The Trauma Informed Practice Development Officer in Moray Health & Social Care Partnership (HSCP) came into post in May 2024 and has since undertaken a series of activities to raise awareness and increase knowledge and understanding of trauma-informed and responsive practice across Moray. These activities have included the delivery of introductory awareness-raising briefing sessions before supporting service areas/teams/organisations to use the trauma-informed practice Walk Through Lens tool to identify areas of success and improvement within a specific service. The use of the Walk Through Lens tool has empowered service areas and teams to consider how practitioners and those with lived experience of trauma may experience their service, and provides a clear structure to begin improvement planning and priority setting.
The challenge
The Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer was keen to demonstrate tangible action and capture early results and learning to inform how to effectively implement trauma-informed and responsive approaches across Moray.
Initially, there were some challenges securing strategic buy-in and therefore it was important to engage with teams that were already doing some work to embed trauma-informed practice within their services and that already had strategic leadership support. In turn, this led to increased strategic buy in from across different services as they were able to see the learning and progress from other teams.
The Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer began sharing the Walk Through Lens Tool from the National Trauma Transformation Programme (NTTP) Roadmap and whilst some teams started to use the Walk Through Lens tool, there were varying results with some teams not having a full understanding of what trauma-informed practice looked or felt like, which therefore caused challenges for completing the lens tool. In response to this, it was clear that there had to be foundational work undertaken to create the conditions for teams and services before using the Walk Through Lens tool. This included developing and delivering an in depth introductory awareness-raising programme which focused on the national vision for trauma-informed and responsive approaches in Scotland, trauma-informed training, and an introduction to the organisational window of tolerance.
Once teams and services had received these introductory briefing sessions and had a better understanding of trauma-informed and responsive practice, the Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer then supported them to complete the Walk Through Lens tool.
Outline of project
The project started in October 2024 with 13 different teams who were contacted to participate in the introductory briefing programme. There has now been contact with 47 teams, 41 of which have received the introduction brief and 16 completing the Walk Through Lens tool. There is also interest from a further seven teams wanting to commence this work.
Following this, there has been a significant increase in strategic buy-in and an appetite at service management and team leadership level to engage in the programme.
There have been a range of service areas across Moray which have engaged in the introductory briefings and the Walk Through Lens tool, including housing, health, education (including newly qualified teachers) and alcohol and drugs. Furthermore, work has expanded outwith statutory services and has included delivering introductory sessions with teams within Action for Children who support children and young people who are care-experienced. This demonstrates that there has been a far-reaching spread of uptake across a range of service areas, policy agendas and sectors in engaging with the introductory briefing sessions and the Walk Through Lens tool. This is attributed to an organic ‘snowball’ effect with teams and services making contact with the Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer through word of mouth, reading the trauma informed practice page on the Moray Council Interchange website and hearing the positive impact that the work has had on other service areas.
The walk through process itself can be defined by the team/service area undertaking it and can involve a range of colleagues, practitioners and those accessing the service, including those with lived experience. For example, one team conducted a walk through with foster carers which provided unique perspectives in shaping improvement actions to ensure every aspect of service delivery was trauma-informed.
The use of the Walk Through Lens tool provides teams with the opportunity to identify how different elements of their service (such as access, environment, relationships, policies and procedures, communications and language) meet and uphold the key principles of trauma-informed practice; trust, collaboration, choice, empowerment and safety. Teams are encouraged to rate each element of their service through a red/amber/green (RAG) system. If a specific element of a service is marked ‘red’, this acknowledges the need for trauma-informed implementation. If it is identified as ‘amber’, this highlights that progression with the trauma-informed implementation/ journey is required. Even if an element of the service has been identified as ‘green’ in that it is recognised as being trauma-informed, it is still required to be constantly reviewed to ensure that this is maintained.
In addition, services and teams completing the Trauma Informed Walk Through Lens tool are encouraged to consider additional elements and processes which are specific to their own service and identify how they meet the key principles of trauma-informed and responsive practice. It was acknowledged that there are some nuances with certain elements of a specific service, and that they may not neatly fit into the RAG system; for example, relationships that a specific service has with some partner agencies may be recognised as green, whereas relationships with other agencies may require trauma-informed implementation. Therefore, it was important that the tool can be applied flexibly to suit the needs of specific services and teams, and that they receive support and guidance from the Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer.
