Trauma, Attachment and Transitions: trauma-informed trainingEvery move costs a child something.
Training that helps your team plan each move between homes and schools with the child, not around them. You leave with a transition planning tool, tried on a real move.
- Length
- 6 hours face to face, or 2 hours online
- Group
- Up to 60 face to face, 200 online
- For
- Social care, fostering, residential and school staff
- Included
- Workbook, 12 months online, certificate
Moves between homes and schools are when things are most likely to wobble. Attendance drops and behaviour spikes. A move is often arranged around a bed coming free or the end of a term. There is little time to prepare the child. The adults miss the old losses it brings back. The details that help a child settle, from routines to the people who matter, get lost on the way.
Who it’s for
Social workers
Social workers, personal advisers and independent reviewing officers
Carers and residential staff
Foster carers, supervising social workers and residential staff
Schools and virtual schools
Designated teachers, pastoral staff and virtual school staff
Health and early help
Health and early help staff who stay through a move
- Up to 60 face to face, 200 online
- Best with social care and school staff together
- No prior training needed
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, people will be able to:
- 1
Describe what a move feels like from a child’s side, in the weeks before it, on the day and in the first week.
- 2
Recognise the signs that a move is bringing back earlier losses, before and after it happens.
- 3
Explain what developmental trauma is and isn’t, and how early experiences of threat affect a child’s stress response, learning and behaviour.
- 4
Explain, using Bowlby’s and Ainsworth’s attachment research and Pauline Boss’s idea of ambiguous loss, why some children test every new adult and why moves can reopen old losses.
- 5
Plan a move with the child using a transition planning tool, covering goodbyes, what goes with them, the school place and the first week, in line with the statutory guidance on education stability.
- 6
Write a short handover for the new carers and school about what helps the child settle.
Our learning framework in this course
Every Care Leaders Learning course follows Story, Theory, Action. Here is how it runs through Trauma, Attachment and Transitions.
Story
Every part opens with a moment from one child’s move.
Two composite stories: Leah, told on a Tuesday she is moving on Friday and then testing her new carer, and Sam, moving homes in Year 11, first unplanned and then planned with him.
Theory
Then the research that explains what the child is going through.
Developmental trauma and Bessel van der Kolk’s proposal, Bowlby and Ainsworth on attachment, Pauline Boss’s ambiguous loss, the 2010 care planning regulations, the education guidance, and Schofield and Beek’s Secure Base model.
Action
Then a tool your team uses on the next move it plans.
A plain-English explanation of developmental trauma, PACE responses to testing behaviour, prompts for spotting where a move will hurt most, and a transition planning tool tried on a real move.
The course in four parts
Each part opens with a moment from one child’s move and ends with a tool your team practises in the room. The stories are composites. They draw on real experiences of care but are not one person. Open a part to see what happens.
1Trauma
Story. Leah, 11, is told on a Tuesday that she is moving on Friday. She packs her own things into bin bags, says nothing at school and is excluded on Thursday for throwing a chair.
Theory. Developmental trauma: what happens to a developing brain and body when the world has not been safe, and how it shows up in stress, memory and behaviour. We explain where the term comes from, Bessel van der Kolk’s proposal of developmental trauma disorder (2005), and what it isn’t: it is not a recognised diagnosis in DSM-5 or ICD-11, and it is not a label for a child.
Action. Staff read Leah’s week back from her side and mark where the threat she felt shows up in what she did. Then, in pairs, they write a plain-English explanation of developmental trauma they could give a carer or a teacher in two minutes, and test it on each other.
By the end of this part people can explain developmental trauma in plain words to a carer or teacher, and say what it is and isn’t.
You leave with A shared, plain-English explanation of developmental trauma the whole team can use.
2Attachment
Story. Three weeks into her new home, Leah breaks her carer’s favourite mug, then watches to see what happens. She does it again a week later.
Theory. Bowlby’s attachment theory (1969) and Mary Ainsworth’s research on patterns of attachment (1978) explain how early relationships shape whether a child expects adults to stay, and why a child may test a new carer to find out. The testing is a question: are you going to send me away too?
Action. PACE. Staff map how a child they know tests new adults and what each test is checking, then practise PACE responses (playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy) to Leah’s mug and to their own child’s tests.
By the end of this part people can describe what a child’s testing behaviour might be checking, and respond to it with PACE instead of a sanction.
You leave with A way to read testing behaviour through attachment, and PACE responses that help the child trust you.
3Transitions
Story. Sam, 15, is moving homes in the spring of Year 11. Nobody has asked him about his school, his football team or his younger brother, who is staying where he is.
