Islington trauma informed practices in schools (iTIPS)

Five primary schools and the pupil referral unit started work on iTIPS in 2017/18; a further six primary and two secondary schools started work on this in September 2018.

Staff in schools are provided with 13 hours of training that assists them in understanding the impact of complex trauma, or adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), on children; how this effects children in school and how school staff and systems can best support children effected by trauma. The ARC (attachment, regulation and competency) framework  (https://arcframework.org/what-is-arc/) is used to inform areas for development.   Each school is supported to develop this work by an ‘iTIPS champion’ – a CAMHS clinician or education psychologist – who works with the school half a day a fortnight.

The initial findings of the programme are:

  • Schools are better at holding cases of vulnerability
  • Schools are better at identifying vulnerability
  • Schools work more collaboratively with partners where there are concerns about individual pupils and make more effective use of referral pathway