Iriss is working with Midlothian Council’s Family Wellbeing Team to co-design a new space for staff to reflect on and develop trauma informed practice (TIP).
Over the last decade, an increasing amount of research and information has highlighted the link between adverse experiences, particularly those in childhood, and trauma. The relationship of trauma to poorer life outcomes has also been highlighted - whether this is physical and mental health, education attainment or involvement in the criminal justice system.
In 2018 Scotland launched the National Trauma Training Programme (NTTP) as a response. This involves application of the five principles of TIP - Safety, Trustworthiness, Choice, Collaboration, and Empowerment — with the intention of supporting better relationships and, in turn, better outcomes for people using services (as well as those delivering them). It is about adjusting how people work to support recovery and resilience, and to prevent re-traumatisation and harm.
Investing in staff
Midlothian was one of the NTTP pilot sites able to benefit from training. Since then, it has worked to extend the reach of this work, investing in a dedicated Trauma Informed (TI) Development Worker to help implement and embed TI service delivery across the council area.
It recognises that central to any change is supporting staff to do their jobs to the best of their ability. In addition to training, they recognise the value in learning through practice to help staff teams deliver TIP in a more meaningful way to achieve better results.
The ambition, therefore, is to co-design a peer-to-peer model of support, providing staff teams with the reflective space to help them practice in a trauma informed way.
This space is currently envisioned as: supporting workers’ processing, planning and evaluation of their role; assessing the impact of TI practices on relationships and outcomes for those they support; understanding the impact on staff.
Co-design approach
Iriss will be working with the Family Wellbeing Team in Midlothian to co-design peer-to-peer support and a new system of reflective practice. We will lead the co-design process, and support system change by working with those who will create and use what they have designed.
We might consider that this designed space could be used to:
- Discuss what has and hasn’t worked
- Share insights and receive advice and fresh perspectives
- Process difficulties and challenges; vicarious trauma or the impact of the work on them
But of course, co-design means we must take the time to explore the problem before we build the solution, so conversations with practitioners will ultimately inform what is created and why.
Roll out
The hope is that the peer-to-peer model developed might be rolled out across the Council area, contributing to the larger ambition to implement and embed a holistic Trauma Informed Approach (TIA) to public service delivery.
Sharing the learning
We will review and reflect on processes and outcomes of this work, capturing the learning to inform roll out to other areas of service delivery across the council area, and to inform the wider sector.
