HKSPC is committed to creating and promoting a child safeguarding culture that focuses on children’s developmental needs. We recognise the importance of enhancing our colleagues’ skills and knowledge while encouraging organisational innovation. The HKSPC Child Safeguarding Academy (CSA) has been established with the goal of offering systematic and comprehensive support for professional development to our colleagues and the industry. The key objectives of the CSA are as follows:
- Promoting and sustaining agency-wide child safeguarding standards and best practices that focus on children’s developmental needs;
- Ensuring the frontline staff members are equipped with latest skillsets adequate to deliver their responsibilities properly and effectively;
- Building a lifelong learning culture;
- Establishing a platform for staff to facilitate continuous development, sharing of practices and knowledge management; and
- Supporting career and personal development of staff members
Since its inception in January, the CSA has provided or promoted over a thousand hours of training opportunities and recorded participation of more than 200 employee-times. We appreciate the support of colleagues and their dedication to lifelong learning.
To uphold a sustainable and effective training strategy, the HKSPC has invited professionals and experts from different fields to be the members of the CSA’s Advisory Panel and provide professional advice to the CSA. The Advisory Panel comprises early childhood education academics, medical doctors, psychiatry researcher and psychologists.
The CSA’s training activities will cover the following eight areas:
- Regulations and Compliance
- Child Care and Education
- Child Development
- Early Intervention
- Family Engagement and Support
- Management and Leadership
- Other Functional and Cross-functional Competencies
- Staff Personal Growth and Self-care
This year, the CSA’s focus for training and development is “Attachment and Play”. With the promotion and support of the Academy, colleagues have proactively participated in different training activities. In April, several employees completed the training of Circle of Security Parenting™ Facilitator, which is a widely used theory in the child care and education field, and are now a Registered Circle of Security® Facilitator. Another group of colleagues are going to pursue this qualification in June. Upon attainment of the qualification, colleagues will be able to develop projects that assist carers to meet the true needs of children, thus improving the relationship between children and the carers. Moreover, the training activities will facilitate HKSPC’s services to consolidate and strengthen the adoption of play education, helping children to explore the world under proper protection and to grow up happily.
To guide colleagues towards targeted training and development opportunities, the CSA has implemented a comprehensive Continuing Professional Development Framework. In addition, HKSPC has reviewed the staff training subsidy scheme, increasing the amount of training subsidy and number of training leave day offered to staff of different job types, encouraging and offering support for colleagues to engage in continuous development.
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