Topic · 5 courses · about 2 hours each
Safeguarding courses for UK health and care staff
Practical, four-nation courses that help every member of the team recognise harm, respond to the person, share concerns through the right route and record what they did.
Who needs safeguarding courses in health and care
Safeguarding is not a specialism that belongs to social workers or named nurses. It is part of the job for everyone who meets patients, service users and families. These safeguarding courses for healthcare staff are written for doctors, nurses, midwives, nursing associates, health visitors, allied health professionals, pharmacy and dental teams, optometrists, osteopaths, chiropractors, social workers, health care assistants, care workers and the reception and administrative staff who are so often the first to notice that something is wrong.
Most concerns are first picked up by people who are not safeguarding specialists. The district nurse sees bruising on a patient's inner arms. The pharmacist notices that a regular customer has stopped collecting his medicines and mentions a "new friend" online who needs money. The receptionist sees the same man bring three young people to register, holding all their documents. The emergency doctor treating a father after an overdose asks who is looking after the children. In each case the professional does not need to prove anything. They need to recognise the signs, respond to the person in front of them, share the concern through the right route and record what they saw, heard and did.
Every UK health and care regulator expects this. The GMC, NMC, HCPC, GDC, GPhC, GOC, GOsC, GCC and Social Work England all require registrants to protect people from harm and to raise concerns, and the GMC's guidance on protecting children applies to every doctor, including those who mainly treat adults. In England, CQC Regulation 13 requires providers to protect people from abuse and improper treatment. The courses in this group translate those expectations into practical, four-nation guidance.
Safeguarding courses (5)
Online, self-paced, about two hours each, with a scored assessment, a written reflection and a certificate of completion.
- All UK regulators
Domestic Abuse and Coercive Control Awareness
This course helps health and care staff recognise domestic abuse and coercive control, ask about it safely and respond in a way that helps. It explains how domestic abuse is…
- All UK regulators
Learning Disability and Autism Awareness: Reasonable Adjustments
This course helps health and care staff provide accessible, person-centred care to people with a learning disability and autistic people. It explains what learning disability and autism are, the language…
- All UK regulators
Modern Slavery, FGM and Exploitation Awareness
This course helps health and care staff recognise and respond to hidden forms of harm, including modern slavery and human trafficking, female genital mutilation, child sexual and criminal exploitation, county…
- All UK regulators
Safeguarding Adults: Essentials for Health and Care Staff
This course helps health and care staff recognise and respond to the abuse and neglect of adults. It explains who is considered an adult at risk in each UK nation,…
- All UK regulators
Safeguarding Children and Young People: Essentials for Health and Care Staff
This course helps health and care staff recognise and respond to concerns about the abuse, neglect and exploitation of children and young people. It explains what safeguarding and child protection…
Packs for this topic
Save 25% when you buy the set, with the Reflective Practice Workbook included.
New Starter Induction Pack
The core awareness topics most employers want new health and care staff to cover in their first weeks: safeguarding adults and children, information governance, infection prevention, person-centred care and conflict resolution. It supports your induction; check your employer's own mandatory training requirements.
- Safeguarding Adults: Essentials for Health and Care Staff£69 + VAT
- Safeguarding Children and Young People: Essentials for Health and Care Staff£69 + VAT
- Information Governance and Data Security for Health and Care Staff£69 + VAT
- Infection Prevention and Control Awareness£69 + VAT
- Person-Centred Care, Dignity and Privacy for Care Workers£69 + VAT
- Conflict Resolution and De-escalation in Healthcare£69 + VAT
Pack saving: 25% off these courses, plus the Reflective Practice Workbook for 12 months.
6 courses, pack price Separately £414 £310.50 + VAT
Safeguarding Complete Pack
All five safeguarding awareness courses together: adults, children and young people, domestic abuse and coercive control, modern slavery, FGM and exploitation, and learning disability and autism. It supports awareness; check your employer's required safeguarding level.
