Trauma informed system

Part of Changing Futures is to explore what trauma informed practice looks like for individuals using our system.

At events, conversations and meetings held so far, the importance of building a trauma-informed culture is a common thread.

Many organisations are already making sure staff are trained up to take a trauma-informed approach. But there is more to being trauma informed than those individual conversations.

Each organisation needs to think about how people respond to the buildings and facilities on offer, and whether there is more to be done to make sure partners are helping people share and overcome past traumas, not adding to them.

This especially applies when a person has a number of issues – how can organisations minimize the trauma for individuals who are dealing with not one, but many organisations.

This is a topic to consider as a whole system…

• How do we avoid people re-telling their stories numerous times?
• How do we help people share information they are willing to, with other agencies?
• How do we reduce the time needed to access all the relevant services?

Who is involved?

Please click this link to a diagram setting out who is involved

Progress

We have now held three workshops to look at these questions together. Here is a summary of each workshop and overall progress:

Workshop 1, July 2023

A first workshop was been held in July 2023 about trauma informed systems where a number of interested individuals thought the topic through together, sharing learning and experiences. There will be more opportunities to get involved.

You can find a whiteboard showing the outcomes of the workshop here. If you have thoughts to add, please use the “comment” button (top right of the screen)

Workshop 2, November 2023

Following everyone’s input at workshop 1, it seemed sensible to progress on four paths which would all lead us to making the whole system more trauma informed. The image we used was “four paths” leading towards the sun, because we might be able to progress down one route more quickly than another – but would all be heading for the same goal.

Again, the workshop materials are set out on this MIRO board.

Slides setting out how the work is building-on-input-in-workshop 1 and a note giving a little more detail on each of the “four paths” here.

Note reviewing progress to June 2024.

Workshop 3, July 2024

At workshop 3 we all focused on how to progress on all the input made around forming a trauma informed network. You can find a write-up of workshop 3 and fieldwork which sets our our plans for fieldwork, to be carried out in Autumn/Winter 2024.

You can find the MIRO board for Workshop 3 here.

Following workshop 3…

Building on workshop 3 we identified four areas to progress, to form a trauma informed network across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. As this note sets out, we are encouraging everyone to take part in this fieldwork, on the four themes shown.

 

Want to get involved?

Please get in touch if you want to be involved, by emailing the team care of Tom at tom.tallon@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or Sue at sue.beecroft@cambridge.gov.uk.