Knowledge and Skills

All of the workforce need to know and be able to do different things to provide trauma-informed practice, depending on their role in relation to people affected by trauma. The more contact we have, and the more we are required to respond to the impact of trauma, the more we need to understand and be able to adapt what we do accordingly. 

Practice Types

The workforce are organised into four practice types, Trauma-Informed, Trauma-Skilled, Trauma-Enhanced and Trauma Specialist. These levels are cumulative, in that staff at one level should have completed trainings for all previous levels. For example, staff at Enhanced level will also previously have completed training at Informed and Skilled levels. Everyone in workforce needs to know and be able to do different things to improve outcomes, depending on the level of contact they have with people. 

Find out what practice type fits your role

In the course of your work do you have contact with people who may been affected by trauma, whether it is known about or not?*
*Please answer the question before moving to the next stage

Knowledge and Skills Framework

The Transforming Psychological Trauma: Knowledge and Skills Framework (2017) outlines what all of us in the course of our work need to know and be able to do, in order to respond to the impact of trauma and support recovery.

Integrating voices of lived experience and professionals, it pulls together the best available evidence on trauma and recovery. All NES resources are based on this competency framework, however it has been designed for any organisation to develop their own high quality, evidence-based trainings alongside the Scottish Transforming Psychological Trauma Training Plan  (see below).

Scottish Transforming Psychological Trauma Training Plan

The Trauma Training Plan should be read alongside the Knowledge and Skills Framework and provides essential guidance and planning tools to support:

  • Workers, managers and organisations to identify their own trauma training needs with reference to the Trauma Framework 
  • Service managers and commissioners to develop or commission training to address the needs of their organisations and workers 
  • Training providers to develop and deliver high quality trauma training 
  • An understanding of key principles to bear in mind in developing and commissioning trauma training

Summary of NTTP Learning Resources

Click on the image below for a summary of all our NTTP learning resources, developed by NHS Education for Scotland (NES).

Workforce Wellbeing 

Our workforce, paid or unpaid, are members of the general population too and not immune to the impacts of trauma, whether in their personal lives or through the course of their work. Ensuring that organisations take a proactive approach to protecting staff well-being, and staff themselves have capacity and resources to keep their own reserves topped up, is central to trauma-informed practice.

The impact of trauma on our window of tolerance - Jennie Young

Jennie Young, previously Principal Educator at NHS Education for Scotland and Nurse Psychotherapist talks about the ways that the experience of psychological trauma can affect our emotional “window of tolerance”, and what we can do to create environments that support a person to stay in their optimal “green zone”

Video length: 18.30 minutes