Online Harms and Grooming: Supporting Adults with Learning Disabilities and Autism to Stay Safe on Social Media: A Workshop for Support Staff – 6 December 2023

A half-day online ARC England workshop                                                                                                                                           

 6th December 2023 – 9.30a.m. – 1.00p.m.                                                                                                                                                                                

 

This workshop is designed to raise awareness of online harms (especially grooming) for those with a learning disability and autistic people. It is aimed at social care support staff.

People with learning disabilities and autistic people are at disproportionate risk from online harms. ARC England’s experience of user-led projects on mate crime, sexual exploitation, and social media grooming turned up a host of alarming stories. Get SMART found that nearly all the young people involved in the project preferred their life online to the ‘real’ world and that the staff supporting them were not equipped to respond to this profound cultural shift.

Often individuals who get into trouble online are simply banned from the use of the internet and social media. This training argues that this approach is ineffective, against human rights legislation and actually counter-productive.  A more mature response is needed. This new ARC England workshop encourages positive engagement with the people most at risk, utilising harm mitigation and risk enablement approaches.

It looks at how to intervene and support those at risk.  The workshop draws on learning from:

• ARC projects about mate crime, sexual exploitation, and social media grooming for radicalisation and extremism.
• Court of Protection case law.
• Bond & Phippen: ‘Safeguarding Adults Online’ [book]

Workshop content

• Background: what are we afraid of?
• Radicalisation, learning disability and autism
• ‘Get SMART’ project findings
• Online harms: what are the risks?
• Grooming: risk factors, process and indicators
• What does and doesn’t work?
• Key tools: MCA and Risk Enablement
• What next?

The workshop is highly interactive and comprise tutor input, discussions, case studies, polls, small group work and reflections on assignments.

Who is the workshop for? 

Anyone working in social care and supporting people with a learning disability, autism or both.

To find out more about course content please contact the course tutor Rod Landman [email protected].

Cost

£65 ARC Members | £85 Non-members

How to book your place

• Download and complete the ARC England Booking form 2023
• Email it to [email protected]
• We will confirm your booking and invoice your organisation.

In-house workshops
This half-day workshop for social care staff can be delivered exclusively and cost-effectively just for your organisation for up to 16 people. To find out more please contact our Training Administrator Denise Adams at [email protected]