About
The Population Health team at Manchester City Council are leading the strategic and operational activity across the city to enable Manchester to become an ACE-aware, trauma-informed and trauma-responsive city.
A city with a coordinated approach to reducing exposure to ACEs, where all practitioners work with residents to prevent or mitigate the consequences of trauma; helping children, families, and communities to build resilience; and improving outcomes by working in a trauma-responsive way.
The chair of the Health Scrutiny Committee is a huge advocate and one of our trainers, whilst we have an elected member as a trauma-informed champion. The work is one of the key priorities in the Manchester Safeguarding Partnership strategy, and it is a theme in the Population Health Plan and Covid Recovery Plan.
The work is core funded through Population Health. There is a full-time Programme Lead, a full-time Project Manager and a budget available.
Would like to see ACEs and trauma-informed and trauma-responsive approaches in everyone’s business including the private sector.
Our neighbourhood teams provide an opportunity to reach across networks
Would be good to influence others such as the wider legal system e.g., magistrates and the private sector.
Work taking place in Manchester includes:
- Art of Resilience programme with Manchester Art Gallery. Working with Street Games and providing training for community sports providers.
- Actively working with around 20 schools. 15 staff completed/undertaken the TI UK Schools Diploma. Training offered bespoke and through Healthy Schools. Seeing policy change and impact on practice.
- Testing approaches with West Gorton Medical Practice, including trauma-informed yoga. Training through the primary care standards, being repeated through complex safeguarding.
- We have a registered housing provider network where we route the training and share best practices.
- Work with Youth Justice. A project taking place with young people about recovering from Covid and what they want in place. Stephen Brock (our Social Work Consultant) leads this and links the ACEs research and trauma-informed practice knowledge through Signs of Safety and Safe and Together training, and, also provides coaching and is launching a Trauma Informed Practice for Children's Services practitioners.
- Set up trauma responsive Hubs in 4 neighbourhoods with VCS leading or a key partner. Commissioned Thrive Manchester to lead on Wythenshawe work and building resilient communities. 84 Youth and Odd Arts have provided a video exploring community trauma. Planning to run pilots with other VCS partners – Community Grocer, De Paul.
- We are measuring our success through case studies and telling the stories; together with looking at what data we can capture (new and existing) that could feed into an outcome's framework. Newly in post research officer will lead this.
Our Journey
List of services
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ACE aware and trauma informed city Manchester 2019–25 Write a description for this list item and include information that will interest site visitors. For example, you may want to describe a team member's experience, what makes a product special or a unique service that you offer.
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Does having a trauma- informed workforce at place level improve outcomes for local residents?List Item 2
This document has been designed to outline the research and evaluation of the Pilot Adverse Childhood Experiences Project in Harpurhey. By doing so we will aim to illustrate the extent to which the investment and activities have logically led to improved outcomes for residents.
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ACEs 7 Minute BriefingList Item 3
This 7 minute briefing was developed through the Multiagency Safeguarding Partnership to raise awareness of the Trauma Informed initiative in Manchester.
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Our Manchester in Action: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)List Item 4
Between 47,000 and 65,000 people in Manchester have experienced four or more ACEs. There is a proven relationship between ACEs and the development of poor physical, mental and behavioural health in later life. Taking a ‘trauma-informed approach’ means working with individuals, families and communities to develop relationships, build resilience, and provide the tools to lessen the impact of trauma. Our ambition is to make Manchester the first trauma-informed city in the UK by 2025
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Manchester City Council Health Scrutiny Committee Report: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Trauma Informed Practice (September 2022)
This report is an update to a report considered at the meeting of the committee 21 July 2021 on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Trauma Informed Practice. The report covers the wide range of activities to deliver the stated ambition of Manchester being an ACE aware, trauma informed and trauma responsive City. Dr Lucie Donlan, a GP from West Gorton Medical Centre, and Juanita Margerison, the Director of the Resonance Centre will attend the committee to answer questions on the case studies included in the report.
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Making Manchester Fairer: Summary Report
Manchester is a great city, but not all residents have the same opportunities to be healthy and well, or to reach their full potential. This results in health inequalities – the preventable gaps between people with the worse health and people with the best health. Making Manchester Fairer is the city’s new action plan to tackle that gap over the next five years, and with a view to the long-term. The plan is based on what Manchester’s residents and staff from a range of organisations and agencies have told us in recent years, as well as the evidence of what works from research and experts on health inequalities. It doesn’t stop here though. We will continue to work collaboratively with residents and organisations alike, so that the people who know Manchester best are at the heart of developing and delivering this plan.
