Section 1: Content and structure plan

This short introductory course will help you to understand the concepts of trauma-informed and relationship-based practice. We hope it will help you to develop a new way of thinking or become a stronger advocate for the positive ways you already value relationships.

This course is suitable for anyone who is working with, supporting, or caring for children, young people, and their families or caregivers. It is especially important if you know that the child or young person you are supporting is likely to have experienced trauma, such as they have needed care or they have had to become a refugee.

Perhaps these are experiences that you have had yourself? Later in the course you will learn how all of us will react in different ways to traumas we experience.

The learning in this course is designed to be inclusive and, although it will not have a particular focus on individuals from different ethnic backgrounds, cultures, abilities, genders, or other specific experiences, it will primarily consider children and young people with lived experience of care.

The term ‘care-experienced’ refers to anyone who has been or is currently in care at any stage in their life, no matter how short, including adopted children who were previously looked-after and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people. This care may have been provided in one of many different formal or informal settings such as in residential care, foster care, kinship care, or a supervision order at home (Scottish Government, 2022).

We believe that the knowledge you gain from this course will be transferable and that you will be able to apply what you have learned to a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds, living in a variety of different circumstances that you may support or care for.

Easy Read

Easy Read versions of the course are also available in the content menu on the left-hand side of this page.

The box below provides a selection of course download options for use offline or on other devices.

Trauma is a significant public health issue in the UK, affecting millions of people in different ways, including psychological, physical, and emotional trauma.

We do not know how trauma will impact on people’s lives because everyone’s experience will be different. However, we do know that everyday social interactions can provide valuable support to those living with the effects of trauma.

That’s why people in many organisations are now looking at how to be ‘trauma-informed’ in how they think and how they relate to other people. They are rethinking, often in small ways, how we organise everyday systems in doctors’ surgeries, hospitals, early-years settings, and schools. Providing trauma-informed support in these ways, helps people recover, repair and heal so that they can live happy, healthy lives. Good trauma-informed practice aims to provide people with holistic support to thrive.

We know that everyone can make a positive difference to a child or young person who has experienced trauma, by fostering supportive relationships with them. The concept of ‘relationship-based practice’ or a ‘relationship-based approach’ captures this idea effectively. If you work with children and young people and build positive, trusting relationships, you are more likely to help them, and they will benefit more from your support.

The course is divided into four sections and is approximately 4 hours of learning.

Everyone is different, so you may find you take more or less time for each piece of learning.

You could follow the course as part of a half-day training session at work, perhaps with a group of colleagues? Or you might prefer to work through each section over a few weeks.

Each section starts with an introduction and an explanation of the learning outcomes. There are a variety of learning resources including videos, interactives and other activities to help you reflect on your thoughts and learning.

This course has been created by a team of people from different organisations and by people who have lived experience of care. This team has come together to create a resource that is useful for a wide range of people.

Dawn Robb, who is the Learning, Evidence and Impact Lead at Staf, led on the course development and coordinated the steering group work and partnership with the OU in Scotland. Sarah Jane Thomson, who is a care-experienced Social Worker for children in care and care-experienced young people, led on the course writing, activities and quiz for this course, with support and course content from Dawn Robb; Kari-Ann Johnston, who is a Corporate Parenting and Children’s Rights Officer at East Lothian Council; Kim Bradie, who is an Educational Lead/Psychotherapist; and Liz Middleton, who is a Chartered Educational Psychologist.

Staf

Staf aims to create a Scotland where the well-being and success of young people leaving care is in line with their peers in the general population. Staf works towards this by focusing on four key pillars:

• Influencing policy and practice.

• Amplifying the voices of care leavers and practitioners.

• Fostering networking and collaboration.

• Offering targeted learning and development opportunities.

Staf’s initiatives include focus groups, national projects, conferences, and bespoke training for the workforce, and all are designed to support and improve care leavers' lives across Scotland. Staf is delighted to have worked in partnership with The Open University in Scotland, the course writers, people with experience of care and people from other organisations, to develop this course. Staf hopes that many people will benefit from the learning the course has to offer.

Please note that the language used in this content may include terms that reflect the perspective of the author or organisation at the time of writing.

The language is intended to be respectful and inclusive. If any terms or phrases are outdated or inappropriate, it is not intentional, and we encourage feedback to improve future communications.

You can gain a digital badge that shows that you have completed this course. To be awarded the badge you need to complete all sections of the course content and pass the end-of-course quiz, where you answer a few questions to help strengthen your learning.

Taking part in a quiz helps you to review and reflect on what you have read and heard. The quiz has been designed to help you test your knowledge and your thinking. Some questions review facts and have clearly correct answers, but as you will appreciate, ideas and concepts in this course do not easily fit into ‘yes or no’ answers.

If you find that your answer is incorrect, or partially correct, consider the response in the way that you would experience a different opinion in a professional dialogue. We encourage you to think about the reasons why we may have come to a different conclusion than you. Please try the quiz question again. There is no limit to how many times you can try the quiz to get your badge.

This course will help you to understand the concepts of trauma-informed and relationship-based practice. It will help you to develop a new way of thinking or become a stronger advocate for the positive ways you already value relationships.

This course uses a case study, based on a true-life experience, to help provide context with learning.

Read about ‘Jemma’ (her name has been changed for confidentiality purposes) and her experience of care below. Jemma’s experiences highlight the effects of trauma and the impact of relationships to which Jemma has felt supported throughout her journey.

This is important as we will return to Jemma’s story throughout the course.

By the end of the course, we hope you will be in a much better position to understand the type of positive and compassionate relationships that we might all foster within our own interactions and as part of wider care systems.