Evaluating the impact of attachment and trauma training for children’s social care teams

Abstract

Embedding attachment- and trauma-informed knowledge and skills throughout the services that support children and families who have experienced developmental trauma is vital to meeting the needs of this population. The current pilot study provides provisional data regarding the impact of training delivered by the Gwent Attachment Service to increase awareness and use of attachment- and trauma-informed working across social care teams within Gwent. The training package comprised two-days’ training plus six skill development sessions (SDS) delivered to 274 staff within 21 social care teams within Gwent. Staff self-rated their knowledge of, confidence in, and worries about working in an attachment- and trauma-informed way at three time points; pre-training, post-training and post-skill sessions. Statistical analyses revealed significant increases in staff knowledge and confidence pre-post training, plus a significant decrease in worries pre-post training. Whilst a significant decrease in knowledge and confidence, and significant increase in worries was seen between post-training to post-SDS, the final post-SDS ratings remained significantly improved compared to pre-training. Whilst preliminary given the current study limitations, such findings suggest that the current training and SDS programme successfully improved and maintained knowledge, confidence and level of worry regarding attachment- and trauma-informed working. They also demonstrate the feasibility of National Health Service-based teams delivering such training to improve the service offered to children and families affected by developmental trauma, in keeping with the values of prudent healthcare and taking a whole-systems approach to addressing the needs of this population.