Issues, Challenges and Opportunities for Trauma-Informed Practice.

As part of her work with the University of West England, Dr Sarah Senker and colleagues have been exploring the nature of trauma informed practice across the Justice System.

In October 2023, HM Inspectorate of Probation published an Academic Insight’s piece entitled “Issues, challenges and opportunities for trauma informed practice”. This was also delivered as two seminars for the Academy of Social Justice; due to high demand.

Arguably, the piece raised more questions than answers, but essentially outlined ten key considerations for both research and practice when exploring trauma informed practice in action.

This is especially important given the emerging interest in trauma approaches across justice and health. Yet the authors argued that the concept cannot simply be transported from one setting to another. 

The questions posed include the definitions and labels that are applied and by whom, the strength of the current evidence, whether we know how to identify good trauma-informed work and measure positive outcomes, whether the criminal justice system and settings are conducive to trauma-informed approaches, and whether the wider community is supportive of these efforts.