Adult Safeguarding Awareness

Every adult has the right to live in safety. Some adults need extra care and support, and you might meet them in almost any public-facing job: at a café counter, a food bank, a front desk or a lunch club. This course is a short, plain-English guide for everyday staff and volunteers in England to what adult safeguarding means, what you can notice and do, who to tell, and how to look after yourself.

Who this course is for

• Staff and volunteers in councils, housing services, charities, cafés, food banks, soup kitchens, pubs and hotels
• Anyone who meets adults through their work and has had no earlier safeguarding training
• Front desk, reception, phone-line and customer-facing teams
• Employers who want a short adult safeguarding awareness course for public-facing teams

What you’ll learn

• What adult safeguarding means, and which adults the duties cover
• The six safeguarding principles, and putting the person’s wishes first
• In general terms, what changes staff might notice
• How to listen and respond without promising secrecy, and what is not your job
• How to report to the right person and record a worry in the right way
• Looking after yourself, where to find support, and what to do next

How it works

Six lessons, each split into short topics with a “Remember” box at the end. Every lesson finishes with its own assessment of 10 questions drawn at random from its question bank, so no two attempts are the same. The course ends with a final exam of 20 questions drawn from a bank of more than 40 covering everything. The pass mark is 80% and you get three attempts at each assessment. Finish the course and your certificate, with your name and a reference anyone can check, is issued to My Account → Certificates.

12 months’ access · any device · certificate the moment you pass

Worth being clear about: this is basic awareness for everyday staff and volunteers. It is not a qualification, it is not training for a designated safeguarding lead or manager, it is not legal advice, it is not about children (see our Safeguarding Awareness course), and it does not replace your organisation’s own safeguarding procedure. It is written for England; Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own laws.

Course content

• Before you startLesson
• What adult safeguarding means, and who it is forLesson
• What safeguarding means for adultsTopic
• Who the safeguarding duties coverTopic
• What the Care Act asks of the councilTopic
• Everyone has a part to playTopic
• Where this course appliesTopic
• Scenario: A regular who has gone quietTopic
• 🎮 Practice: The council’s part and yoursTopic
• Lesson Assessment: What adult safeguarding means, and who it is forQuiz
• The six principles, and putting the person firstLesson
• The six principles at a glanceTopic
• Empowerment and preventionTopic
• Proportionality and protectionTopic
• Partnership and accountabilityTopic
• Making Safeguarding PersonalTopic
• Deciding for themselvesTopic
• Scenario: A friend who looks after the moneyTopic
• 🎮 Practice: Empowerment or proportionality?Topic
• Lesson Assessment: The six principles, and putting the person firstQuiz
• Noticing: what staff might seeLesson
• Noticing is part of your jobTopic
• The headings the guidance usesTopic
• Changes and patternsTopic
• Money and belongingsTopic
• Control, exploitation and domestic abuseTopic
• Noticing is not decidingTopic
• Scenario: Maureen’s flatTopic
• 🎮 Practice: Pass it on, or an ordinary reason?Topic
• Lesson Assessment: Noticing: what staff might seeQuiz
• When someone tells you, or you are worried: listen and respondLesson
• If someone is in danger nowTopic
• ListeningTopic
• Do not promise to keep it secretTopic
• Giving time, and asking what they would likeTopic
• What is not your jobTopic
• When the person says “don’t tell anyone”Topic
• Scenario: “I’d rather not go home yet”Topic
• 🎮 Practice: When someone tells youTopic
• Lesson Assessment: When someone tells you, or you are worried: listen and respondQuiz
• Reporting and recordingLesson
• Know your route before you need itTopic
• Reporting to the councilTopic
• The police, and 999Topic
• Other routes for particular worriesTopic
• RecordingTopic
• Sharing, and not assuming someone else willTopic
• Scenario: Who to tell, and what to writeTopic
• 🎮 Practice: What goes in your note?Topic
• Lesson Assessment: Reporting and recordingQuiz
• Looking after yourself, and what nextLesson
• Why it can affect youTopic
• Small stepsTopic
• Talking it through safelyTopic
• Where to get supportTopic
• Next stepsTopic
• Scenario: Feeling unsettled afterwardsTopic
• 🎮 Practice: What helps after a worry?Topic
• Lesson Assessment: Looking after yourself, and what nextQuiz
• Course summaryLesson
• Final examQuiz