About City and Hackney ACES and Trauma-informed Practice

We are working to build a partnership-approach to childhood adversity, trauma and resilience in Hackney and the City of London. Our vision is a community in which children who are at risk of, or have experienced, trauma receive the right support at the right time, giving them the best possible opportunity for a healthy future.

A City and Hackney System Approach

We can only create lasting change if we do it together. The ChATR programme has been developed in partnership with more than 50 local service providers, clinical and practice experts representing a wide range of services, and we continue to engage with services to ensure real cultural change. 

Our integrated system-wide approach in City & Hackney is based on shared principles drawn from trauma-informed practice and innovation around tackling Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).  This approach has been endorsed by the leadership of the London Borough of Hackney, the City of London Corporation, City & Hackney Clinical Commissioning Group, and the City & Hackney Safeguarding Board.

Co-produced in partnership with our children and families – The lived experience of our residents is essential to our understanding of how to drive change.  We are developing an engagement plan informed by the recommendations of the Hackney Young Futures Commission, and are using the System Influencer project to engage with young people in our community. 

Developing a Trauma-informed Workforce

We want to raise awareness and expertise around childhood adversity, trauma and resilience within all levels of health and care services across City & Hackney – building on and learning from the good practice that already exists in the local system

  • Understanding of how to recognise and support children, families and practitioners in a psychologically and trauma-informed way and work towards greater consistency in our approaches;
  • Clarity on the pathways and services available for supporting children and families at an early stage and reducing the need for escalation to specialist or statutory services;
  • Collaboration – enabling practitioners from different contexts to establish working relationships and draw on multiple perspectives;
  • Sharing of best practice, principles, tools and resources to enable practitioners to provide holistic and integrated relational care;
  • Continuous dialogue to continually improve pathways, processes organisations and systems to enable transformation that is systematic and trauma-informed.

The ChATR Programme offers introductory and in-depth training and professional development on ACEs, Trauma and Resilience. See here for more information on our training offers. 

Trauma-informed interventions

We continue to look at ways of developing best practice and innovative approaches to prevent, intervene early and mitigate the impact of ACEs, and to build resilience in individuals, families and communities.

Trauma-informed Child Protection Conferences

Our first intervention focused on trauma-informed Child Protection Conferences – working closely with Adult Social Services at Hackney Council and professionals across the system, including a Psychiatrist, Headteacher and Health Visitors, to co-develop a new approach which we tested in the early part of 2021.

The approach aims to put the experience of children and families at the centre of the work. Read more about Trauma-informed Child Protection Conferences.

We are currently looking at further opportunities to pilot ACE and trauma-informed innovations within City & Hackney to support the delivery of shared strategic objectives.