize – Neglect : Early intervention and prevention EH support

To book:

Anyone wishing to book onto any training can do so by contacting the EH Team via family.help.WAF@cumbria.gov.uk or contacting their named Early Help Officer directly.

For any questions on Family Help training please call 0300 373 2723.

To be arranged

Training is not currently available for the following courses, but will be arranged in future.

Impact Chronology training

Learn more about our Practitioner Forums over on o ur learning and improvement offer page.

Our current training

Upcoming training events

WFSCP Working Together to Safeguard Children: Level 3 WFSCP Working Together to Safeguard Children: Level 3

LADO LADO

Trauma Informed Training Trauma Informed Training

Tom’s Story: Domestic Homicide Review Tom’s Story: Domestic Homicide Review

Social Care Reforms Partnership Briefing Social Care Reforms Partnership Briefing

Domestic abuse Domestic abuse

Family Help Partnership Training Offer Family Help Partnership Training Offer

To be arranged To be arranged