A Trauma-Informed Educator (TIE) quality mark from The Survivors Trust shows that your university, college or school understands the impact of trauma and supports those who disclose harassment, abuse or bullying. It recognises your university, college or school as an environment where both staff and students are supported, understood and given the opportunity to recover and progress.

Why is it important for educational settings to be trauma-informed?

Despite being illegal, incidents of sexual abuse, harassment and bullying are worryingly common in universities, colleges and schools across the UK. The resulting trauma can impact on all areas of the victim’s life - including their education. Affected students often report missing lessons, lectures, changing courses, and even dropping out of education entirely due to the abuse they have suffered.

Students and staff often don’t feel comfortable reporting or challenging incidents of sexual harassment. Unchallenged, this behaviour is often repeated, creating a toxic atmosphere and repeat victimisation. In other cases, where incidents are reported, the investigation and resulting actions are handled in such a way that this causes further trauma for those involved.

Our Trauma-Informed Educator award is designed to help equip schools, colleges and universities with the knowledge and robust policies needed to sensitively manage disclosure and reports of abuse. We will focus on three key areas: responding to complaints, creating a safe environments and understanding and working with trauma.

Over 51,000 testimonies of sexual abuse, harassment or assault across schools, colleges or universities were shared online this year in response to the Everyone’s Invited movement. The devastating scale of sexual violence in educational settings across the UK highlights why a framework to effectively respond to, and handle disclosures is so important within education.

 

How can your school, college or university achieve a Trauma-Informed Quality Mark?

We will help  you to introduce and embed a trauma-informed ethos through training, support, strategies and resources. We will work with you to understand your organisations current position and to develop a realistic plan to help you reach your required quality mark. You will receive ongoing support and feedback from us throughout the process and we will review  your  current  policies  and  procedures  to identify any specific training needs.

You will also receive support from our Regional champions. These are all long-established specialist sexual and  domestic violence organisations, with qualified and experienced staff who can support you to gain real value from trauma-informed working.

Staff Welfare

Our TIE award doesn't just allow your organisation to better meet the needs of students who are affected by sexual abuse, bullying or harassment, it also places a strong emphasis on taking into consideration the needs of staff too.

Working with pupils who are experiencing trauma can add stress to what is already a very demanding role. Staff may experience trauma first hand as a result of incidents within the school, or secondary trauma from hearing about others’ experiences. This is a common response, but needs to be recognised and managed properly to avoid long term effects on the individual, as well as colleagues, pupils and the school community as a whole.

Becoming a Trauma-Informed Educator will help ensure that staff members are safe and supported. This includes regular supervision and debriefs, and carefully monitoring and managing workloads. Staff need to know that any concerns they raise will be dealt with appropriately and that they will be offered the necessary support.

Level of Award & Costs

The TIE Quality Mark can be awarded at three levels, Bronze, Silver or Gold, depending on your organisation's requirements.  The cost of achieving your TIE Quality Mark is dependent on the complexity and size of the organisation and the level of achievement you wish to attain for your organisation.

 

TIE Quality Mark	What is involved?
	We will work with you to review and update your safeguarding protocols, including understanding your organisation’s current ability to understand and respond to disclosures or allegations from both a legal and a trauma-informed perspective.
	We will work with your selected front-line staff to enhance their knowledge and understanding of trauma-response behaviour and how to manage this appropriately. We will help you to ensure that you have robust processes in place to support staff and to mitigate the potential effects of any secondary trauma or burnout.
	We will work with your senior management to ensure that all activities incorporate appropriate trauma awareness and response. We will work with your organisation’s TIE champion and other front line response staff to ensure that they are able to operate at reflective practice level.

          

To enquire about our TIE award, or if you have any related enquiries, please email [email protected]