The changing landscape of professional development: Online training a consideration or cautionary tale?

By Kieran McCartan, Ph.D., & Anne Eason, DCrimJ

Training frontline staff in the social and criminal justice sector is essential. It is important to have a reflective, compassionate and trauma informed workforce that can engage with sensitive and challenging topics in a way that supports vulnerable service users and allows for positive reflection as well as peer support. However, this can be challenging given the nature of multi-disciplinary work of frontline services which are often oversubscribed, under resourced and understaffed. So, how do we build a more equipped and informed workforce? Should it be through internal training or ongoing staff development or external, specialist CPD? What is the best and most effective way to engage staff and to improve their knowledge and skill base?

Traditionally, all frontline social and criminal justice staff (including but not limited to police, probation, prison, and social work staff) were trained in person. The training, whether initial foundation, degree or recruit training, was done in person in the classroom using. In more recent years, simulation and practical teaching is linked to real world examples to embed learning prior to practice placements. The role of academic and practice learning was, and still is, essential to these services, as it emphasises the importance of understanding the research and practice evidence base, as well as being able to implement it in real world, often high-pressure situations. The role of the classroom is as a safe environment for professionals to discuss, and get wrong, challenging and complex issues. A place within which they can develop reflection, compassion, and professional support structures. In person training and development adds to professional culture and enables professionals to ‘road test’ ideas and concepts before going into the field. This is particularly important with sensitive and challenging issues like child sexual abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, domestic violence, suicide, and severe mental health. The in-person training and development allows a shared understanding and an opportunity to professionally bond around these issues.

One of the notable challenges in teaching sensitive topics is that staff have different life experiences, where some may have direct or indirect lived experiences of these issues, while others will never have encountered them before and therefore, they may be quite abstract to them. Given our experiences as researchers, ex-professionals and current programme leads in the in frontline services we see this as important as staff need to understand and seek support throughout their career, including their training, and if they cannot openly discuss course content how will they be able to discuss professional practice?

The challenge that frontline services now face is that the training and staff development portfolio and delivery method are now changing from in person to online only or hybrid. This change is driven by many factors, including, the costs of running in person training; the travel time and environmental cost; the cost of repeating in person training and having a balanced, replicable training programme. The need for speedy recruitment and placement of staff (which is evident in policing and probation) as well as their geographical location are also deciding factors all of which makes online training more appealing. The online training world has developed quickly over the past 10 – 15 years, aided by Covid-19, and has opened some really positive experiences such as being able to engage with international, specialist speakers and content, having a presentation that is standardised and permanent. The online training world, and the opportunities that it offers, are limitless. However, the one challenge that it faces, and has not yet overcome, is participant engagement or issues of impact. You do not get the same discussion, reflection, or questions and answers in online training and development that you do in in person ones. Typically, trainees attend, listen but don’t often engage, which is challenging if you are discussing sensitive and challenging material. As a trainer or educator, you do not want attendees sitting alone processing challenging content and feeling unable to reach out or seek support. This is a bad starting point in any profession. It reinforces current and historical trauma and inevitably leads to practice issues and burn out. Furthermore, these topics frequently involve in-person disclosures unlikely in online forums. It is important, therefore, that we consider how online learning is used and what areas of practice can be taught safely, without impacting the learner’s wellbeing.

Online training is a great resource, but it is important to contextualise it within a wider training, mentoring, and practice portfolio for frontline staff. In addition, the content of online training needs to be considered, are all topics able to be taught online or are there certain topics (like sexual and interpersonal violence) that need to be taught in person initially and then maybe followed up with online training. It is important that sensitive issues that are at the core of service users, and some professional, lives are not taught in a removed, abstract or impersonal way. With the constitutional move to online training, it is essential that these issues are properly considered and a trauma informed approach is taken which is likely to involve at least an element of face-to-face delivery.