The Trauma Informed Walk Through Lens tool encourages staff and management to consider how their service is experienced by those accessing it, as well as practitioners working within the service. It enables staff to consider what is within their own spheres of influence (as some areas marked as ‘red’ or ‘amber’ may not be within their competencies to immediately improve if they are related to wider structural issues such as resourcing and capacity) and allows team leaders and managers to refocus priorities that are within their own control and power. Through identifying improvement actions that are achievable and realistic, this makes priority planning feel less overwhelming and more accessible for team leaders and management to make progress towards.
Throughout the Walk Through Lens tool process, the Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer provides tailored support to service managers to explore and resolve any concerns that they may have in a comfortable and safe space. In addition, colleagues are provided with comprehensive resources to support the Walk Through Lens tool, such as guidance and an action planning template, to help build capacity and capability to repeat the Walk Through Lens tool process themselves to measure progress. This empowers teams to be confident in regularly reviewing their service and practice through using the Walk Through Lens tools developed and disseminated by the Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer, who is also on hand to provide additional follow-up support where necessary.
The use of the Walk Through Lens tool has also carved opportunities to promote and strengthen collaborative working approaches between services and systems. A number of different teams and policy areas have undertaken the introductory briefing sessions and the Walk Through Lens process which has enabled the Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer to identify where there are opportunities and common themes between different parts of a service. Through establishing links between teams and service areas and de-mystifying what each part of the system does, this has created space for joined-up working approaches to take place.
Results
The Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer provides support to teams completing the Walk Through Lens tool for the first time and follows up with them by sending them the report and offering to visit at a later point to support with action planning. The report following the walk through is only sent to that specific team/service area and isn’t used for reporting or governance purposes, which in turn has created a culture of openness and appetite for continued support and guidance.
Since completing the trauma-informed Walk Through Lens tool, several teams have now began designing action plans to develop short and medium term outcomes to progress the improvement actions identified by doing the walk-throughs.
Learning
There have been a range of key enablers which have contributed to the success and increased uptake of the introductory briefing sessions and the trauma informed Walk Through Lens tool exercise. These include:
Support provided by the Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer
The Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer sits within Moray HCSP and came into post in May 2024 from a completely different career background. In turn, this enabled a fresh perspective to be taken to the trauma-informed practice agenda and through not being positioned within a senior management team, this enabled positive, supportive and trusting relationships to be established with peers.
The Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer has adopted a critical friend role and has curated trusted and safe spaces for colleagues who have undertaken the Walk Through Lens tool to share reflections and concerns around areas for improvements. This has included supporting colleagues to identify what is within their own spheres of influence and having an awareness of what is manageable and realistic to make changes and progress towards. In addition, the Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer is equipped to have an external, objective voice to professionally challenge cultural processes which may be impacting progress.
In-person Walk Throughs
The Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer often visits teams in person to support them in conducting their initial trauma informed Walk Through Lens exercise. By meeting teams where they operate day-to-day, this helps to strengthen positive working relationships and is also very important as part of a rural area to capture the voices of those in very small, and often isolated, communities. Therefore, it is important to make strong links and develop connections with more remote services and communities to support them in responding to their own unique issues and needs.
Engaging in national networks to share practice and learning
The Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer highlighted that since starting in the role in May 2024, engagement in national networks such as the NTTP Local Trauma Lead Officers Network (facilitated by the Improvement Service), and the Collaborative Peer Learning Workshops, co-hosted by the Improvement Service, Scottish Government and Resilience Learning Partnership, has provided support in hearing from others and sharing learning with those working to embed trauma-informed practice across Scotland. Specifically, making links and establishing connections with colleagues working on this agenda has enabled opportunities for peer support, particularly around navigating the differences between implementing trauma-informed practice within rural and urban areas.
Collaborative working and leadership support
The delivery of an introductory briefing session to colleagues representing two different service areas (Education and Children & Families Social Work) provided unique opportunities for shared learning and collaborative working to take place. Whilst having a mixed participant group was unintentional, this created a unique shared space for colleagues to share practice, identify areas for partnership working, and develop connections.
Furthermore, the Trauma-Informed Practice Development Officer has conducted briefing sessions with management to outline what the trauma informed Walk Through Lens tool involves to increase their knowledge and confidence in what their team will be participating in. Whilst it is often the teams themselves involved in the operational process of the Walk Through Lens tool, a key piece of learning has included the importance of having service leads on board as part of the process to help secure senior leadership buy in.