Delivering the Programme Objectives

Support organisations across the city to embed ACEs and trauma informed approaches into their everyday practice. 

• Understanding ACEs and Trauma Informed Practice Training underpins the programme of work. As of October 2024, over 7,000 staff have been trained.

• We are working with organisations across different sectors to embed trauma informed approaches. We have been working with colleagues in Adult Social Care to support the Directorate to adopt trauma informed approaches through the Better Outcomes, Better Lives (BOBL) transformational programme. Following staff training a one-page toolkit was produced to support delivery of trauma informed approaches, together with nominated Champions and implementing Communities of Practice.

• Staff working in education have been enabled to undertake the Trauma Informed Schools UK Diploma. The learning and subsequent good practice are being shared across the system.

Make sure people with lived experience of adversity and trauma have a voice.

• Public Health have led the establishment of the Manchester Trauma and Sexual Violence Network. Members include Manchester Women’s Aid, MCC Community Safety, We Are Survivors, GM Rape Crisis, Manchester Action on Street Health (MASH), Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) and Safety 4 Sisters. Members are working together to achieve a range of outcomes including:

• To improve accessibility of services to people who have experienced sexual violence across the city by working in a trauma responsive way and promoting this way of working to all partners working in the field;
  
• To build trusted relationships between organisations in Manchester, from voluntary to statutory, that work in the sexual violence field;
  
• To create a shared understanding across the city of that work that the members are carrying out;
  
• To avoid re-traumatisation of survivors of sexual violence.

• Through the Manchester Age Friendly Board, Public Health have supported the production of ‘Dark, Chaste and Beautiful – it’s easier to support a child than mend a broken adult’. The play is written, directed and performed by an all-female cast and forms the basis of a series of workshops that will be delivered as part of the Age Friendly Programme. It can also be performed in its own right. It is based on Wythenshawe women’s real-life stories of childhood adversity and how this impacted their mental health.

Create ACE-aware, trauma informed, trauma responsive and resilient communities.            

• Trauma-responsive community hubs have been established to support local communities in addressing the effects of trauma and adversity, while also promoting individual, family, and community resilience. Being a trauma-responsive hub entails an ongoing commitment to operating in an inclusive, kind, and person-centred way. The current hubs vary in their operations but share a common focus on promoting social connectedness, providing safe spaces and positive activities that support well-being. Hubs are set up in Ardwick, Blackley, Cheetham Hill, Clayton Longsight and Moston.

• The M8 Collective Hub at the Welcome Centre in Cheetham Hill provides support with advice and guidance on immigration, disability services and finances. It also provides a range of activities to promote good health and wellbeing including art classes, gardening projects, chair-based yoga and volunteering opportunities. Partners involved include the North Manchester Community Partnership, Mood Swings, Breakthrough, Manchester Local Care Organisation, Barnardos, Wai Yin Society and Be Well.

Ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion are central to our approach. 

• Public Health are working with Bollyfit and Dignifi to design and deliver a culturally appropriate trauma course. Content has been informed following consultation with the Pakistani Sounding Board and Bollyfit participants and covers the normalisation of trauma (including coercion and control); helping people to identify when someone may be experiencing trauma symptoms; shame sensitive practice; and offering tools that will support recovery and emotional regulation. Pilot sessions have been delivered by women in the community prior to a wider roll-out in 2025.

• The ACEs and trauma team provide consultancy support for the Oglesby funded Families of the World Project that 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; cross cultural learning and sharing, including food.

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.

• A range of case studies have been produced highlighting good practice and the impact of adopting trauma informed approaches in education, health visiting, primary care, community safety, the arts, and voluntary sector.

• The GM trauma responsive group are currently piloting an evaluation framework developed with Liverpool John Moore’s University (LJMU). To measure progress towards a system wide approach across GM a core list of indicators has been developed based on research carried out by LJMU to develop a logic model. The evaluation framework presents information on data sources and data collection tools to define and measure the trauma systems outcomes identified in the logic model. The Manchester Department of Public Health have agreed to pilot the framework with the University.