Act4us

Training Standards

What make our training unique is that all of our trainers are not only qualified trainers, they are also practitioners in the field that they teach. Our trainers are experts in public safety subjects such as child protection, domestic violence and vulnerable adults. This knowledge and experience allows us to bring the subject matter to life with real life scenarios and anecdotes to reinforce the learning taking place.

We will always use a qualified trainer to lead our sessions, but the flexibility of our approach allows us to call on a variety of experts and practitioners to further enliven the learning and make sure that it is directed toward the learning objectives that you set us.

Meet The People involved

Act4us is dedicated to providing you with the most professional and experienced staff available. In this section you will be able to meet some of our tutors, advisors and management team.


		Gary Hunt - Specialist Tutor & Advisor For the past seven years Gary has been delivering public protection courses to law enforcement and public safety organisations across the UK. He has 15 years of practical experience of the subject area and has been involved in numerous child protection and domestic violence investigations in London. He has recently delivered Every Child Matters training to front line and support staff as well as bespoke child abuse training. He holds a Certificate in Education and is an Associate of the Institute for Learning.



		Jackie Halfhide - Specialist Tutor & Advisor Jackie has over 28 years’ experience in public protection work. She holds a Certificate in Education and is a Member of the Institute for Learning. She previously specialised in the investigation of serious sexual assault/abuse but more recently has been delivering training to front line staff in relation to child protection and Every Child Matters - Change for Children legislation. Jackie also specialises in teaching criminal law, with particular focus on police and public powers and where they sit with human rights. She offers specialist educational support to those with additional learning needs and incorporates techniques within her lessons to ensure comprehensive learning takes place.



		Paul Ford - Specialist Tutor & Advisor Paul holds a Certificate in Education and is a Member of the Institute for Learning. He specialises in the strategic management of incidents and the supervision of investigations and enquiries. He has 10 years hands on experience and has worked at the Home Office as an advisor to the Youth Justice Board where he wrote their response to the Every Child Matter legislation.



		Charlie Irvine - Specialist Tutor & Advisor Charlie has recently joined our training team after over 20 years on frontline duties. He has worked across East London dealing with the sharp end of public protection duties. He has been instrumental in the setting up and deployment of community based safety initiatives and has worked closely with the London Ambulance Service and other agencies in London and across the UK.



		Gavin Seymour - Development Manager Since working in the leisure industry for over a decade it has become apparent that there is a diverse range of quality in regards to training. Some training can be exciting and the knowledge that you take away can be highly beneficial. However although training is essential many training companies still get this wrong and leave their clients questioning why incidents start to appear, why performance is lower, why standards aren’t being met and why they spent thousands of pounds for a simple half day course. When developing our courses we look at these issues and ensure we are there to help and promote good practice. We understand that a diverse range of teaching methods is needed, which doesn’t mean that you only use PowerPoint half as much as you usually would. Safeguarding children courses are usually autocratic where you sit for hours on end and get lectured to by someone who can’t relate to your particular industry, and cant provide you with “first hand experience” When it comes to working with children it is crucially important that you receive effective training. ACT4us specialises in providing you with a high standard of tuition at the most competitive prices.



		Paul Spriggins - Managing Director Having spent the early part of my career developing through the Rank Holidays Division through an Executive Development Programme I found myself faced with very many difficult and disturbing situations.. I can add Arson, Assault, Sexual Assault, Child Abuse, Drug Abuse, Suicide & Murder to my CV as a list of incidents that I have been responsible for dealing with.. At one point I questioned weather I was qualified sufficiently to work with the Police force. In recent years my work took me into the field of Residential Activity Centres, providing life changing experiences for well over 500,000 children from around the world, children between the ages of 6 & 17 who’s parents willingly put them in the hands of Leisure Industry professionals who themselves are still young adults, generally aged 18 to 22yrs. It is with the combination of my experiences, good & bad, that Act4us has been developed. Having joined the Industry at ground level and worked my way through to the board room, I identified a number of gaps with regards to the effective management and implementation of training for employers and employees to be ready to deal with the types of incidents that are becoming more and more common.



		Brett Leah - Director For the past eight years, Brett has been developing and delivering ICT courses to children. Understanding the key learning points for children was always the main factor when developing these courses. Having dealt with children from many different and varied backgrounds, it became clear that sometimes Brett felt, that maybe he was not suitable trained to deal with children who came from or had experienced some sort of abuse in the past or were currently dealing with it. It is with this knowledge that Brett and Paul Spriggins decided to initiate the ACT4us project. Safety for the children is always the first priority and it is with this ethos that ACT4us and Brett stand firmly for, that children will have a safe place to learn, grow and develop.



		Gareth Wright - IT Manager Gareth began working with children in March 2002 as a GNAS qualified Archery coach, BFA Fencing Club Coach and Climbing Instructor, a great deal of Gareth’s time was also spent delivering ICT modules in a lab environment to groups of up to 15 students. A short while later Gareth was trained in safeguarding children. Within a year Gareth was running an IT department and responsible for the delivery of IT lessons and the training of all new and existing staff in the delivery of IT in a lab environment. During this five and a half year period Gareth delivered sessions to well over 30,000 + children and was responsible for the welfare of many more. Working with Act4us Gareth is providing Technical Consultancy on our websites, online course systems and internal IT systems.

		Craig Early - Education Officer Craig graduated from Loughborough University with a degree in Medicinal & Pharmaceutical Chemistry, before completing his PH.D in Organic Chemistry. During this time he was appointed as a Student Mentor to undergraduate students. He was also responsible for setting up and running the Chemistry Society, a social network for the whole of the University Chemistry Department. He decided to leave the scientific community behind and return working with young people. Subsequently he has worked at nurseries, as a play worker; youth clubs, helping to run after school clubs and has recently become a qualified teacher, graduating with a PGCE certificate at Masters level.We welcome Craig on-board as our new Education Officer.