Guest blog post by:
- Prof Kieran McCartan, UWE Bristol
- Rachel Campbell, NHSE South West Public Health (Blended Team)
- Helen Erswell, Public Health Wales
On Friday the 8th December at UWE Bristol, we held the 4th meeting, and 1st all day conference of the public health and criminal justice network. The network is a collaboration between national Health Service England, UK Health Security Agency, and UWE Bristol. The aim of the network is to bring professional’s and academics together to talk about issues that sit at the interface between health and justice, no where is this more essential than in the case of trauma and trauma informed practice. Trauma is not a new topic in public health and health research, policy, and practice; but it is in criminal justice, and given the nature and function of criminal justice systems and procedures there needs to be discussions about its usability and utility.
The conference was opened by Chris Jennings the reflexively fresh in post Executive Director HMPPS Southwest, South Central & Public Protection. Chris opened the day buy talking about the importance of collaboration and the need for partnership working in this area. In doing so hehuiighlighted that prisons and probation need to continue to develop they trauma informed practices and policies, not only in supporting clients/survive users but also in supporting staff. He indicated that the better-informed services where, the better trained they were, and the better supported they were to better they could work with their client population and public the public. Chris highlighted that prison and probation shared common challenges and opportunities, but their where distinct ones that needed to be resolved for each individually. Which tied nicely to the next talk by Dr Chris Pawson (Assoc Professor in Psychology, UWE Bristol) who talked about the challenges of implementing trauma informed practice in the criminal justice system, His talk reflected on previous work to incorporate trauma through PIES and suggested that a broader lens than just trauma might be a good starting point. Chris reflected on a recent Publication that he co-authored for the HMI Probation which set out 10 key questions/challenges for trauma informed practice in probation. The two presentations by the two Chris’s dovetailed well together and suggested that we must adapt trauma informed practice to the criminal justice system, not simply copy it from health.
In his opening presentation, Chris Jennings referenced the good work being done at HMP Channing Wood on working with and supporting staff in a trauma informed way, the next presentation was by Graham Duncan on that very topic. Graham talked about his experiences of trauma in working at HMP Channing’s Wood and how that propelled him, with the support of the governor, to develop and roll out several staffing interventions and support tools to help them deal with the trauma that they face in working in prisons. Which was followed by Hazel Renouf the Trauma informed network lead for Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB who talked about the challenges and opportunities of developing a trauma informed system that was coordinated, collaborative, and fit for purpose. Hazel updated the room on the development of a new trauma informed system document that had just been released and was currently being rolled out. The first four speakers really complemented each other well and highlighted the importance of having a connected, adaptive, fit fair purpose apparoach to working with trauma in the criminal justice system that supported clients/service users and staff.
The afternoon sessions where more service user/client focused with Dr Jane Meyrick (Assoc Prof in Psychology, UWE) talking about her survivor lead Co-production of paediatric SARC patient pathway work. Where her and colleagues worked with young people to better understand what they wanted from SARC referrals and how the professionals, mainly medical staff, could better engage with them. The research resulted in the development of a simple to use toolkit for staff that recently won a British Medical Association award. While Lucy Wainwright and Paula Harriot from EPIC Consultants talked about the service user journey and trauma histories of prisoners, which complemented Grham Duncans and Chris Pawson’s talks from earlier in the day, as it highlighted that not only is prison traumatising but that many of the people that are in prison have been traumatised in the earlier lives. They called for a more nuanced, supportive, and compassionate apparoach to working with people in prison, stating that the service had to go further.
The day finished with Professor Jane Powell (Professor in Public Health, UWE Bristol) talking about the importance of community engagement in public health, and how work around COVID 19 and a project on open spaces was re defining the landscape, Jane really enforced that community views were as central to public health development as individual ones. Which is important to hear from a criminal justice perspective, as community attitudes, values and beliefs are central to the integration of people who have offended post release. People who offend come from communities and go back into communities, so communities are central to reducing reoffending and risk management. Janes call for community engagement to be better developed was well received.
The conference was a great success and was well attended. It really reinforced the importance of collaboration, communication, and the need to build a shared vision of trauma informed practice. The more that Public Health and Criminal Justice are becoming intertwined, especially in Bristol; and the Southwest, the more these conversations need to happen so that we can built a system that is fully fit for purpose.