Trauma-Informed Practice: Special Report

Half the population of the UK have had at least one adverse childhood experience by the time they enter adulthood.?

These experiences - from living in a household where there is regular domestic abuse or substance misuse, to dealing with bereavement or being taken into care - are likely to be traumatic for children, affecting their psychological development and wellbeing.

Professionals' understanding of the impact that trauma has on children has grown significantly in recent years and is changing the shape of the practice and services.

For example, children's centres are putting more emphasis on working earlier with families to identify and address issues that may cause trauma, while some schools are developing trauma-informed approaches to improve behaviour in the classroom.

For the most vulnerable children, such as those with care experience and offenders, social care and youth justice teams are developing therapeutic interventions geared to building resilience in young people to help them overcome trauma.

Meanwhile, there is increasing recognition of the effects that working with traumatised children can have on practitioners, with more emphasis on training and supervision.

CYP Now's special report on trauma-informed practice assesses recent research on the impact of trauma on children, hears from experts on how policymakers and services are responding to traumatised young people and highlights the work of four projects that have developed innovative interventions.

Click on the links for more:

Trauma-Informed Practice: Policy context

Research evidence by Deanne Mitchell, information specialist, the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE):

• Systematic Review of Organisation-Wide, Trauma-Informed Care Models in Out-Of-Home Care Settings
• Evidence Review: Developing Trauma Informed Practice in Northern Ireland
• Healing Environments For Children Who Have Experienced Trauma

Practice examples:

• Project unpicks the trauma of care to address offending
• Support to tackle the trauma left by ACE
• Young people supported to get wise over exploitation
• PRU embeds trauma understanding among teachers