In September 2021, Grampian held a Deep Dive session for Child & Family Services across Grampian. This aimed to increase awareness of trauma within this service environment to empower staff to support children and families in a trauma-informed way.
The challenge
It was felt that the level of awareness of trauma-informed practice was unknown across Grampian’s children and family services. Leaders felt it was important to understand where the gaps in knowledge were and how to support workers to strengthen their knowledge, skills and confidence in working in a trauma-informed way.
It was important to collaborate with staff to explore where they felt they needed more support, and this led to the development of an awareness-raising Deep Dive event for all Child & Family Services and staff.
Outline of project
In September 2021, a Deep Dive session was held for Child & Family Services across Grampian. This session aimed to provide staff with knowledge around trauma-informed practice that could be applied in their daily professional lives, as well as to identify gaps in knowledge and practice which would require further input and training. The Deep Dive included the following inputs:
- Introduction to the National Trauma Training Programme
- Improving Outcomes for Care-Experienced Children Affected by Trauma
- Nurture Approach in Education
- Supporting Bereaved Children & Young People Across Grampian
- Listening and Learning from Lived Experience
These inputs included examples of good practice to showcase what working in a trauma-informed way can look like, and also ensured that the voice of people with lived experience of trauma was represented.
After these inputs, a Q&A session was held and the attendees were put into smaller discussion groups. These discussions were based on the following questions:
- How trauma informed and how trauma responsive do you feel your service currently is?
- What do you feel would be the key barriers to promoting a trauma-informed service within your organisation and what would the service need to develop to be trauma responsive?
- What opportunities are there currently within your service/environment to support a trauma-informed service?
These questions encouraged the attendees to consider where they felt their service was in relation to trauma, and how they thought they could progress. This allowed for the learning from the previous inputs to be used in relation to the attendees' own work and to explore options for overcoming barriers and supporting trauma-informed practice.
A follow-up event took place in June 2022. This event launched the Aberdeenshire Trauma-Informed Training Pathway and assisted the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategic Group in beginning to consider next steps to support services, particularly schools, in supporting children who have experienced trauma. Betsy De Thierry, a leader in the field of trauma education and recovery, was the speaker at this event, with over 300 people attending.
Results
The initial Deep Dive event was held as a stepping stone for individuals and organisations to take away learning and challenge themselves to support their service to become trauma-informed. The group discussions highlighted that services appear to be at different stages of their trauma-informed journey. However, everyone felt that more could still be done to progress this work in their area, with both barriers and opportunities being identified. Barriers included time, resources and established systems and processes, whilst opportunities mentioned included joint working, supportive leadership and training.
Additionally, attendees were asked to complete ‘My Personal Leadership Pledge’. This is a commitment that they intend to carry out to assist in promoting the implementation of trauma-informed practice. The following are some examples of the pledges made by attendees:
To continue to support all those I work with to remember that ‘language matters’ and to model this in my interactions.
To keep the conversation about developing Trauma-Informed Child and Family Services alive with a regular slot in our team briefs within my own team and within our local GIRFEC group, and to find a way as a whole team around the child to embrace and promote trauma-informed working as the ‘norm’.
I will ensure that I share the knowledge of this afternoon and also that we try to keep this well up on the agenda of our service development.
Learning
The speakers that provided input were truly inspiring. Their enthusiasm for this work and the examples of good practice highlighted the difference that being trauma informed can make for people affected by trauma who are coming into contact with our services. Additionally, speakers gave tips on how to think in a trauma-informed way, including how to change the language used with people, including staff and those coming into contact with our services.
On completion of the event, it was reflected that perhaps there were too many components to the session, and that for future events, a ‘less is more’ approach might be considered, particularly if held online in order to offer sufficient ‘screen breaks’.
Leigh Jolly – Head of Children’s Services, Aberdeenshire Council
Email: leigh.jolly@aberdeenshire.gov.uk