AQW 21880/22-27

Ms Connie Egan
Alliance Party
North Down

Tabled Date: 04/02/2025
Answered On Date: 19/02/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail the support his Department coordinates across the Health and Social Care Trusts for those with adverse childhood experiences.

Answer:

The Department has been involved in awareness raising and research into the impact of childhood trauma for many years.

More specifically, the Department supports the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland (SBNI) in its role as lead for Trauma Informed Practice and Trauma Informed Care.

The SBNI works with Health and Social Care Trusts (HSCTs) to embed Trauma Informed Approach (TIA) to address Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

The SBNI has delivered Trauma Informed Organisational Toolkit sessions attended by HSCTs and the HSCTs are represented on the SBNI Trauma Informed Practice Committee. SBNI also provides free access to all HSC staff to regarding raising awareness of the impact of adversities and trauma via online training modules on HSC Learn, with 879 certificates at Level 1 and 512 certificates at Level 2 awarded in 2024.

In addition to this, the SBNI offer free access to further training for HSC staff via the Solihull Approach modules (Understanding Attachment, Brain development and Trauma).