Theory. Pauline Boss’s ambiguous loss (1999) explains grief for people who are still alive but no longer there, which is what many moves in care feel like. We then cover what the rules expect: the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010 and the statutory guidance on promoting the education of looked-after and previously looked-after children, including a school place arranged alongside the new home and a nominated officer approving any move that would disrupt education in Years 10 and 11.
Action. Staff draw a timeline of one child’s moves and losses, anonymised, and mark where the next move will echo an earlier one. They then check a planned move against the statutory expectations on education.
By the end of this part people can spot where a move is likely to hurt most for a child, and name what the regulations and education guidance require before a move goes ahead.
You leave with Prompts for spotting where a move will hurt most, and what to put in place.
4Planning well
Story. Sam’s move happens again, this time planned with him. He chooses who he says goodbye to, his football kit goes in the car, and his new school knows his name before he arrives.
Theory. Gillian Schofield and Mary Beek’s Secure Base model, developed at the University of East Anglia, sets out what carers do that helps a child feel safe: being available, sensitive, accepting, encouraging co-operation and making the child part of the family. We use it to plan the first week.
Action. Staff use a transition planning tool on a move their team is supporting, planned with the child: who they need to say goodbye to, what goes with them, what the new home and school need to know and how the first week will go. They finish by writing the one-page handover.
By the end of this part people can complete a transition plan with a child and write a one-page handover for the new home and school.
You leave with A transition planning tool your team can use straight away, tried on a real move.
What you get with each course
Included for every delegate, however you run it.
A workbook to keep
Every delegate gets their own copy, with the stories, the tools and space to plan.
The online course for 12 months
An interactive course on The Care Leaders Online, for 12 months after the training.
The recording for 12 months
Live online sessions are recorded, so people can catch up or go back over a part.
A certificate of completion
For each delegate, to keep for their own development record.
Choose how you run it
Two ways to run the course.
Face to face
We come to you, in your building or a venue you choose, for a day that runs 10am to 4pm. It works best with social care and school staff in the same room, planning the same move.
- When One day, 10am to 4pm
- Group Up to 60 people
- You provide A screen or projector with an HDMI connection
- We provide The facilitator, a workbook for every delegate and 12 months of the online course
Live online
A 2-hour live session on Teams or Zoom covering the key story, theory and tool from each part. Social workers, carers and school staff across a large area can plan together without travelling.
- When One 2-hour session
- Group Up to 200 people
- You provide A device with a camera, microphone and internet connection for each delegate
- We provide The facilitator, the online links for delegates, a workbook for every delegate, 12 months of the online course and the recording
What changes
- Plan moves with the child, asking what would help them feel safe and what they want to take with them.
- Read behaviour before and after a move as a response to loss, not a reason to end the next home.
- Arrange the new school place at the same time as the new home, with the virtual school.
- Pass on the small details that help a child settle: routines, food, comforts and the people who matter.
- Plan endings with key adults, including proper goodbyes, instead of letting relationships just stop.
- Being asked about a move, not just told about it
- Saying goodbye properly to people who matter
- Familiar things and routines that move with them
- A new home and school that already know something about them
- Adults who expect the first weeks to be hard and stay patient
Questions commissioners ask
How is the session structured?
Four parts that follow one move from start to finish. Story: a moment from the child’s side, such as Leah being told on a Tuesday that she moves on Friday. Theory: the research that explains it, from developmental trauma and attachment to ambiguous loss and the Secure Base model, plus the statutory rules on moves and education. Action: a tool staff practise in the room, ending with a transition plan and handover for a real move. It runs for 6 hours face to face, usually 10am to 4pm, with breaks. Live online it is a 2-hour session covering the key story, theory and tool from each part.
Is it for schools or social care?
Both. A move hits a child at home and at school at the same time, so the course works with social workers, school staff and carers in the same session, planning from the same tool.
Does it cover school moves as well as moves between homes?
Yes. We look at moves between homes and between schools, endings with key adults and new starts. The planning tool works for any of them.
How does it fit with the statutory guidance?
It works to the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010 and the statutory guidance on promoting the education of looked-after and previously looked-after children. That means a new school place arranged with the virtual school head at the same time as the new home, and any move that would disrupt education in key stage 4 approved by a nominated officer after consulting the designated teacher and the IRO.
Can you shape it around our service?
Yes. We use your own transition paperwork where you have it, and examples from your fostering, residential or school settings.
Who delivers it?
Trainers with lived experience of care and professional experience of children’s services. The course was designed by Luke Rodgers BEM, who grew up in care and has spent his career leading change in children’s services, and it follows our Story, Theory, Action approach.
Often booked with
Talk to us about Trauma, Attachment and Transitions
Tell us who it is for and roughly how many people. We will shape it around your service and send you a quote.