Last week Gemma Robinson and Jo Sessions, from the rehabilitation and specialist services directorate at Sheffield Health and Social Care, hosted an inspiring event looking into trauma-informed care and in particular how we can use the ROOTs framework within trust.

ROOTs is a coproduced, reflective framework for supporting services to develop a whole system approach to trauma-informed working, tailored to the specific needs and priorities of each individual service.

We were joined at the event on 26 May at the Crowne Plaza Royal Victoria Sheffield by Dr Angela Kennedy, Consultant Clinical Psychologist. Angela is a national and European leader in trauma-informed approaches, researcher, lead and instigator of the Trauma-Informed Community of Action. Angela was also the lead developer in the ROOTs framework.

There were more than 100 attendees at the event comprising of staff, service users and those with an interest in trauma-informed care.

We used the session to learn more about trauma-informed care and see the excellent work that has been done within the rehab and specialist directorate, who have already piloted ROOTs. Attendees could also hear about the experiences of using ROOTs from staff and the service users involved. We then developed actions for the teams in line with the standards.

It was an inspiring event and there was a buzz of excitement!

The ROOTs framework is used to evaluate how services meet the seven standards for trauma-informed care:

• Safety
• Language
• Empowerment
• Therapeutic interventions
• Compassionate leadership
• Whole system working
• Social/relationships

There is one tool for staff and one for service users to complete, and then together actions are developed that are coproduced.

If you are interested in trauma-informed care, would like to learn more about ROOTs or are interested in getting involved in this work, please contact Jemma.Babiker@shsc.nhs.uk or PMO@shsc.nhs.uk