Safeguarding Training Portal

The following courses are available online for anybody who wishes to take them:

• Basic Awareness (Core Pathway) - for everyone within Church communities who need to have a basic awareness of safeguarding issues.
• Foundations (Core Pathway) - for those who hold positions of responsibility for the safeguarding of others within church settings.
• Safer Recruitment - for all those involved in the recruitment, selection and management of staff or volunteers.
• Raising Awareness of Domestic Abuse - a specialist course exploring the nature and dynamics of domestic abuse, with a focus on church settings.

All of the training is CPD certified and recognised throughout the Church of England - the Framework contains details of groups for whom each course is mandatory.

These courses are provided by arrangement with your diocese - please contact your Diocesan Safeguarding Advisor. Find yours here.

Safeguarding: Basic Awareness is the current version of the course that was formerly known as C0 and Safeguarding: Foundations is the current version of the course that was known as C1 - they can both be found under the Core Pathways section of the Courses menu once you are logged into the Training Portal.

C5 was a refresher course that is no longer provided.

The current guidelines are that, every three years you should retake the highest level Core Pathway course (Basic Awareness, Foundations, Leadership, Senior Leadership) you have previously completed, alongside any non-Core Pathway courses you have been required to take.

Whilst, for legal reasons, the Church of England does not promote or recommend the use of these training materials to other organisations, there is nothing to stop individuals registering to use the online training we provide should they consider it suitable to meet their, or their organisation's, requirements for safeguarding training. Please be aware that the context and content of the courses we provide will be very Anglican Church focused, so it's worth having a run through them yourself to check that they are suitable for your group's circumstances before recommending them to your volunteers.

Our courses have been tested on Windows computers running the Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems and using up-to-date versions of the following browsers: Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Opera, and on Macs running Mac-OS Monterey 12.0.1 using up to date Safari, Firefox and Chrome browsers.

We recognise that not everybody has access to the most up-to-date hardware and our experience has generally been that the Chrome browser provides most compatibility with older systems.

The courses have been designed to be scalable so they should function correctly on devices with a smaller screen, such as iPads, but can’t be guaranteed to work on mobile phones.

If, for whatever reason, learning online is not suitable for you or members of your church, please contact your Diocesan Safeguarding team to enquire about alternative options.

In order to access the online training, you will need to create an account at the following address:
https://safeguardingtraining.cofeportal.org/login/signup.php

Once you have completed the registration, you will be sent a confirmation e-mail. Follow the link in this and your account will be activated and you will be able to log in using the details you created. Please contact us as soon as you can if it doesn't arrive within an hour - accounts that remain unconfirmed for seven days are automatically cleared from the system.

If you already have an account, you will need to log in at: https://safeguardingtraining.cofeportal.org/login/index.php

The training will then be accessible by clicking the Online Courses button on the home page, or under the Courses menu.

The first thing to check is that you're not trying to register using the Log In Page - this will generate the error message: "We have no accounts matching that combination of username and password. Please check your log in details." which occurs whenever somebody enters a combination of username and password that don't match any records on our system.

You will be able to create an account at the following address:
https://safeguardingtraining.cofeportal.org/login/signup.php

The form is fairly self-explanatory but there are three fields that can cause the process to stall if the submitted information doesn't match the required criteria.

Other mandatory fields are highlighted with a green circle containing an exclamation mark. Instructions about the restrictions on the Username and Password fields are displayed at all times and don't indicate that there is a problem - if the contents of a field won't allow registration to be completed, this will be mentioned in a separate message once the "Create my new account" button has been pressed.

If you still have difficulty registering, please contact us and provide the following information so we can manually create an account for you:

• Intended e-mail address:
• Name:
• Home Town:
• Diocese:
• Church Town:
• Church Name:
• Role in Church:

Once registration has been successfully completed, the site automatically generates an account-confirmation e-mail and sends it to the registered e-mail address. This contains a link that will need to be followed in order to activate the account.

Some users' e-mail security settings (either at an account or service-provider level) can prevent automatically generated e-mails, such as our password-reset and account-confirmation e-mails, reaching their inbox. Please check your junk mail folder.

Adding noreply@safeguardingtraining.cofeportal.org to your safe-senders list should prevent this happening in future.

A new confirmation e-mail can be requested if you try to log in using your username and password.

Alternatively, please contact us and we will be able to activate your account.

