Brook training
Brook's training programme for 2008 includes six courses for professionals. We will be confirming dates shortly, please bookmark this page and check back regularly.
Sex, young people, confidentiality and the law
Sexual risk-taking, alcohol and other drugs
First impressions really count - training for reception staff
Supporting young people to negotiate safer sex
Promoting positive sexual health and relationships with vulnerable young people
A holistic and rights-based approach to sexual health and relationships work with young people
Using group work effectively for sexual health promotion
Abortion: decisions and dilemmas
The courses will be available as open training to all on pre-set dates. They could also be run in-house within an organisation. In addition, Brook's trainers can develop tailored training to meet your needs.
Brook aims to deliver the highest-quality, most-affordable training that will enable participants to learn in a safe and supportive environment.
Who should attend
Professionals working with young people including: family planning and sexual health professionals, social care professionals, school nurses, youth and community workers, teachers, outreach workers, Connexions advisers, social workers, sexual health strategy co-ordinators, teenage pregnancy co-ordinators.
The courses
Sex, young people, confidentiality and the law
Dates: Monday 14th April 2008- London and Monday 22nd September 2008- Manchester
Venue: Central London or Manchester
Cost: Brook Exchange members £125
Non Brook Exchange members £155
About the course
This one-day course, building on a Brook's Confident about Confidentiality? 2006 conference, clarifies the debate and emerging guidance about information-sharing and helps you develop your skills in working with sexually active young people.
Learning outcomes
As a result of the workshop participants will:
- Have a comprehensive understanding of the law and good practice guidance in relation to sex and young people, including revised Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance.
- Gain a better appreciation of the duty of confidentiality and its importance to young people.
- Be clear about the factors that should be taken into account in determining where breach of young people's confidentiality is justified.
- Further develop skills in working with young people to support a disclosure.
- Understand how to develop, influence and publicise confidentiality policies and protocols for information-sharing, in the best interests of young people.
Someone with a smile would be your best bet: providing sexual health services that meet young people's needs.
Dates: Thursday 10th April 2008
Venue: Central London
Cost: Brook Exchange members £120
Non Brook Exchange members £150
About the course
The importance of delivering young people-friendly services in meeting teenage pregnancy targets and improving sexual health has been underlined by a range of government policy documents. This one-day course helps to support practitioners in developing young people-centred provision, drawing on Brook's 40 years of experience in the field.
Learning outcomes
As a result of the course participants will:
- Have a fuller understanding of what young people want from sexual health services, drawing on messages from research.
- Be clear about the key factors that make sexual health services acceptable and welcoming to young people.
- Gain an insight into how to involve young people in service planning, development and evaluation.
- Be aware of and be able to implement the Department of Health's You're Welcome criteria for young people-friendly services.
Promoting positive sexual health and relationships with vulnerable young people
Dates: Thursday 12th June 2008
Venue: Central London
Cost: Brook Exchange members £135
Non Brook Exchange members £165
About the course
Providing appropriate, targeted support for high risk groups of young people is key to delivering teenage pregnancy and sexual health targets. This one-day course helps participants to reach and engage a range of at-risk groups, providing them with an overview of different models of sexual health outreach work.
Learning outcomes
As a result of the course participants will:
Gain an overview of different models of sexual health outreach work.
- Be able to call on a range of strategies for reaching at-risk and hard-to-reach groups.
- Ensure use of appropriate approaches for working with diverse groups.
- Set clear aims and objectives for sexual health outreach work.
- Develop appropriate strategies for evaluating sexual health outreach work.
Supporting young people to negotiate safer sex
Dates: Tuesday 3rd June 2008
Venue: Central London
Cost: Brook Exchange members £120
Non Brook Exchange members £150
About the course
The need for effective sex and relationships education to include helping young people to develop the skills to negotiate safer sex has been underlined by recent research.
Learning outcomes
This one-day course aims to equip participants to:
- Recognise factors associated with risky sexual behaviour.
- Support young people to recognise behaviour that puts their sexual health at risk.
- Support young people in developing the skills to negotiate safer sex.
- Develop strategies to encourage young people to delay sex until they are ready.
First impressions really count - training for reception staff
Date: Thursday 15th May 2008
Venue: Central London
Cost: Brook Exchange members £120
Non Brook Exchange members £150
About the course
Reception workers have a major influence on young people's perception of services. Training to support reception staff in creating a young people-friendly environment is crucial in ensuring accessible, high quality services for young people.
