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📘 Mandatory Training · Level 3 · Free

Safeguarding Adults, Level 3

3.25 CPD hours. Refresher every year. Scenario assessment, pass mark 80%. Last reviewed October 2026. Next review October 2027.

What it covers

The clinician's part in safeguarding adults at Level 3: professional curiosity, weighing risk, section 42 enquiries under the Care Act 2014 and making safeguarding personal. Capacity, coercion and deprivation of liberty after the Supreme Court's 2026 judgment, domestic abuse risk and Marac, carers and families, exploitation and financial abuse, self-neglect and hoarding, closed cultures, allegations against staff, and young adults leaving children's services. Lawful sharing, records, police requests and court, professional challenge, and learning from reviews and deaths, each worked through a practice case.

Who it is for

GPs, GP registrars, practice nurses, advanced practitioners, clinical pharmacists, paramedics and other clinicians in general practice who need Level 3, and the practice safeguarding lead. It is the e-learning part of Level 3.

By the end you will be able to

  • Apply professional curiosity to records, prescribing and consultations, and weigh risk defensibly.
  • Contribute to a section 42 enquiry and protection plan, keeping the adult's wishes central.
  • Assess capacity and coercion, and recognise a deprivation of liberty after the 2026 judgment.
  • Assess domestic abuse risk with Dash, refer to Marac, and record without alerting the abuser.
  • Respond to exploitation, financial abuse, self-neglect, closed cultures, staff allegations and young adults' transition.
  • Share lawfully, code and protect records, challenge decisions, and learn from reviews and deaths.

Modules

  1. Your Level 3 role
  2. Assessing and weighing risk
  3. Section 42 and other agencies
  4. Capacity, coercion and hard decisions
  5. Domestic abuse
  6. Carers and families
  7. Exploitation and financial abuse
  8. Self-neglect and hoarding
  9. Closed cultures and allegations against staff
  10. Young adults, ages 16 to 25
  11. Sharing, records, police and the courts
  12. Planning, challenge and learning from reviews

This course is the e-learning part of Level 3. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) intercollegiate document on adult safeguarding (2024) says half of Level 3 learning should be participatory, such as case discussion, multi-agency learning or supervision, and that part is recorded separately.

Content mapped to the knowledge aspects of the Level 3 learning outcomes of the Core Skills Training Framework (England) v1.1: Safeguarding Adults, and to the Level 3 competences in the RCN 2024 intercollegiate document and the RCGP 2024 safeguarding standards. Law named: Care Act 2014, section 42; Mental Capacity Act 2005, sections 1 to 5.

Sources

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GPAtlas is not accredited, verified or endorsed by Skills for Health or NHS England. Acceptance of this training is at the discretion of your employer, who remains responsible for confirming it meets local requirements. Your employer may require more frequent refreshers than the guidance period; the practice's own policy applies. Some pictures and films in our courses, and the film narration, are made with AI tools. We check every one for accuracy before we publish it.

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