Please note: accounts which have not been activated within seven days will be automatically cleared from the system.

Often, this is because the account has already been activated - the link in the confirmation e-mail will only work once and can't be used for general logging in.
Please try logging in at the following address:
https://safeguardingtraining.cofeportal.org/login/index.php

If the account hasn't been activated, please e-mail us and we can confirm it for you.

If you are the first person to use the e-mail address, you will be able to register at the following address:
https://safeguardingtraining.cofeportal.org/login/signup.php

Otherwise, please provide the following information and we will be happy to create an account for you:

• Intended e-mail address:
• Name:
• Home Town:
• Diocese:
• Church Town:
• Church Name:
• Role in Church:

Whilst it is not possible for a user to add a second account using the same e-mail address, if you provide the following information, we will be happy to create an account for them and to let you know the log in details:

• Intended e-mail address:
• Name:
• Home Town:
• Diocese:
• Church Town:
• Church Name:
• Role in Church:

You can, but this is strongly discouraged - any certification would be generated in your name, and there is no way that we can separate training done by different people using the same account.

We recommend that they create their own account. We can provide assistance with this if it proves difficult.

You will be able to change most of your profile details by logging into the Training Portal, clicking on your name and selecting, "edit profile".

Please note, if you need to change the name listed on your account, please contact support: elearning@safeguardingtraining.cofeportal.org

A common cause of difficulty is people trying to log in using their e-mail address rather than their user name - please check that you are using your username - often, the password being used is correct.

If you still can't log in, you can request a password-reset e-mail at the following page: https://safeguardingtraining.cofeportal.org/login/forgot_password.php
(there are also links to this page on the home screen and log in page).

Please enter either your username or e-mail address in the relevant field (username in the upper half of the page, e-mail address in the lower) and click "Search". If you enter both then the form won't work and will ask you to enter "either username or e-mail address". If the details match a single* account then an e-mail will be generated, with details of the username and a link that can be followed to set up a new password, and you will see the following message:



Clicking "Continue" will take you back to the log in screen and you will need to check your e-mail for the password-reset e-mail. Follow the link in this and set up a new password (you will have to enter it twice).

Please note: some users' e-mail security settings (either at an account or service-provider level) can prevent automatically generated e-mails, such as our password-reset and account-confirmation e-mails, reaching their inbox. Please check your junk mail folder. Adding noreply@safeguardingtraining.cofeportal.org to your safe-senders list should prevent this happening in future. If the e-mail still doesn't get through, please contact us directly.

* some e-mail addresses are linked to more than one account and this will prevent the form accessing any account details. You will see the following text:
The email address is shared by several accounts, please enter username instead

If you don't know your username, please e-mail us directly.

Yes, you can either use the forgotten password process described above or, if you know your log in details, use the Change My Password link in the Help menu once you are logged into the Training Portal.

The training can be found either by clicking the Online Courses button on the home page, or under the Courses menu, where it can be accessed by either following one of the Pathways sub-menus or by selecting View all and choosing the course you want from that page.

Once you have navigated to the start page for the training you need, click "Enter Course" to begin.

On some devices with smaller displays, the navigation controls may need to be scrolled down to since they appear below the bottom of the video display. And on some wide-screen displays, the width of the browser window may need to be reduced, which will resize the display and allow the navigation buttons to be displayed below the main area. Viewing the course in full screen mode can also help with this.

You should be able to complete the course on an iPad - whilst it is designed to be scalable to a number of display sizes, the course can't be guaranteed to work on mobile phones.

Yes. You can click the coffee cup icon during the course, or simply navigate away from the course page at any point. Then, when you next click "enter course" for the training you were doing, select "Yes" when you are asked if you want to pick up where you left off.

The marks available for each question may differ - it shouldn't be assumed that the questions are evenly weighted.

Yes, once you have completed a course, you will be able to retake it. However, this will only make a discernable difference if you didn't previously achieve a passing mark - if you passed, and the certificate is still valid, then retaking the course won't change the date the training was awarded.

Once you are logged into the Training Portal, you will be able to find the videos under the "Resources" menu and, before you can view them, you will need to enter the enrolment key (a resource-specific, secondary password) that you will have been given by whoever asked you to watch them. We are not permitted to distribute the enrolment key and you should contact your course leader if you need to ask for a reminder.

