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The Monastery Manchester, Gorton Lane, Manchester

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The Monastery Manchester, Gorton Lane, Manchester

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The Monastery Manchester, Gorton Lane, Manchester

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The case study illustrates the impact of a trauma informed approach on an individual’s life. It has been submitted by Shamime Jan, Director at Bollyfit Active and the person has given permission for their story to be shared in an anonymised form.

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Salford Civic Centre, Chorley Road, Swinton, Manchester

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Salford’s trauma-responsive practitioners are in the early stages of building partnership working relationships with GMP to support the team to become trauma-responsive. So far the practitioners have provided introductory trauma and ACE training to the Children’s Safeguarding team. Future work will involve supporting the Frontline Officers working within the Child Protection Investigation Unit.

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Salford Civic Centre, Chorley Road, Swinton, Manchester

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Implementation Story Salford Early Break

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Implementation Story Salford Early Break

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Early Break is a Person-Centred organisation that works with children, young people and families who are experiencing difficulties with emotional & and mental health and/or substance use.  In Salford Early Break is one of the commissioned services that form the Achieve partnership (all-age drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services).

Early Break also delivers services to young people and families as part of the Violence Reduction work in Salford.

Over the last 29 years, Early Break has worked to become a trauma-informed organisation and has been designing and delivering its projects and services to ensure they are trauma-informed, this includes our policies, processes and protocols, including HR and performance management.

Staff wellbeing is a priority with the organisation where staff receive external reflective supervision by a qualified therapist. Staff have access to a range of support outside of annual leave. Throughout the lifetime of the organisation, Early Break has developed its services with the people it supports.

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Salford Civic Centre, Chorley Road, Swinton, Manchester

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Implementation Story of Salford Inclusion Service

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Implementation Story of Salford Inclusion Service

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Salford Primary Care is a community interest company with all GP practices in Salford as its members. We aim to work with our members and other partners to ensure general practice is at the heart of joined-up care in Salford.

Salford Primary Care Together’s Inclusion service was developed to support those individuals in Salford who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless to access medical care. The inclusion service also works collaboratively with other areas of Salford to ensure a person-centred approach. These services include the dual diagnosis team, the housing team, the drug and alcohol team and mental health teams.

The inclusion service started their trauma responsive journey in 2020/2021 by conducting an audit and developing its plan. Following this they took several actions. They ensured staff had appropriate training in trauma-informed care and continued to provide their staff with protected time to maintain their professional development with trauma-informed care running thematically throughout this.

A Trauma-informed communication plan was developed to inform their service communication plan and policy to ensure that the way they work with people is consistent.

The communication plan promoted the use of language which was hopeful and supportive unquestioning was always open-ended to allow opportunities for patients to disclose trauma.

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Manchester City Council Housing Services, White Moss Road, Manchester

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Manchester City Council Housing Services, White Moss Road, Manchester

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Manchester City Council Housing Services, White Moss Road, Manchester

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MCC Housing Services are adopting trauma-informed approaches across their teams.

Working with MCC Public Health they developed housing-specific trauma training that has been delivered to housing officers and customer service centre advisors. The whole workforce has now been trained, and as such everyone who speaks to residents is aware of the importance of this approach to make the resident feel secure and to get the best outcomes for both the individual/family and the organisation.

MCC Housing Services has started to incorporate this approach into their policies, ensuring that it is clear to their workforce and residents that this approach is embedded in all that they do. They also

discuss trauma-informed working in staff reviews and appraisals.

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Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester

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Art of Resilience: Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester

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Art of Resilience: Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester

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The Art of Resilience project has been running for almost two years with three successful cohorts of Primary age children enjoying the opportunity to build resilience through creative practice. The project has been delivered in collaboration with Manchester Art Gallery, its resident Creative Practitioners and Population Health and funded by both organisations but with additional funding from the Violence Reduction Unit.

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The Grange Community Resource Centre, Pilgrim Drive, Beswick, Manchester

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4CT a multi-purpose community organisation based in Beswick are delivering a project on behalf of a partnership of the local care health organisations in Ancoats, Bradford and Clayton; Cheetham and Crumpsall; Miles Platting, Newton Heath and Moston and MCC Public Health.