- Safeguarding Adults: Essentials for Health and Care Staff£69 + VAT
- Safeguarding Children and Young People: Essentials for Health and Care Staff£69 + VAT
- Domestic Abuse and Coercive Control Awareness£69 + VAT
- Modern Slavery, FGM and Exploitation Awareness£69 + VAT
- Learning Disability and Autism Awareness: Reasonable Adjustments£69 + VAT
Pack saving: 25% off these courses, plus the Reflective Practice Workbook for 12 months.
5 courses, pack price Separately £345 £258.75 + VAT
The five courses in this group
Each course is designed to take approximately 2 hours, including reading, worked examples, reflection points, a written reflective account and a 15-question scenario-based assessment with a pass mark of 12 (80%). Each covers England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, because the law and procedures differ between them.
Safeguarding adults
Safeguarding Adults: Essentials for Health and Care Staff covers who counts as an adult at risk under the Care Act 2014, the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 and Northern Ireland's regional policy. It works through the six safeguarding principles, Making Safeguarding Personal, the ten categories of abuse and neglect, mental capacity and coercion, what to do when an adult with capacity declines help, making a referral, sharing information lawfully, recording and escalation.
Safeguarding children and young people
Safeguarding Children and Young People: Essentials for Health and Care Staff is written for staff in adult services as well as children's services. It covers the child's voice, Think Family, the legal frameworks in each nation including Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023, bruising in non-mobile babies, neglect and "was not brought" appointments, fabricated or induced illness, exploitation, consent and confidentiality with young people, and the mandatory reporting duty for child sexual abuse in the Crime and Policing Act 2026.
Domestic abuse and coercive control
Domestic Abuse and Coercive Control Awareness focuses on the skill most staff find hardest: asking. It covers the law in each nation, how coercive control works, routine and selective enquiry, making it safe to ask, responding to disclosure, high-risk indicators such as non-fatal strangulation and separation, DASH, MARAC and IDVAs, safety planning, honour-based abuse and forced marriage, and what to do when your patient is the perpetrator.
Modern slavery, FGM and exploitation
Modern Slavery, FGM and Exploitation Awareness covers hidden harm that often surfaces only in a health or care appointment: trafficking and forced labour, the National Referral Mechanism, the FGM mandatory reporting duty in England and Wales, county lines, cuckooing, mate crime and the exploitation of health and care workers themselves. It is particularly useful for reception staff as well as clinicians.
Learning disability and autism
Learning Disability and Autism Awareness: Reasonable Adjustments addresses the avoidable deaths and poor care that people with a learning disability and autistic people too often experience. It covers reasonable adjustments, accessible information, diagnostic overshadowing, pain and deterioration, capacity, DNACPR decisions, restrictive practices and safeguarding. It is not the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training and does not meet the statutory requirement for CQC-registered providers in England; it sits alongside it as further reflection.
Which safeguarding course to start with
If you work mainly with adults, start with safeguarding adults; if you work with children or families, start with safeguarding children. Many staff need both, and the children's course is deliberately useful for adult-facing roles because so many concerns about children are first noticed by someone treating a parent.
The three specialist courses go deeper into areas the two core courses introduce. Antenatal, sexual health, mental health, emergency and primary care staff tend to get most from the domestic abuse course, because routine and selective enquiry is part of their work. Midwives, sexual health, emergency and reception staff, and anyone who visits adults at home, benefit from the modern slavery, FGM and exploitation course. Anyone who books, examines, treats or supports people with a learning disability or autistic people will benefit from the reasonable adjustments course, and that includes front-desk staff.
If you are still unsure, the which course do I need tool asks four questions and suggests titles. You can also browse the full course catalogue.
What these courses are, and what they are not
Honesty matters here, because safeguarding training is often a condition of employment. These courses support awareness and reflective learning. They do not, by themselves, demonstrate competence at a particular level of the intercollegiate safeguarding frameworks, and they do not meet any mandatory training requirement your employer sets. Each course says so plainly, and so do we. Check with your employer which safeguarding training your role requires and how often it must be refreshed.
Healthcare Practise UK is an independent provider. We are not affiliated with any UK regulator or the NHS, and no regulator has reviewed these courses. What you do receive is a certificate of completion from Healthcare Practise UK and your own written reflective account. For CPD, record the time you actually spend. Self-directed online learning normally counts towards the NMC's individual CPD hours rather than its participatory hours, unless you complete it with colleagues and discuss it together; doctors reflect on CPD at appraisal.