Once you are logged into the Training Portal, you will be able to find links to the Journal of Adult Protection (Emerald) and Journal of Child Abuse Review (Wiley) on the page linked-to from the Safeguarding Journals Accessoption of the "Resources" menu.

Please note that (with the exception of Safer Recruitment, which finishes immediately once you submit your answer to Question 15), once you have completed a course's Final Assessment, there will still be one or two pages to work through, and the course will not be recorded as having been completed until the "Complete course" button has been clicked on the final page.

Once you have successfully completed a course, you will be issued a badge that displays on your profile and sent an e-mail that confirms you have passed and contains a link to a page where you will be able to generate your certificate. Once a certificate has been generated, it will then be available on your profile's "My Certificates" page (log into the Training Portal, click your name at the top right of the screen, select "View profile", and then follow the "My Certificates" link.

If you do not receive an e-mail but the badge for the course appears on your profile, the links below will take you to the certificate generation pages:
  Basic Awareness
  Foundations
  Safer Recruitment
  Raising Awareness of Domestic Abuse
(Please note, these links will only work if you are logged into the Training Portal, and have successfully completed the courses in question so that the relevant badge is displayed on your profile.)

If you are logged in, the following link will take you directly to your "My Certificates" page: https://safeguardingtraining.cofeportal.org/mod/customcert/my_certificates.php

The Safeguarding Training Portal only has access to records of training that has been completed on the Portal. For details of in-person (or other) training please contact the providers or your Diocesan Safeguarding Advisor.

You will be able to change the diocese associated with your account (and much of the rest of your profile) by logging into the Training Portal, clicking on your name and selecting, "edit profile" - the diocese field will be towards the bottom of the page. Then, when you next access your certificate (click the "My Certificates" button on the home page) it will display the updated diocesan details.

We are unable to transfer certificates from one account to another - all we can verify is that somebody used an account in a particular name to complete training and award certificates accordingly. However, if you contact us directly with details, we may be able to create a link for you to access the Final Assessment directly (please note this is not available for all our courses).

In line with the policy agreed to by everybody who uses the site, there are three groups of people who might see your training records.

1. Site administrators and support staff
   - in order to provide assistance for support requested through the help desk.
2. Safeguarding staff of your diocese, cathedral or Theological Educational Institution (TEI)
   - if you have chosen a diocese or TEI when setting up your profile (or subsequently) then their safeguarding staff will be able to a record of the training you have completed/
3. A local Safeguarding Officer (or equivalent)
   - if (and only if) you choose to add their e-mail address to your profile (as shown below), then one individual will be able to view a record of your training

At the very bottom of the registration form is a field labelled, (optional) Allow a user with the following email address to look at my training record (eg. my Parish Safeguarding Officer). If you enter an e-mail address into this field, if somebody has an account linked to that address, this will allow them to view a record of any training you have completed.

You will also be able to set this up (or remove it) by editing your profile - once you are logged in, click on your name at the top right of the screen and select "Edit profile" - again, the field will be right at the bottom of the page.

Diocesan, Cathedral or TEI Safeguarding Personnel
If you a member of the safeguarding team for a Church of England diocese, cathedral or Theological Educational Institution (TEI) then, provided that you are logged into the Training Portal we have set up the necessary access for you, you will be able to find the reports under the Diocese and TEI Reports option of the Safeguarding Leads menu.

If you need access to this material, you will need an account on the Training Portal that is linked to you institutional e-mail address, to contact the help desk to request it, and for your line-manager to contact us confirming that you require access.

Once the access has been set up, the page provides complete instructions for using the reports.

Anybody Else
Normally, if you aren't a member of a diocesan or TEI safeguarding team, you won't be able to see any training records apart from your own, but if another user has allowed it (as described in the FAQ item above) then, under the Local Reporting option of the Safeguarding Leads menu, you will be able to view a basic report of their training records (showing their name, e-mail address and expiry dates for any courses they have completed).

You should contact your Parish Safeguarding Officer or Diocesan Safeguarding team about all matters concerning DBS.

Password-reset e-mails are automatically generated when a user tries to reset their password - it's likely that somebody mistakenly entered either your username or e-mail instead of their own (which was probably similar). It's nothing to worry about - the only e-mail address it would be sent to is your own (the one linked to your account) - so there's no danger of anybody else accessing your account.