Northern staff being trained on spotting vulnerable passengers

AROUND 7000 staff at Northern Rail are to be given training on how to spot vulnerable people on the railway – and having the confidence to intervene. The training will be provided by the charity Railway Children, whose work focusses on identifying individuals at risk and helping with early forms of intervention. Staff will be trained on how to spot signs of a person suffering domestic abuse, a mental health problem, as well as potential victims of child sexual exploitation and ‘county lines’ drug dealing activity. Included in the training will be helping staff have the confidence to intervene when they spot something ‘which isn’t quite right’, as well as being able make a decision on how best to help that person, whether it be by personal intervention and talking to the person, or whether the matter is more serious and needs the BTP to meet the train. In 2020, BTP intervened in 25,997 cases involving vulnerable people.