General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

Attachment Theory, what it is, how to identify attachment styles and what to do about it, is now recognised as important for all those who support children’s development. All children benefit from developing secure attachments with their parents/caregivers, however, children in the care have often developed insecure attachments due to the abuse and adversity they have experienced, resulting in complex survival attachment behaviours and negative internal working models. These children need caregivers to provide secure base parenting, whereby the child’s fundamental thinking, feeling and being is sensitively challenged and new learning can take place to support relational change and development.

A child’s development is affected by various factors including genetics and events during prenatal life, the environments they are raised in, the relationships they build and the experiences they have. Promoting child development through professionals and parental training - among other factors - promotes optimal outcomes of child development. Adults play a large role in a child's activities, socialisation and development so training in this area is vital to support those who take a lead in the caregiving role or whose role involves supporting children and their families. This underpinning knowledge is essential to safeguarding children and the promotion of their wellbeing.

Effective communication and therapeutic parenting are vitally important concepts when supporting, caring for and parenting children in general but even more so when they have endured traumatic abusive experiences. Children who have experienced complex trauma have often been responded to in unhelpful hostile ways and may now only know how to communicate their needs through maladaptive behaviours. Therefore effective communication is fundamental to understanding the emotion and intentions behind the behaviour and therapeutic parenting helps children to learn new ways of communicating their needs, of being within relationships and to make sense of the past and prepare for their future.

Traumatic experiences are common in childhood and adolescence and can have significant psychological effects on emotional well-being and overall development. Outcomes can be affected positively or negatively depending on responses and interventions. The sheer volume of research on trauma, development, and outcomes for children can be daunting. Fortunately, understanding and applying key concepts to child welfare practice doesn’t have to be complicated. This training has been developed to help caregivers/professionals understand the impact of trauma on childhood development, to recognise the signs and presentation of complex trauma in young people and to provide supportive advice and guidance for intervention strategies.

The Secure Base model developed by Schofield and Beek provides a positive framework for therapeutic caregiving which helps children and young people to move towards greater security and builds resilience. The model focuses on the interactions that occur between caregivers and children on a daily basis within the caregiving environment. It also considers how those relationships can enable the child to develop competence in the outside world of school, peer groups and community. The model is founded on key theories and research in child development, attachment, relationships and resilience and supports caregivers to provide caregiving that develops secure trusting relationships.