Who should attend
Current receptionists and those aspiring to receptionist roles in sexual health centres, family planning clinics, young people's clinics, GP surgeries, health centres, and any other clinical setting where young people attend. Also, centre staff and managers looking to benchmark or develop their own reception services.
The workshop is limited to 18 participants. Early booking is recommended.
This course will enable participants to:
- Increase their awareness of the importance of the receptionist's role in helping young people to access sexual health and other services.
- Identify young people?s needs by getting in touch with their own recollections and experiences.
- Understand the Department of Health's You're Welcome criteria for young people-friendly health services and how to implement them.
- Gain an overview of the principles and skills needed for effective face-to-face and telephone work with young people.
- Assess their own skills and identify areas for improvement.
- Think about ways to get feedback from young people and how to act on it.
Sexual risk-taking, alcohol and other drugs
Date: Thursday 17th April 2008
Venue: Central London
Cost: Brook Exchange members £140
Non Brook Exchange members £170
About the course
This one-day course helps you develop your skills in working with young people on issue relating to drinking alcohol.
Learning outcomes
As a result of the course participants will be able to help young people:
- Understand the effects of drinking alcohol
- Identify the risks involved in misusing alcohol
- Make choices about issues affecting their health and well-being, including their sexual health
- Develop skills needed to make choices about drinking alcohol
- Know where to get help and information.
A holistic and rights-based approach to sexual health and relationships work with young people
Dates: Thursday 25th September 2008
Venue: Central London
Cost: Brook Exchange members £120
Non Brook Exchange members £150
About the course
Positive self-esteem and strong emotional and social skills are essential in enabling young people to manage and enjoy their relationships and sexual health. This course is based on a ground breaking rights based approach to working with young people. It places sexual health and sexual health promotion in the context of young people's lives.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course participants will:
- Understand the links between self-esteem, sexual health choices and actions
- Learn to develop some of the practical skills and techniques needed to facilitate self-esteem programmes with young people
- Have explored ways of encouraging young people to establish their own personal boundaries, make their own decisions, and importantly, have the self esteem and skills to see them through.
Using group work effectively for sexual health promotion
Dates: Monday 6th - Tuesday 7th October 2008
Venue: Central London
Cost: Brook Exchange members £250
Non Brook Exchange members £300
About the course
This two day course is aimed at enabling participants to develop and enhance knowledge, skills and confidence when planning and delivering groupwork sessions. Understanding how groups work and the common stages that all groups go through helps develop creative ways of working effectively with young people on sexual health.
Becoming familiar with learning styles and how to piece together activities, in a way that complements the stages groups will go through, can provide an accelerated learning and empowering experience for the groups you work with. The two days will provide opportunities to experience and analyse a range of activities that demonstrate and explain group dynamics and group process.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course participants will:
- Have experienced and understood how to build an environment where effective learning can take place
- Recognise the value of experiential learning in sexual health work
- Have reflected on the inclusion of anti-discriminatory practice
- Learn about key principles of group dynamics and their impact on sexual health work
- Experience and analyse a range of teaching and facilitation structures
- Introduce, facilitate and process training activities and receive appropriate feedback
Abortion: decisions and dilemmas
Dates: Thursday 16th October 2008
Venue: Central London
Cost: Brook Exchange members £120
Non Brook Exchange members £150
About the course
This course is delivered in partnership with Education for Choice.
Abortion is an important and necessary choice that will be relevant to significant numbers of young people. Often education about abortion is set up to generate polarised debate which is neither helpful nor effective in enabling young people to explore this important issue safely.
This course will provide practitioners with positive guidance that enables them to feel confident in working with women and young men.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course participants will:
- Be able to explain the importance addressing abortion with young people and professionals and understand key policies relating to young people, abortion, confidentiality and the law.
- Have considered their own and others' view points on pregnancy and abortion and reflected on how these might influence their work with young people
- Be able to use a range of exercises to facilitate discussion of abortion with young people in group work and feel more confident addressing abortion within Sex and Relationships Education
- Have considered practical ways of supporting a young person to make an informed decision about pregnancy and feel more confident in doing so
- Know about abortion provision and understand abortion in relation to physical and emotional health
To find out how to become a member of the brook exchange professional associates scheme and receive a discount on all Brook training courses see:
To book and be invoiced for training please use this booking form.
