Honour-Based Abuse E-Learning for Professionals

The Home Office’s free Honour-Based Abuse e-learning. Developed by Karma Nirvana and co-authored with survivors, this is a six-part online training suite for safeguarding professionals in England and Wales. It helps you recognise HBA, understand how to respond safely and where to refer for support.

What is the Honour-Based Abuse e-learning?

This national e-learning suite gives professionals essential knowledge about Honour-Based Abuse and related harmful practices. It was commissioned by the Home Office, developed by Karma Nirvana and survivors, and is freely accessible to safeguarding professionals across England and Wales. It is signposted within the government’s statutory guidance on HBA.

Whether you are new to the topic or need a refresher, the training gives you the knowledge and confidence to identify, respond to and prevent HBA. It is survivor-led, trauma-informed and grounded in real-world safeguarding practice, drawing on more than three decades of frontline expertise.

What does this HBA training cover?

The suite has six sessions. Four were each co-authored with survivors and Karma Nirvana, which sit alongside the two existing modules on Forced Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM):

What you’ll learn

• What HBA is, and the ideas of honour, control, shame and punishment behind it
• What virginity testing, hymenoplasty and breast flattening are, and why they are harmful practices
• How to recognise the warning signs of HBA and the barriers victims face
• How to respond safely, challenge and escalate when needed, and where to signpost for help
• What effective multi-agency working looks like in practice
• How forced marriage and FGM connect to wider harmful practices
• Recognising the signs, understanding the law, and safeguarding those at risk for Forced Marriage
• Recognising the signs and risks, understanding legal duties, and safeguarding those at risk for FGM

Who is this safeguarding training for?

This training is designed for professionals across any sector who may encounter people at risk of HBA, forced marriage or related harmful practices, including:

• Social workers and safeguarding teams
• Police and criminal justice professionals
• Education professionals (teachers, safeguarding leads, pastoral staff)
• Healthcare professionals (GPs, nurses, midwives, mental health staff)
• Charities, helplines and voluntary sector workers
• Housing and local authority staff
• Anyone with safeguarding or frontline responsibilities

No prior knowledge is required, just your commitment to keeping people safe.

How the training was developed

Six survivor ambassadors from Karma Nirvana’s Survivor Ambassador Panel shaped the project as paid co-authors. Their experiences inform the learning design, activities and case studies throughout. Composite survivor experiences underpin each scenario and assessment, so the training reflects recurring safeguarding themes while protecting individual privacy.

The content was also shaped by a national consultation with 73 professionals across policing, healthcare, social care, education, statutory agencies, legal services and the wider violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector, and reviewed by specialist scrutiny panels.

Karma Nirvana published a full report on the development of the e-learning modules, which includes more information. We are also hosting a free event

Delivery Format: 

• Interactive online e-learning
• Virtual only
• Certificates shared post-training