The Manchester City Council Public Health team are leading the strategic and operational activity to enable Manchester to become an ACE-aware, trauma informed and trauma responsive city by 2027.
A city with a co-ordinated approach to reducing exposure to ACEs, where all practitioners work with residents to prevent or mitigate the consequences of trauma; helping children, families, and communities to build resilience; and improve outcomes for residents by working in a trauma responsive way.
Support organisations across the city to embed ACEs and trauma informed approaches into their everyday practice.
Make sure people with lived experience of adversity and trauma have a voice.
Create ACE-aware, trauma informed, trauma responsive and resilient communities.
Ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion are central to our approach.
Develop a range of approaches to measure the impact of the strategy and ACEs and trauma activity in the city and ensure that practice is evidence based.
This report is an update to a report considered at the meeting of the committee on 19th July 2023. The report details progress towards delivering the programme objectives, together with good practice examples from the Health Visiting Service and the Street Engagement Hub.
The webcast of the session can be viewed by selecting ‘Click here to watch this meeting’ in the box headed ‘Media’ Agenda for Health Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, 9th October, 2024, 2.00 pm (manchester.gov.uk)
Manchester City Council commissioned MASH – Manchester Action on Street Health to provide a training programme that reflects the experiences of women who sex work. The training was developed by Sue’s Space is MASH’s lived experience advisory panel.
Healing Together Impact Report
Manchester City Council commissioned Innovating Minds to deliver the Healing Together programme supporting children affected by domestic abuse. The report details the impact of programme delivery.
Manchester City Council commissioned Yellow Beacon https://yellowbeacon.org/ to deliver an 8-week programme for patients at the West Gorton Medical Centre.
Between 47,000 and 65,000 people in Manchester have experienced four or more ACEs. There is a proven relationship between ACEs and the development of poor physical, mental and behavioural health in later life. Taking a ‘trauma-informed approach’ means working with individuals, families and communities to develop relationships, build resilience, and provide the tools to lessen the impact of trauma. Our ambition is to make Manchester the first trauma-informed city in the UK by 2025
To determine whether screening for ACEs works in General Practice. Screening for ACEs is currently not performed in UK primary care. Can trauma-informed training for the practice team and an ACE screening tool improve patient management?
This report is an update to a report considered at the meeting of the committee on 7 September 2022 on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Trauma Informed Practice. The report provides an update on the work done to strengthen the ACEs programme objectives, through extensive engagement and consultation with stakeholders, to ensure that the programme is fit for purpose following the impact of COVID-19 and within the context of Making Manchester Fairer. The report also provides an update on the ACEs and Trauma programme of work across the city including a good practice example of culture change from Manchester Housing Services and a collaboration between Z-Arts and the Burnage Academy for Boys.
Manchester is a great city, but not all residents have the same opportunities to be healthy and well, or to reach their full potential. This results in health inequalities – the preventable gaps between people with the worse health and people with the best health. Making Manchester Fairer is the city’s new action plan to tackle that gap over the next five years, and with a view to the long-term. The plan is based on what Manchester’s residents and staff from a range of organisations and agencies have told us in recent years, as well as the evidence of what works from research and experts on health inequalities. It doesn’t stop here though. We will continue to work collaboratively with residents and organisations alike, so that the people who know Manchester best are at the heart of developing and delivering this plan.
Adversity and trauma are everyone's business. The evidence around childhood adversity is conclusive and shines a light on what we intrinsically know; that growing up in adversity can be damaging for children and can have life-long impacts. Manchester’s journey to being an ACE-aware and trauma-responsive city started in 2018 with a pilot project in Harpurhey. The success of the pilot strengthened Manchester's commitment to ensuring that everyone in the city knows what ACEs and trauma is, how they can prevent them and how they can support residents who have experienced them to get the support that they need.
This report is an update to a report considered at the meeting of the committee 21 July 2021 on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Trauma Informed Practice. The report covers the wide range of activities to deliver the stated ambition of Manchester being an ACE aware, trauma informed and trauma responsive City. Dr Lucie Donlan, a GP from West Gorton Medical Centre, and Juanita Margerison, the Director of the Resonance Centre will attend the committee to answer questions on the case studies included in the report.