Every course tells you to follow your regulator's current standards and your local procedures, which always take precedence. Laws change: Northern Ireland's Adult Protection Bill, the Crime and Policing Act 2026 and the Mental Health Act 2025 are all being brought in over time, so the courses point you to check commencement with your employer.
How teams and organisations use these courses
Safeguarding works best when the whole team shares the same language and knows the same routes. A GP practice, pharmacy, dental practice, care home or community team can enrol reception, clinical and support staff on the same course, then spend twenty minutes at a team meeting on one of its worked examples: who would notice, what would they say, who would they tell, and where is the out-of-hours number? That conversation turns individual reading into shared practice, and for NMC registrants it can make the learning participatory.
Managers often combine the two core courses as a baseline for all staff, then add the specialist courses for the roles that need them, such as domestic abuse for midwives and health visitors, or reasonable adjustments for reception and booking teams. Each learner keeps a certificate and reflective account, which makes it easier to show what training has been completed. Our courses for organisations page explains team accounts, credits and how to assign courses to staff.
Packs and multi-buy for safeguarding training
If you need several courses, or several places on the same course, buying together is simpler than buying one at a time. Individuals who want both core courses, or a core course with a specialist one, can add them to the basket together. Organisations that need places for a whole team can buy credits and assign them as staff are ready.
The bulk buy offer page sets out the current multi-buy arrangements, and prices are shown live on each course card. If you have a larger or unusual requirement, such as a group of practices or a care provider with several sites, contact us through the organisations page and we will help you plan it.
Ways to buy
Start with the minimum relevant learning, then build on it.
Single course
Choose the course that matches the concern. The price is shown on each course card and excludes VAT.
Browse all coursesMulti-buy
Mix any courses in one basket and the saving is applied automatically at checkout.
- 10% off 3 or more courses
- 15% off 5 or more courses
- 20% off 10 or more courses
Concern packs
Save 25%
Ready-made sets for a concern, a role or a team, with the Reflective Practice Workbook included for 12 months.
See the packsFor organisations
Buy course credits for your team, assign courses to staff and track completions in one dashboard.
Team credits
The best single saving applies: pack and multi-buy savings do not combine. Prices exclude VAT.
Frequently asked questions
Do these safeguarding courses meet mandatory training requirements?
No. They support awareness and reflective learning but do not, by themselves, demonstrate competence at an intercollegiate level or meet a mandatory requirement. Check with your employer which training your role needs and how often.
Which safeguarding course should I take first?
Start with safeguarding adults if you work mainly with adults, or safeguarding children if you work with children or families. Many staff need both. Then add domestic abuse, modern slavery and FGM, or learning disability and autism awareness as your role requires.
Do the courses cover Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland?
Yes. Each course covers all four UK nations and explains where the law, reporting duties and procedures differ, such as the Welsh legal duty to report and the FGM mandatory reporting duty, which applies only in England and Wales.
How long does each course take?
Each is designed for approximately 2 hours, including reading, reflection points, a written reflective account and a 15-question assessment with a pass mark of 12 (80%). Record the time you actually spend as CPD.
Are the courses suitable for non-clinical staff?
Yes. Reception staff, health care assistants and care workers are part of the stated audience, and many worked examples show non-clinical staff noticing the first signs of harm.
Is the learning disability and autism course the Oliver McGowan training?
No. It is not the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training and does not meet the statutory requirement for CQC-registered providers in England. It focuses on reasonable adjustments and can sit alongside that training.
Can I buy safeguarding courses for my whole team?
Yes. Organisations can buy team credits and assign courses to staff. See the organisations page for how it works and the bulk buy page for multi-buy arrangements.
What do learners receive at the end?
A certificate of completion from Healthcare Practise UK and their own reflective account. Healthcare Practise UK is independent and is not affiliated with any regulator or the NHS.
Not sure where to start?
Tell us your regulator and the concern. The pathway shows the courses that fit, helps you write your reflection and puts your evidence in order. It is free and nothing leaves your browser.