Listening when it is hard

Who It's For

Leaders, managers and board members in local government, health, housing and voluntary organisations

Overview

Harm is often known about before it is acted on. This course comes from Seen, safe and heard and starts with speaking up and whistleblowing, drawing on the Mid Staffordshire inquiry and Amy Edmondson's work on psychological safety, then reads Winterbourne View, Operation Jasmine and the national review into the deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson. It turns to trauma through Herman, the Welsh Adverse Childhood Experiences study and Aberfan, then trauma-informed principles and the Trauma-Informed Wales framework. Vicarious trauma and moral injury follow, with supervision and Schwartz Rounds, closing with trauma-informed engagement and fair payment for lived experience.

Aims

Its central aim is to develop leaders who build cultures where concerns travel early, lead services and systems with an understanding of trauma, look after the staff who carry the cost of caring, and involve people with lived experience on fair and respectful terms.

In summary, you will be able to:

1. 1Outline the six parts of an effective speaking up system, and use Edmondson's three moves to strengthen psychological safety in your team.
2. 2Apply the Trauma-Informed Wales framework to assess your organisation across policy, environment, HR, governance, data and commissioning.
3. 3Plan support for staff after a traumatic event, and a recognition policy that pays and values lived experience fairly.

What you'll develop

Across this Explore, you will develop the ability to:

1. 1Explain, using Mid Staffordshire, why warnings that already exist in an organisation can fail to reach the people who could act on them.
2. 2Describe what was known before abuse was exposed at Winterbourne View, and why the available warning signs did not lead to action.
3. 3Explain SAMHSA's three Es of trauma and distinguish single incident, complex, developmental, collective and organisational forms of trauma.
4. 4Describe SAMHSA's four Rs and six principles and explain how each translates into what an organisation does rather than what it knows.
5. 5Distinguish vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, burnout and moral injury, and explain why each calls for a different response.
6. 6Explain the pressure, strain and burnout pathway and why recovery, not endurance, protects capacity over time.
7. 7Explain why power, control, belief and trust make trauma relevant to engagement, and describe the SAMHSA and Trauma-Informed Wales principles.
8. 8Explain the four reasons for paying people for lived experience work, including how unpaid involvement narrows who takes part.