Tusla - Child and Family Agency

Challenge

To help staff members and educate and support the individuals who work with children and families better understand their responsibilities under the National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children 2017 and the Children First Act 2015 in Ireland, Tusla Child and Family Agency wanted to develop a suite of eLearning resources.

As well as supporting Tusla staff, a universal e learning training module, ‘Introduction to Children First’ was also required to educate mandated persons, organisations and individuals working with children and families, as well as members of the public people to recognise concerns about children and reporting such concerns if they arise and to meet their obligations under the Children First Act 2015.

Solution

Engaging a multi-disciplinary audience with differing experience and knowledge was key to addressing the challenges of this project.

Working collaboratively with subject matter experts from Tusla, the Health Service Executive and Department of Children and Youth Affairs, we designed and developed the online training resources to include a range of interaction and content types compromising of click reveals, knowledge checks and downloadable resources and signposting to relevant resources and links.

Using these approaches ensures that the learning is meaningful and learners can build empathy with the subject matter, whilst adding authenticity and expert knowledge.

To bring the content to life, we also applied real-world dramatised video scenarios to help learners recognise various forms of child abuse and understand their roles and responsibilities in relation to child welfare and documenting findings.

To ensure that all training activities were tracked and reported on, we also deployed and configured a fully branded LMS.

Results

Tusla is now offering a wider variety of training to its learners through its own dedicated online learning portal ‘iLearn’. This has transformed how they deliver training in the organisation.

Since its launch in 2017, the Children First online training modules have been rolled out to a dispersed network of staff in record time and have been completed by over 550,000 learners across Ireland.

The tens of thousands of individuals who work with children and families are now able to access ‘Introduction to Children First’ online and at a time and place that suits them.