Managing Repeat Callers

Digital-based support requires different approaches, understanding and techniques to telephone helpline skills. Whether your service already offers, or is considering digital-based channels, this course provides vital insights on how to respond to service users effectively through written communication. Through practical exercises and exploring best practice for each channel, you can ensure the people contacting and accessing your service receive high quality, consistent delivery across all your channels.

How to capture, record and measure the impact of a helpline service can be a challenge for organisations. Yet many funders and commissioners want to see evidence of the impact your service will have on the people who use it. This Masterclass will explore impact practice, types of data, data collection, ethics and data sharing. Using case studies and practical exercises you'll learn how to frame your helpline's impact, capture outcomes, collect and interpret data and create a practical action plan for your organisation.

Essential Helpline Skills is a foundation level course, recommended for those who are new to helplines or are looking to refresh their knowledge in the fundamentals. This is a skills-based course that will give you the tools you need to confidently respond to calls to your helpline

Developing Helpline Skills is recommended for helpline workers, volunteers and call handlers who have completed the Level 1- Essential Helpline Skills course and have some prior helpline experience. This course will give you the skills to understand challenging calls, how to respond and engage using empathic listening whilst maintaining appropriate professional boundaries

Advanced Helpline Skills is recommended for helpline workers, volunteers and call handlers who have completed both the Essential Helpline Skills and Developing Helpline Skills courses and want to further develop their skills. This is a skills-based course that will build on your helpline experience and support you to effectively respond to emotional, angry and repeat callers to your service. Participants will also receive an introduction to suicidal callers and safeguarding

How to respond to service users who present with suicidal thoughts or plans is a common concern for helplines. It is essential that your service is equipped to identify those at risk and that your team know how best to support them. This course will explore how to identify risk, practice different techniques and set up internal processes, policies and supervision. Service managers and co-ordinators attending this course will leave with greater knowledge, confidence and awareness alongside practical skills and actions to take back to their helpline.

This course will help increase your knowledge and understanding of safeguarding, not only in the broader legal and societal context, but also in relation to understanding key safeguarding terms, signs and indicators. It seeks to develop awareness and examine legislation that can directly be implemented into practice, procedures and policy provision. It aims to build confidence and offer guidance surrounding confidentiality, recording and information sharing in line with GDPR and safeguarding sensitivities.

The cumulative effects of handling emotional and distressing contacts can negatively impact on a person's social behaviours, emotional wellbeing, physical health, and cognitive reasoning. If unaddressed, vicarious trauma (VT) could not only harm the service worker but can also have serious implications for your service users. Based on recent research, this insightful and practical course will explore the implications of VT research within helpline services, helping you to establish and review strategies and procedures to effectively manage and address the personal and professional risks of VT.

This course provides vital insights on why people volunteer whilst also exploring who best to manage the volunteers within an organisation. Through practical exercises and exploring best practice you will learn about the funding, recruitment, and training needed for volunteers, as well as how best to monitor, retain, recognise, reward and retire volunteers. We also work through the risk involved in delivering volunteer programmes.

A series of recent studies have shown that burnout is on the rise and that workplace stress is causing staff across various sectors to seek changes in their employment. This course aims to introduce participants to a series of practical techniques to support them in supporting themselves, and to build and sustain a supportive culture within their workplace so they can support each other. It can be delivered as a stand-alone course or as an accompaniment to our Vicarious Trauma programme.