SIRCC Specialist Training

SIRCC is pleased to offer you a wide range of topics specific to residential child care to consider in our Specialist Training Programme. This programme is a result of consultation with over 90% of the residential child care units and schools in Scotland and reflects the topics that were most commonly suggested to be important.

While the range of training we offer is extensive, we appreciate that this programme itself cannot meet every training need. However we are pleased to offer the option of booking specialised, tailored courses specific to you and your team's needs. If there is a course topic you are interested in which is not in the catalogue, we will be happy to work with you.

Content and topic are not the only areas in which we offer flexibility. If you would like one of our courses adapted in some way in terms of delivery (e.g. run over half days or in the evening rather than full days), or level (e.g. at a more advanced or introductory level) or audience (e.g. for professionals working in a related field) please do not hesitate to discuss the possibilities with us.

Who Should Attend?

SIRCC's remit extends to residential child care workers employed by Scottish local authorities or working in establishments registered under Section 62 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, their managers, inspectors and trainees. Consequently, our priority groups are residential child care workers, their managers and inspectors working in Scotland. People should attend our courses as part of their personal and professional development. There is no charge for courses. Lunch is not provided. In 2005, we accepted an invitation from the Scottish Executive to include staff members in the boarding hostels and independent schools.

This means that those covered by Section 62 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, plus the Boarding School staff, will be accepted by SIRCC to attend our short courses free of charge. Wherever possible we will wish to run courses for the Boarding School alongside our traditional residential child care staff groups. We also welcome applications from foster carers and from other staff involved with looked after children e.g. social workers or teachers alongside residential workers but we will normally make a daily charge for those not in RCC. For some groups of staff outwith RCC and where an organisation wishes a dedicated short course for their staff or to be held on inservice days, we will make a charge of £400 per day. We do make a charge for participants who work outwith Scotland and for those not working in residential child care: the charge for both categories is £60 per day.

Please ensure that those who come on courses know the detail of the course they are coming on and are clear about the purpose for attending.

Participants meeting the necessary attendance requirement (80%) will receive a PRTL-qualifying attendance certificate for their records.