Scotland was the first country in the world to develop a knowledge and skills framework for psychological trauma for the workforce, developed by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) in 2017.

Subsequently, the National Trauma Training Programme (NTTP) was established in 2018 with an initial investment of £1.35m over three years and a goal to deliver trauma training, based on the Knowledge and Skills Framework, to 5,000 frontline workers over three years – this target was quickly met.

Since then, the Programme has steadily grown and evolved in response to feedback. It now includes a wide range of learning resources and guidance, alongside a network of implementation co-ordinators, Leaders, Trauma Champions and Trauma Lead Officers who are driving forward progress locally and nationally.

In 2023, the NTTP was rebranded to the National Trauma Transformation Programme to reflect the need for a whole system approach towards trauma-informed culture, attitudes, policies and practice across the workforce, which requires long-term, transformational change.

Click here to find out more about our story so far.

The NTTP is governed by a National Steering Group which is co-chaired by the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport, and the COSLA President. The National Steering Group has senior leaders representation from across all sectors of the workforce including health, education, justice, housing, adult and child protection, social work and social security.

The National Steering Group is supported by a Reference and Implementation Group who provide advice on the design and delivery of the Programme alongside an advisory group of people with lived experience of trauma.

The NTTP is delivered in partnership with the following organisations:

The Scottish Government has committed to working with partners to facilitate a trauma-informed and responsive workforce and services across Scotland to support anyone affected by psychological trauma. They currently fund the NTTP.

COSLA is a councillor-led, cross-party organisation who work on councils’ behalf to focus on the challenges and opportunities they face, and to engage with governments and others on policy, funding and legislation. It is the Scottish Government and COSLA’s joint ambition for a trauma-informed and responsive workforce and services across Scotland

NHS Education for Scotland is the education, training and workforce development board for people working in and with NHS Scotland. Since 2018, NES has led the NTTP in the development of the Knowledge and Skills Framework and a suite of training and implementation resources.

The Improvement Service (IS) is the national improvement organisation for local government in Scotland. The IS coordinates the network of local Trauma Champions and Lead Officers.
The IS provides support to local authorities and their partners to raise awareness of the benefits of a trauma-informed approach and to strengthen the capacity and capability of councils and partners to implement trauma-informed practice and policy.

The Resilience Learning Partnership is an expert by experience led social enterprise who supports the NTTP with the development of the mechanisms that help facilitate people with lived experience of trauma being meaningfully involved in the design and delivery (where possible) of services.

What is meant by psychological trauma?

The term trauma can refer to a wide range of traumatic, abusive or neglectful events or series of events (including Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and trauma in adulthood) that are experienced as being emotionally or physically harmful or life threatening.  Whether an event(s) is traumatic depends not only on our individual experience of the event, but also how it negatively impacts on our emotional, social, spiritual and physical wellbeing.  We are all affected by traumatic events in different ways.

In summary, psychological trauma can be understood in terms of the 3 E‘s:

• the Event
• how it is Experienced
• and its Effects

What do we mean by “Trauma Informed” Practice?

Being ‘Trauma Informed’ means being able to recognise when someone may be affected by trauma, collaboratively adjusting how we work to take this into account and responding in a way that supports recovery, does no harm and recognises and supports people’s resilience.

Being ‘Trauma Informed’ is underpinned by the 5 R’s:

1. Realising how common the experience of trauma and adversity is
2. Recognising the different ways that trauma can affect people
3. Responding by taking account of the ways that people can be affected by trauma to support recovery
4. Opportunities to Resist re-traumatisation and offer a greater sense of choice and control, empowerment, collaboration and safety with everyone that you have contact with
5. Recognising the central importance of Relationships.