ACE aware and trauma informed city Manchester 2019–25 Write a description for this list item and include information that will interest site visitors. For example, you may want to describe a team member's experience, what makes a product special or a unique service that you offer.
View List Item 1This document has been designed to outline the research and evaluation of the Pilot Adverse Childhood Experiences Project in Harpurhey. By doing so we will aim to illustrate the extent to which the investment and activities have logically led to improved outcomes for residents.
This 7 minute briefing was developed through the Multiagency Safeguarding Partnership to raise awareness of the Trauma Informed initiative in Manchester.
Homelessness Partnership Case Study
This Homelessness Partnership case study illustrates how the Rough Sleeper Support Service and partners at the Street Engagement Hub supported an individual. Kindly supplied by Phil Doherty from the Entrenched Rough Sleeper Social Work Team at Manchester City Council.
As part of the Better Outcomes Better Lives transformation programme, we have worked with colleagues in Adult Social Care to produce a one-page aide memoire for use by practitioners.
Rough Sleeping Videos - Ellie Atkins the Manager & Safeguarding Lead for the Rough Sleepers Social Work Team at MCC has produced 3 insightful videos. You can
view these one the TRGM Resource Page here.
Helath Visiting Case Study
This case study from Health Visiting shows the impact a trauma informed approach can have on an individual. Kindly supplied by Helen Whelan from the Chorlton Health Visiting team.
Families of the World at The Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery’s Families of the World project creates space for families with under 5’s seeking sanctuary in Manchester.
The project is rooted in: the spirit of welcome; a focus on refugee children and families; improved access and inclusion to cultural and civic spaces; a trauma-informed dimension to cultural activity; cross cultural learning and sharing, including food.
Working in partnership with Sure Start, Read Manchester/National Literacy Trust, Manchester’s ACEs & Trauma Informed Practice team and the City of Sanctuary, the project welcomes displaced families who are living in Home Office hotels and other accommodation across the city to a weekly Stay and Play session.
At this joyful playgroup families are connected to vital services and signposted to other cultural venues and the city's amazing offer for our youngest residents.
The project has been shortlisted for a ‘Museums Change Lives’ Museum Association Award.
Coop Academy New Islington Primary School
Coop Academy New Islington Primary School became the first school in Manchester to achieve the Trauma and Mental Health Informed award from Trauma Informed Schools UK and the Centre for Child Mental Health.
The school have invested in creating calm, decluttered classrooms with calm corners in each one; established a Forest School to provide all children with the opportunity to connect with nature; invested in chickens and a school dog to help children regulate; deliver a nurture timetable offering some children bespoke forest school and music therapy.
All staff are trained in trauma-informed practice, the power of empathy and how to have supportive and restorative conversations with children. Weekly circle time models, builds and maintains positive peer-on-peer interactions. The report and a short video are in the Manchester section.
TICTAC Progress Report
(Trauma-Informed Care for Trauma-Informed Communities)
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. TICTAC is focused on raising awareness in the voluntary sector 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!
The Art of Resilience
Progress Report
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 the Manchester Art Gallery, its resident Creative Practitioners and Population Health and funded by both organisations but with additional funding from the Violence Reduction Unit.
MADE Manchester’s Cultural Education Partnership
The Health and Wellbeing strand of MADE Manchester’s Cultural Education Partnership facilitated a youth-led programme with 4 secondary schools and 4 cultural organisations. Funded by MCC Public Health the outcome for each school and cultural partner as to explore what trauma is and how it might present; inform how others can be supported; have fun and create a piece of art (in any form: theatre, film, art, poetry).
Projects included Z-Arts and Burnage Academy for Boys working with years 7 to 9, all of whom had experienced displacement from their country of birth, to explore what it means to connect with others and have a sense of belonging in the school community. Afrocats and Our Lady’s worked with recently arrived children from Ukraine and the Middle East to produce an art book representing their happy and safe places. Odd Arts and Levenshulme produced an animation ‘Brian’ representing a young person struggling at school
For further information relating to Manchester please contact:
Gareth Nixon
Programme Lead - ACEs and Trauma Informed Practice
Department of Public Health
Email: gareth.nixon@manchester.gov.uk