The West Yorkshire Informed Charter is a document which aims to ‘set the scene’ across West Yorkshire, to support our system and organisations to embed a trauma informed and responsive approach. With acknowledgement and thanks to the Leeds Visible Project; and many other stakeholders in Leeds, where this Charter originated.
We will send organisations a copy of the charter once they have completed a readiness checklist. You can also download a Word version of the checklist.
Our ambition
We have an ambition across West Yorkshire to be Trauma Informed and Responsive by 2030. Part of this ambition means recognising the impact that trauma and adversity can have on babies, children, young people, and adults. All of us, from all ages and backgrounds, can be physically and emotionally harmed, or traumatised, by things like:
- Serious violence, violence, and assault
- Sexual violence and Domestic abuse
- Childhood Sexual Abuse
- Physical and emotional abuse and neglect
- Bullying
- Racism and discrimination
- War and combat experiences
- Inequalities
- Poverty
- Climate change
The experiences above are examples of trauma and adversity and should not be considered the only types of trauma and adversity. There is not one experience more significant than another, they are all serious forms of trauma and adversity and often have life long and life limiting impacts on those who experience them.
Adversity and trauma are more prevalent amongst those in our society who already suffer from poorer health, poverty, inequalities, and other disadvantages, however, anyone can potentially experience a traumatic event and be affected by it, though this can be in very different ways.
Trauma and adversity don’t have to be experienced as one significant event it can be cumulative, and some people may not even recognise that they have been ‘traumatised’.
However, some, babies, children, and adults experience traumatic events over long periods of time – this can lead to especially serious and life-long issues and can affect both health and behaviour. As a partnership, we recognise some issues linked to trauma are:
- Having overwhelming feelings – feeling sad, upset, scared, angry or out-of-control.
- Feeling suicidal and/or wanting to self-harm
- Finding it hard or impossible to trust other people.
- Feeling worthless
- Finding that day-to-day experiences ‘trigger’ really distressing flashbacks and memories
- Dissociation – ‘zoning out’ or disconnecting from painful experiences.
- Problems with physical health
We believe that all of these are normal responses to horrible things that can happen to us.
Our intnetion is that families and individuals; physical and mental health services; schools, colleges, and universities; workplaces; criminal justice systems; sports and religious institutions; all have a good understanding of what trauma is and of the many ways it can affect people.
In West Yorkshire, our vision is:
Working together with people with lived experience and colleagues across all sectors and organisations to ensure West Yorkshire is a trauma informed and responsive system by 2030 and develop a whole system approach to tackling multiple disadvantage.
Complex adversity requires a response which extends across sectors, for example, health, social care, policing, education etc. and the life-course. This can only be achieved if the whole system works together to embed the principles of trauma informed in our ways of working and our culture. It is not a fad; it is a way of being and seeing the world through the experiences and eyes of others. It is asking people ‘what has happened to them’ rather than ‘what is wrong with them’.
We will achieve this by:
All organisation in West Yorkshire becoming trauma informed
- Adversity, Trauma and Resilience Foundation Training for all staff appropriate to job role (including managers and leaders)
- Embedding trauma informed reflective practice and restorative supervision across all organisations to support the health and wellbeing of the West Yorkshire workforce
- Prevention and early intervention, improved access to services and support and crucially investment to achieve the ambition
- Continuing to grow local adversity, trauma and resilience partnerships across West Yorkshire with communities
Our commitment to the people of West Yorkshire is, to always:
- Work to reduce the chances of trauma happening, whether by raising awareness or challenging inequalities
- Give children and adults with lived experience of trauma a say in how we describe and respond to trauma
- Offer compassion and be non-judgemental towards anyone who’s experienced trauma, no matter how they have been affected by it; and not ‘blame’ or ‘shame’ them
- Accept that believing people who’ve experienced trauma, particularly childhood trauma, is really important and can in itself be healing
- Work in partnership across all sectors and organisations to offer effective, specialist support to those who need it; while recognising that not all people who’ve experienced trauma will want or need services
- Not insist that people have to talk about what happened to them in order to get help
- Hold hope that people of all ages and from all backgrounds can heal and recover from trauma, recognising the strength in individuals, families, and communities
Our commitment to people who work in West Yorkshire is, to
- Prioritise the development and wellbeing need of our collective workforce
- Build on existing resources and capability across the system in order to embed a trauma informed and supported workforce across all sectors and organisations
- Provide senior leadership across the system, strategic oversight, embedded reflective practice and specialist input