GRANT FUNDING PROVIDES CSE AWARENESS TRAINING TO DEAF STUDENTS

Students attending the Doncaster Deaf Trust in Doncaster are now receiving Child Sexual Exploitation awareness training after funding was provided by Dr Alan Billings, the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner.

The Doncaster Deaf Trust applied to the Commissioner’s Community Grant scheme to secure funding for fifteen teachers to be trained to become Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) champions, via the CEOP Ambassadors Training course.

The training will allow the teachers to hold extra sessions for the young people that will help to keep them safe on-line and explain the dangers of making friendships through social media channels with strangers who may not be who they are pretending to be.

During a recent visit to the school Dr Billings said: “All young people are potentially at risk when they go on-line.  But we are pleased that the message is being conveyed to those who are hearing impaired, because they tend to spend quite a lot of time on the internet, making friends through it.  They need to know where the dangers lie and how they can ask for help.

“I recently visited the Doncaster Deaf Trust and saw for myself how the teachers are signing these important safety awareness lessons.  They are helping young people to be sure that every time they engage with someone on-line it is safe and that they should not agree to meet with anyone that they are unsure about.”

Doncaster Deaf Trust currently has 57 pupils in the school and 117 young people in college, students are referred to them from all over the UK, though 75% of them are South Yorkshire based.   The school and college provide educational training to the deaf and hard of hearing pupils to help them gain the skills that will allow them to continue in to full-time employment.

Andy Ellis, Business Development Manager for Doncaster Deaf Trust said: “We at the Doncaster Deaf Trust are extremely grateful for the award from the Police and Crime Commissioner.

“We take our responsibilities in relation to safeguarding for all of our children and students extremely seriously and the growing risks posed on-line and through social media, means we must all be so much better informed.

“Now, through the training, we have fully trained Child Exploitation Online Champions, who are rolling the training out to all staff in the nursery, school and college. Being able to tap into this much needed funding will allow us to continue to be the safe and caring learning environment we have always been.”

If you would like to know more about the Doncaster Deaf Trust, please visit their website here – https://www.deaf-trust.co.uk/