The project called TICTAC (Trauma Informed Care for Trauma-Informed Communities) aims to raise awareness of ACEs and how they impact the lives and health of children and adults and Trauma Informed Practice, that is, how we can all help and support people to achieve better outcomes. TIC TAC is specifically focused on raising awareness in the voluntary and community sector (VCSE) and the wider community. The project is engaging with residents to provide key messages about attachment and protective factors such as play, exercise and sleep hygiene. One of the key engagement tools is a 6m x 4m x 4m tall bouncy, inflatable brain!

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Co-op Academy New Islington, Hugh Oldham Way, Manchester

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Co-op Academy New Islington, Hugh Oldham Way, Manchester

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Co-op Academy New Islington, Hugh Oldham Way, Manchester

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TIS UK Award Visit Report New Islington Manchester Video

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Co-op Academy New Islington, Hugh Oldham Way, Manchester

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Co-op Academy New Islington, Hugh Oldham Way, Manchester

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Co-op Academy New Islington, Hugh Oldham Way, Manchester

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TIS UK Award Visit Report

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Manchester Rape Crisis, Ardwick Green North, Manchester

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Manchester Crisis, Ardwick Green North, Manchester

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Manchester Crisis, Ardwick Green North, Manchester

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Manchester City Council partnered with Greater Manchester  Crisis and the Manchester Local Care Organisation to show two screenings of the ‘The Wisdom of Trauma’, in March and June 2023.

The film focuses on the work of best-selling author Dr Gabor Maté and explores why western society is facing the epidemics of anxiety, chronic illness and substance abuse exploring the connection between illness, addiction, trauma and society.

In total over 130 people attended the screenings that were each followed by a panel-led discussion that reflected on the film and explored how we can all work together to make Manchester a trauma responsive city. Providers represented on the panels included Manchester City Council Children’s Services and Adult Social Care, GM Crisis, Manchester Action on Street Health (MASH) and Survivors Manchester.

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West Gorton Medical Centre, Clowes Street, West Gorton, Manchester

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West Gorton Medical Centre, Clowes Street, West Gorton, Manchester

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West Gorton Medical Centre, Clowes Street, West Gorton, Manchester

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Screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in General Practice

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Journey to Being Trauma Informed - Bolton College

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Journey to Being Trauma Informed - Bolton College

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Highfields College, Essex Road, Brinnington, Stockport

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The Trauma-Informed Journey at Highfields College, Stockport

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The Trauma-Informed Journey at Highfields College, Stockport

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Highfields College is a Pupil Referral Unit in Stockport, serving young people aged 11 – 16 years of age. Like all other Pupil Referral Units, Highfields was established to cater for Permanently Excluded students within the area – on our arrival as a new leadership team in 2018 this was its defining remit.

‘Catering for Permanently Excluded students’ is very much down to interpretation and Pupil Referral Units will approach this remit differently. What we found at Highfields College in 2018 was a well-intentioned but misdirected approach that was more about ‘containment’ of ‘naughty young people’ than anything else.

One of the first projects we set about on in 2018 was mapping our cohort as a group of learners and more broadly as a group of children – with emphasis on ‘children’ in need of our care rather than, say, ‘young adults’ which suggests a higher level of self-agency and maturity, and unfortunately blame, for how they present.

On systematically mapping our cohort, we discovered that 70% have specific learning difficulties (‘dyslexic-type difficulties’), 20% have a diagnosis of ADHD with a further 10 – 15% presenting in such a way that warrants an assessment, 15% have a diagnosis of Autism but, again, many more with ‘traits’ that warrant further investigation.

In many ways the above are common knowledge within the education sector – that is, children with learning difficulties (or better put, those who are ‘more neurodiverse than most’) are more likely to end up excluded and in PRUs. But drilling it down into percentages does drive it home as hard fact rather than a gut feeling – it makes it much harder to ignore.