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Screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in General Medical Practice)
To determine whether screening for ACEs works in General Practice. Screening for ACEs is currently not performed in UK primary care. Can trauma-informed training for the practice team and an ACE screening tool improve patient management?
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Manchester ACEs and Trauma Informed Practice Update for The Health Scrutiny Committee, July 2023.
This report is an update to a report considered at the meeting of the committee on 7 September 2022 on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Trauma Informed Practice. The report provides an update on the work done to strengthen the ACEs programme objectives, through extensive engagement and consultation with stakeholders, to ensure that the programme is fit for purpose following the impact of COVID-19 and within the context of Making Manchester Fairer. The report also provides an update on the ACEs and Trauma programme of work across the city including a good practice example of culture change from Manchester Housing Services and a collaboration between Z-Arts and the Burnage Academy for Boys.
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Manchester’s Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma Responsive Programme: July 2023
Adversity and trauma are everyone's business. The evidence around childhood adversity is conclusive and shines a light on what we intrinsically know; that growing up in adversity can be damaging for children and can have life-long impacts. Manchester’s journey to being an ACE-aware and trauma-responsive city started in 2018 with a pilot project in Harpurhey. The success of the pilot strengthened Manchester's commitment to ensuring that everyone in the city knows what ACEs and trauma is, how they can prevent them and how they can support residents who have experienced them to get the support that they need.
Case Studies
Coop Academy New Islington Primary School
Coop Academy New Islington Primary School became the first school in Manchester to achieve the Trauma and Mental Health Informed award from Trauma Informed Schools UK and the Centre for Child Mental Health.
The school have invested in creating calm, decluttered classrooms with calm corners in each one; established a Forest School to provide all children with the opportunity to connect with nature; invested in chickens and a school dog to help children regulate; deliver a nurture timetable offering some children bespoke forest school and music therapy.
All staff are trained in trauma-informed practice, the power of empathy and how to have supportive and restorative conversations with children. Weekly circle time models, builds and maintains positive peer-on-peer interactions. The report and a short video are in the Manchester section.
TICTAC
(Trauma-Informed Care for Trauma-Informed Communities) Progress Report
4CT a multi-purpose community organisation based in Beswick are delivering a project on behalf of a partnership of the local care health organisations in Ancoats, Bradford and Clayton; Cheetham and Crumpsall; Miles Platting, Newton Heath and Moston and MCC Public Health.
The project called TICTAC (Trauma Informed Care for Trauma-Informed Communities) aims to raise awareness of ACEs and how they impact the lives and health of children and adults and Trauma Informed Practice, that is, how we can all help and support people to achieve better outcomes. TICTAC is focused on raising awareness in the voluntary sector and the wider community.
The project is engaging with residents to provide key messages about attachment and protective factors such as play, exercise and sleep hygiene. One of the key engagement tools is a 6m x 4m x 4m tall bouncy, inflatable brain!
The Art of Resilience
Progress Report
The Art of Resilience project has been running for almost two years with three successful cohorts of primary-age children enjoying the opportunity to build resilience through creative practice.
The project has been delivered in collaboration with the Manchester Art Gallery, its resident Creative Practitioners and Population Health and funded by both organisations but with additional funding from the Violence Reduction Unit.
MADE Manchester’s Cultural Education Partnership
The Health and Wellbeing strand of MADE Manchester’s Cultural Education Partnership facilitated a youth-led programme with 4 secondary schools and 4 cultural organisations. Funded by MCC Public Health the outcome for each school and cultural partner as to explore what trauma is and how it might present; inform how others can be supported; have fun and create a piece of art (in any form: theatre, film, art, poetry).
Projects included Z-Arts and Burnage Academy for Boys working with years 7 to 9, all of whom had experienced displacement from their country of birth, to explore what it means to connect with others and have a sense of belonging in the school community. Afrocats and Our Lady’s worked with recently arrived children from Ukraine and the Middle East to produce an art book representing their happy and safe places. Odd Arts and Levenshulme produced an animation ‘Brian’ representing a young person struggling at school
For further information relating to Manchester please contact:
Gareth Nixon
Programme Lead - ACEs and Trauma Informed Practice
Department of Public Health
Email: gareth.nixon@manchester.gov.uk
