Self-harm and Suicide: responding safely
A full day for anyone a young person might choose to tell. The Wales edition, written to the Welsh statutory framework.
- Duration
- Full day, six hours of CPD
- Group size
- Up to 20 delegates
- Delivery
- In person at your site
- Included
- Handbook, evaluation and certificate
Most training on this subject teaches people to predict. The national guideline says in four separate recommendations not to, and this day replaces prediction with response.
Who it is for
- Teaching, pastoral and support staff in schools and colleges
- Foster carers, adoptive parents and residential staff
- Supervising social workers, early help and family support
- Youth workers, coaches and volunteers
What delegates will be able to do
Assessed learning outcomes, written as actions rather than as topics covered. They are the same list the delegate handbook opens with.
- Say what self-harm is doing for a young person, without guessing at their intent
- Explain why risk ratings do not predict, from the arithmetic rather than from opinion
- Ask a young person directly about suicide, in words they would actually use
- Run the first hour in the right order, including the two steps most settings do last
- Build a safety plan with a young person, including the conversation about means
- Make both referrals under the Welsh framework, and say why they are two
- Support the friend who told them, and the year group afterwards
The programme
Taught in this order. Each section builds on the one before it.
- 01What we are actually dealing with
- 02Why prediction does not work
- 03Asking
- 04The first hour
- 05Safety planning, and means
- 06Routes and duties in Wales
- 07Afterwards, and you
The problem this course addresses
Most settings hold a red, amber and green rating, or a checklist, and believe it identifies the young people to worry about. It does not, and the arithmetic is the reason rather than anybody's opinion. Flag a thousand pupils with a tool that gets eight in ten right in both directions and you produce around two hundred children nobody can resource, and two in the box marked low who will go on to attempt.
Section 02 works that through with the room. It is the most uncomfortable hour of the day and it is the one delegates report back on, because it replaces a form that felt like doing something with a description that is actually usable by the next person.
What it is built on
NICE guideline NG225, Self-harm: assessment, management and preventing recurrence, published on 7 September 2022. Recommendations 1.6.1 to 1.6.5 are quoted in full rather than summarised, because the summaries in circulation soften all of them. Section 1.8 of the same guideline is written for non-health professionals and sections 1.8.3 to 1.8.7 specifically for educational settings, which makes it the only national guidance that addresses this audience directly.
Suicide rates are taken from the Office for National Statistics, Suicides in England and Wales, 2024 registrations. The evidence that asking is safe comes from Dazzi and colleagues (2014) in Psychological Medicine and DeCou and Schumann (2018) in Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. The means safety material follows Zalsman and colleagues (2016) in The Lancet Psychiatry. Full references are in every delegate handbook.
Why there are two editions
The clinical response is identical either side of the border. The statutory duty, the referral route and the national strategy are not, and a delegate acting on the wrong framework under pressure is a real problem rather than a presentational one. This is the Wales edition, built on section 130 of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, the child protection register, the Wales Safeguarding Procedures and local primary mental health support services under Part 1 of the Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010. A separate England edition exists.
In 2024 the suicide rate in Wales was 15.7 per 100,000 against 11.1 in England, and Wales rose that year while England did not.
Before you book
Section 02 argues that risk stratification into low, medium and high should not be used, quoting the national guideline. Where an organisation's policy requires one, delegates are told to keep completing it and to write a description alongside it. Nobody is told to breach your policy, and it is worth knowing in advance because it is the part senior staff react to.
The day needs a room with a door delegates can reach without crossing in front of everybody, and a named person from your organisation, not the trainer, who is available all day for anybody who needs to step out. Your staff should be told what the day covers before they arrive; the joining instructions do this.
Who delivers it
Vivien Beni, Registered Mental Health Nurse, NMC 21C0085W, and a Band 6 Looked After Children Practitioner in NHS CAMHS with a live caseload. Her current role includes advanced risk assessment for high-risk young people covering self-harm, suicide, exploitation and missing episodes, and her background includes community crisis work in a home treatment team and acute inpatient mental health. She holds a PGCE specialising in Additional Learning Needs and taught learners aged 7 to 19 for five years before nursing. Training behind the course includes suicide first aid with PAPYRUS Training (3 days, 2022), WARRN risk assessment (2 days, 2022) and a level 3 self-harm and suicide safeguarding module (2025), all held as a participant.
What you get back
Collected from the first delivery, not retrofitted when a tender asks.
- Pre and post knowledge check, used to evidence learning gain
- Anonymous delegate evaluation, results shared with the commissioner
- Optional written reflective assessment for CPD or revalidation evidence
- Attendance register and individual certificates
- Attendance records retained for six years
Fees
In-house delivery for your own team, at your site or online. Travel is included within Shropshire, Cheshire, Powys and the Wrexham and Oswestry area, and charged at cost beyond it.
In person, at your site
From £1,250
Every quote is specific. Cost depends on delegate numbers, location and whether you want the content adapted to your setting. Tell us what you need and we will quote properly rather than sending you a rate card.
What this course is not
- It is not ASIST, Mental Health First Aid, safeTALK, STORM or Suicide First Aid.
- Those are licensed programmes belonging to other organisations and Blip does not deliver them.
- It is not designated safeguarding lead training, it does not qualify anybody to assess, diagnose or treat, and it supplies no risk assessment tool.
- It is not accredited: Blip holds no training accreditation and does not claim any.
- It does not promise that following it will prevent a death, and the certificate says so.
Free, one page
Self-harm and suicide: the first hour
What an ordinary adult does in the hour after a young person tells them. Not how to predict it, which does not work, and not how to assess it, which is somebody else's job.
- The direct question written out, and the four ways adults avoid asking it
- The first hour in order, including the two steps most settings do last
- Why the low, medium, high rating does not help, and what to write instead
Common questions
How long is Self-harm and Suicide: responding safely, Wales and how is it delivered?
Full day, six hours of CPD. Up to 20 delegates. In person at your site.
What does Self-harm and Suicide: responding safely, Wales cost?
In person at your site, from £1,250. Travel is included within Shropshire, Cheshire, Powys and the Wrexham and Oswestry area, and charged at cost beyond it. Every quote is specific, because cost depends on delegate numbers, location and whether you want the content adapted to your setting.
Do delegates get a certificate?
Yes. Every delegate gets an individual certificate and there is an attendance register. A pre and post knowledge check evidences learning gain, and an optional written reflective assessment is available for CPD or revalidation evidence. Anonymous delegate evaluation results are shared with the commissioner, and attendance records are retained for six years.
Who delivers Self-harm and Suicide: responding safely, Wales?
Vivien Beni, Registered Mental Health Nurse, NMC 21C0085W, and a Band 6 Looked After Children Practitioner in NHS CAMHS with a live caseload. Her current role includes advanced risk assessment for high-risk young people covering self-harm, suicide, exploitation and missing episodes, and her background includes community crisis work in a home treatment team and acute inpatient mental health. She holds a PGCE specialising in Additional Learning Needs and taught learners aged 7 to 19 for five years before nursing. Training behind the course includes suicide first aid with PAPYRUS Training (3 days, 2022), WARRN risk assessment (2 days, 2022) and a level 3 self-harm and suicide safeguarding module (2025), all held as a participant.
Blip is an independent mental health service for ages 7 to 25 as well as a training provider. The two are quoted separately.
Book this course for your team
Tell us the numbers and the term you have in mind, or email training@blip.org.uk. We reply within one working day.