The guidance from the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities includes information on how trauma-informed practice can help practitioners recognise the signs, symptoms and impact of trauma and prevent re-traumatisation.
It also outlines the six key principles of the practice – safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment and cultural consideration.
The Office for Health Improvement & Disparities says an aim of the guidance is to address the lack of consensus within the health and social care sector on how trauma-informed practice is defined, what its key principles are and how it can be built into services and systems.
The publication, which also links to other professional resources and tools, follows a major inquiry into child sex abuse that recommended failure of anyone who works with children to report child sex abuse be made an offence.
Dr Abigail Miranda, head of early years and prevention at the Anna Freud Centre, ‘The term "trauma informed" is a term that has different meanings to different people. It is important to develop a consensus on the meaning so that practice is informed by evidence, and importantly, includes those with lived experience of trauma from multiple cultural perspectives.’
- The guidance is available