Teaching Educators to Spot Domestic Violence

This difficult topic of conversation is a core part of each educators’ training. It shouldn’t stop in university.

Educators are at the forefront of protecting young hearts and minds. They have a great influence over our youngsters. One teacher telling one child their drawing was good can lead to the creation of a future artist. Just as their words can boost and elevate a child, so too can their observations. Our children are some of the most vulnerable members of society. They cannot spot problematic behaviour for themselves and, if they could, they are in no position to flee the danger. this makes it doubly important that our teachers know how to spot the signs of trouble at home.

Safeguarding our Youngsters Starts in the Early Years

Our children are most at risk in their formative years. They may be exposed to volatile factors in the home, they may need protection from a harmful relative, they may not even have enough food or heat at home. All of these things are highlighted when you send your teaching staff on a training course. Safeguarding training takes place while a teacher studies, but it ought to continue into their teaching years.

Safeguarding training through a site like Hays Education leaves teaching staff refreshed on what they learned when studying their field. Top ups to training like this could protect multiple children from harmful situations at home. If your teaching staff spot a single child at risk after training, it will have made the course worthwhile. Safeguarding training is also a part of compliance here in the UK. We particularly like the Hays course because of the Learning Management System they give you. This system lets you track who has trained in what and when those skills need review.

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Is Domestic Violence a Problem in the UK?

Domestic violence is a problem all over the world, and while we can do something about it as adults, as children, we are helpless. Sometimes, a teacher is the only barrier between a child and their negligent or bullying guardians. Unfortunately, the UK statistics are equally as bad as they are worldwide.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty against Children, or NSPCC for short, reported record numbers of children at risk from domestic violence in the UK in February 2022. Police made 245,000 referrals to social services in England and Wales, during the single year from 2020 to 2021. To put this into perspective, that is 669 referrals per day.

Unfortunately, cruelty to children and domestic violence take place behind closed doors. It is difficult to spot without effective training. Domestic violence signs in children are wide and varied. Some signs to look out for might include:

  • Difficulty sleeping
  • Bed wetting
  • Depression, Anxiety, suicidal thoughts – in children.
  • Low self-worth
  • Bullying
  • Attention Seeking
  • Absenteeism
  • Aggressive behaviour
  • Self-harm

With such horrific signs of violence, cruelty, or domestic violence in a child’s life, it is important that educators have the correct training to facilitate helping the child. DV is very much a problem in the UK. Together, we can learn how to do something about it.