Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 63
63
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 224
Extend trauma-informed policing approaches to all situations involving drug use.
Conclusion
We welcome the increasing adoption of trauma-informed approaches by UK police forces. As drug use—particularly problematic or chronic drug use, can often be a consequence of trauma—we conclude that trauma-informed policing should be extended to situations involving drug use. We believe that this aligns with the Government’s commitment to adopting a whole system response to drugs outlined in the 10-Year Drugs Strategy.
Government Response Summary
The government welcomes the committee's recognition of trauma-informed practice, clarifies its existing investment figures, and states that further pilots, research, and evaluation are needed to understand effectiveness before significant scaling up of these approaches.
Paragraph Reference:
224
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government welcomes the Committee’s recognition of the work we have supported through funding of Violence Reduction Units and trauma-informed practice (TIP). However, we would like to clarify some of the findings in the report. The Committee’s report implies that £17m was invested in TIP for frontline professionals, however this was only one of three types of interventions eligible for investment through the Early Intervention Fund and accounted for £2.6m. In 2021/22 the Home Office invested £17m into early intervention and prevention programmes, delivered via Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) to support young people at high risk of involvement in serious violence. Of this, £2.6m went to seven VRUs to deliver trauma informed training to frontline workforces who support children, and young people at risk of involvement in serious violence. These projects trained over 14,000 frontline professionals from different sectors. Many VRUs continue to deliver TIP programmes, both directly to police as well as other frontline professionals. The Home Office also commissioned the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF – now ‘Foundations’) in 21/22 to carry out research into the TIP models VRUs implemented as there is currently limited research and evaluation of TIP.22 To help bridge this gap, the Home Office is also co-funding the Youth Endowment Fund’s (YEF) current TIP grant round. The aim of this grant is to find, fund and evaluate trauma informed practice programmes or approaches in England and Wales delivered in youth justice, education, and children’s social care services.23 While we recognise TIP is seen as a promising, innovative and increasingly popular approach, there is also limited robust evidence of its impact and a broad diversity of approaches in relation to its implementation. Therefore further pilots, research and evaluation should be carried out in order to better understand effectiveness and implementation before it is scaled up significantly.