Tiny TIPs (training for professionals)

Tiny TIPs stands for trauma-informed practices in Islington Early Years settings. It is a team of CAMHS clinicians working with children’s centres and nurseries to increase awareness about the prevalence of trauma; what it is and how it affects children’s emotional wellbeing and behaviour. Currently 12 children’s centres are involved in the project.

At each setting the whole staff group receive training in complex developmental trauma and in the Attachment Regulation and Competency (ARC) framework, a way of working with children who have experienced trauma.

The children’s centre then receive two years of follow up support from CAMHS to embed the ideas from the training in their practices and make their setting more trauma-aware. This includes support to set up and run a Tiny Tips working group in the children’s centre where trauma-informed actions and developments are reviewed, help to set up reflective practice groups for staff and to organise workshops for parents for example on issues like helping their children regulate their emotions.

Tiny TIPs clinicians also offer training and follow up support to nurseries in the private and voluntary sector and to other professionals, like family support workers and family engagement workers.