Another bit of self-evident truth is that children who enter PRUs have probably had a ‘tough childhood’. The statistics usually used to show this are Free School Meals and LAC / CLA (Children who are Looked After). At Highfields, 40 – 50% of our children are Free School Meals and 15% are designated ‘Looked After’ – which means they are formally not living with their parents. Although these two statistics ignore the issue of ‘working poor’ and also the fact we know a further 15% of our children are informally looked after by someone other than their parents, usually grandparents.

But what really changed our thinking at Highfields was sensitively undertaking a ‘Childhood Experienced Survey’ with every single one of our parents and carers which looks at the occurrence of sudden bereavement, domestic violence, drug addiction in the household and other Adverse Childhood Experiences. Suddenly we were faced with the hard fact that 75% of our children have experienced at least one major trauma in their lives – the kind of normality-shattering, tearful, sometimes blood-soaked events that we as adults would be overwhelmed and permanently changed by.

In doing this kind of almost business-like profiling of our clientele, we have changed the human narrative that our provision is simply for ‘Permanently Excluded’ ‘naughty’ children – that this is really just a footnote to a much bigger dynamic – that of trauma and attachment, often combined with learning difficulties. It is what some academics might call a ‘paradigm shift’.

Because of this change in our fundamental understanding of our clientele, we have been compelled to change our practice and the wider culture that supports it. We have embarked on wholesale policy change, a huge investment in CPD around trauma-informed approaches, new ways of staff supervision, complete change to our building design / organisation, changes to how we recruit, and changes to the performance standards we measure ourselves against.

We have become a far more professional and technical operation. For some colleagues this has been an energising time as they find a rhyme and reason to their daily work, which is often very intense and frenetic and without immediate reward. For some colleagues, they have decided this new approach is not for them and this has resulted in higher staff absence and turnover – we can’t escape there has been pain in this kind of organisational change.

Three years in – and we are just three years in, which we have to remind ourselves of everyday – the results are starting to show. Our student attendance has risen from 40% to 75%, we are gaining more GCSEs and other accreditations for students than ever before, we have stabilised a provision in free fall because all it sought to do was ‘contain’ and this can become a negative cycle. We have still a long way to go but the adoption of ‘trauma informed’ and ‘attachment friendly’ approaches has proven so far to be a game changer.

- Matt Grant, Headteacher – Oct 2021

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Rochdale Connections Trust now feels like a safer place to get help, thanks to its trauma informed work.

The 20-year-old charity which provides domestic abuse services put its whole team through the Level 3 trauma enhanced training facilitated by national expert Zoe Lodrick and another staff member through the Trauma Recovery Model training facilitated by national experts in health, social care and youth justice, Dr Tricia Skuse, Jonny Matthews and Dusty Kennedy.

As a result, they have created psychologically safe spaces, particularly in waiting rooms and now meet and greet all service users as they come into the service to create a sense of safety and connection and help build trusted relationships.

Service users say they now feel much more comfortable attending appointments and reviewing the learning has created a more compassionate, kind and tolerant workforce, benefiting everyone.

Learning is regularly reviewed during team meetings and lunchtime learning sessions and the organisation has seen a real shift in its thinking and practice. Staff well-being has been prioritised with more investment in supervision.

Rochdale Connections Trust hopes to continue its trauma informed journey through further changes and workforce development, including training all new members of staff and specialist training for practitioners to better support service users.

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The GM Jokers group, made of people with lived experience of trauma, use theatre, art and poetry to highlight the issues that systems create for those who have experienced trauma.

They have previously worked with the Greater Manchester Homelessness Action Network (GMHAN) feeding into the GM Homelessness Prevention Strategy, 2021 – 2026, the Poverty Truth Commission and Housing First.

They turned their creative lens on trauma in a trauma aware workshop as part of their aim to make services work better for everyone.

GM Jokers’ vision for a trauma-responsive Greater Manchester is a focus on equality and creating environments where trauma could be shared and explored in a non-judgemental and productive way. They believe shared decision making with co-production should be prioritised, want to see more accessible appointments, trauma informed care in all services and a more humane and compassionate response to those who have experienced trauma particularly those who have or are currently experiencing homelessness.

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1st floor, 463 Stretford Road, Old Trafford, Stretford, Manchester M16 9AB

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Big Life received funding to develop a trauma-friendly charter for VCSE organisations and carry out service reviews with senior leaders of organisations and volunteers with lived experience.

