Trauma informed practice
Kidscape is committed to developing our understanding of trauma-informed practice and becoming a trauma-informed workplace.
Key principles of trauma-informed practice
There are 6 principles of trauma-informed practice: safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment and cultural consideration.
What does this mean for our work?
Safety
The physical, psychological and emotional safety of service users and staff is prioritised, by:
- taking action to keep all participants in our workshops safe. Each participant receives a copy of our 'Keeping Everyone Safe' policy.
- making sure our team members (staff and volunteers) are easily identifiable
- making sure participants do not feel under pressure to take part in any activity
- protection from harm and abuse (through our safeguarding policy and practice)
Trustworthiness
We seek to build trust by:
- explaining what we are going to do and why
- the charity and staff doing what they say they will do
- expectations being made clear and the charity and staff not overpromising
Choice
We support service users and staff to have a voice by:
- welcoming feedback
- listening to the needs and wishes of service users and staff and adapting our support accordingly
- explaining our actions clearly and allowing participants to opt-out at any time
- understanding that children who use our services may have experienced trauma and may need time and support to engage with us
Collaboration
As a small charity we actively encourage collaboration and mutual support. This includes;
- providing peer mentoring training to schools
- encouraging parent-to-parent support through our parent and carer workshops and private social channels
- involving service users, those with lived experience, and experts in the development of new campaigns and projects (e.g. The Confidence campaign, support for autistic children and families, partnership work with the Muslim Mind Collaborative)
Empowerment
Efforts are made to share power and give service users and staff a strong voice in decision-making, at both individual and organisational level, by:
- validating feelings and concerns of staff and service users
- listening to what a person wants and needs
- supporting people to make decisions and take action - this includes support through our Parent Advice Line and ZAP resilience building workshops for children and families
- helping people to understand that children experiencing bullying often feel powerless and need support to feel in control.
Cultural consideration
Kidscape has an Equality and Diversity Framework that seeks to address accessibility and inclusion across all areas of our work as a charity. We understand that children in marginalised communities are significantly more likely to be impacted by bullying and are constantly seeking to improve our learning and response, by:
- auditing and adapting our services to ensure they are inclusive (e.g. autism audit in 2022/2023 with Reachout ASC)
- an annual timetable of staff training and development (this will include trauma-informed training for all staff in January 2023)
- incorporating policies, protocols and processes that are inclusive and responsive to the needs of individuals served
Provision of therapeutic services for children experiencing trauma as a result of bullying
We are working with Service Six, the Crysalus Foundation and The University of York, to understand the relationship between bullying and experiences of trauma.
Over the next two years we will:
- conduct a literature review to ascertain the relationship between bullying and trauma
- pilot therapeutic support to children severely impacted by experiences of bullying
- listen to the experiences of young people impacted by bullying
- develop advice for parents and carers of children severely impacted by bullying
- develop and deliver training to raise awareness of the relationship between bullying and trauma.
This work would not be possible without the generous support we have already received from supporters including the Aviva Community Fund.
If you would like to donate funds towards this project, please contact fundraising@kidscape.org.uk.