Work on the charter is progressing and will include input from adults with lived experience and children. The work also suggested small adjustments which could be made such as using gender-neutral terms, allowing clients choice and control over where and when they are seen, ensuring environments are not chaotic and using plain English and avoiding jargon.

The service reviews, which are strengths based, are helping organisations see what they are already doing well and identify outcomes and practical next steps. Big Life will use its extra funding to continue this work.

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Beyond Barriers was awarded funding to develop a network of VCSE organisations in Trafford that create welcoming, trauma-sensitive environments, create a tool for asset mapping which 10 local organisations will use and develop training.

They have involved people with lived experience who shared their experience of barriers to getting help and ideas for improvement and this work is on-going.

Beyond Barriers have also benefited from Plymouth’s experienceand consultation with the Plymouth Trauma Network.

They are now using their extra funding to work on healthy high streets, helping high street businesses to make them trauma sensitive and avoid triggering trauma for customers, creating a map of trauma-sensitive providers for residents and growing the network.

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7-9 Bury Road, Radcliffe, Manchester M26 2UW

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Working with Salford CVS, Early Break used their funding to develop and deliver training in raising awareness of trauma. Twenty participants from the VCSE sector, and housing attended.

In Bury, Early Break have worked with existing VCSE networks to embed trauma-responsiveness and awareness in terms of reference for the networks and ensure the lived-experience of service users is included in network meetings. It has led to changes in promotional materials, the development of resources for teachers and education staff and QR codes for young people to easily get mental health support around exam time.

The extra grant will fund more training in both areas and cover staff time to further develop the trauma responsiveness and awareness work.

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Eighteen faith and VCSE organisations have changed their practice thank to work with Greater Manchester Together (GTM)

GTM was awarded funding from the Greater Manchester Trauma Project to develop trauma-aware training and create a network of organisations, so they didn’t feel alone in supporting service users with experience of trauma.

As a result, GTM has changed its own practices – making physical spaces trauma informed, including ones not owned by the organisation, reviewing processes and redrafting client facing promotional materials, the code of conduct, rules and next steps information with volunteers who have personal experience of homelessness and

GTM has already offered training to 45 VCSE organisations and has been awarded extra funding to roll that out to 15 more, as well as continuing to develop its community of practice.

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Back on Track Manchester, Swan Street, Manchester

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Award Winning, Life Changing - Back on Track Manchester.

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Award Winning, Life Changing - Back on Track Manchester.

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Well done to Back on Track for winning an award for their trauma informed work.

Based in Swan Street, Manchester, the charity enables people to make positive changes that last, whether it’s managing problematic drug/alcohol use, living a crime-free life, improving mental health and wellbeing, or finding a stable home.

Their award-winning project brought together a group of 12 Back on Track members who have experienced trauma. They used their experiences to come up with a set of guidelines for support services. Their insights are now being used to train other organisations in becoming trauma responsive, meaning people who use services should get a better experience in the future.

Back on Track won an award for this course at the annual Manchester Adult Education and Skills Plan Event in June and has now been granted extra funding from the Greater Manchester Trauma Project.

They will use the money to train another 16 VCSE organisations and work with people with lived experience of trauma to co-produce an information booklet and web page on childhood trauma and its impact in adult life.

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Oasis Academy Harpur Mount, Alfred Street, Manchester

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Following on from the ACEs awareness training, as part of the pilot in north Manchester, Harpurmount PS began applying their knowledge to transform the school to be trauma responsive.

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Longsight Library and Learning Centre, Stockport Road, Longsight, Manchester

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Youth Justice Service, Manchester City Council

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Youth Justice Service, Manchester City Council

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Following training and work with an in-house social work consultant Manchester's Youth Justice service transformed the service. Applying the knowledge of ACEs and developing a trauma informed workforce. Then going onto work with local university to develop their trauma responsive approach to working with young people.

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Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester

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Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester

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Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester

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Working with Public Health and the Manchester ACEs project co-ordinator the Manchester Art Gallery has introduced new activities for children and families.