Gemma Scott Public Health Specialist, Plymouth City Council
Working with the Trauma Informed Plymouth Network has been a genuinely formative part of my public health practice, and the contribution of the Network has been instrumental across several key priority workstreams over the years. In 2018, being part of early conversations led by the Network on children and adversity directly contributed to a system shift towards a more compassionate approach to supporting families. In 2022, as part of a series of guest speaker sessions, Lads Like Us provided a powerful example of lived experience and reinforced the critical importance of prevention, particularly in relation to the impact of unrecognised childhood trauma on men's mental health and involvement with the criminal justice system.
Most recently, in 2025, the Trauma Informed Plymouth Network played an important role in shaping Plymouth's Public Health Annual Report on women, ensuring it reflected lived reality and located women's health within the broader social, economic, cultural and historical context of Plymouth. Through its strong focus on community, the Network made a unique contribution by bringing a deep understanding of Plymouth as a place, its strengths, challenges and inequalities. The Network provided a safe space for discussion and shared experience and facilitated connections to other organisations in Plymouth, strengthening the report's relevance and impact. The Trauma Informed Plymouth Network is an incredible asset in our system, and I look forwards to continued work and engagement.
Cathryn KeebleHealth Improvement Manager, Livewell
I would recommend this (trauma informed practice) training to everyone. I have been working in mental health and public health for 15 years, this training added a deeper understanding of why some individuals struggle to gain the support they need, and I have never thought about the negative impact of shame on an individual. It provided my practice with a different lens, as well as highlighting how I am already working in a trauma informed way by providing the terminology for what I do. Any person working with another no matter what age, (child or adult) would benefit from this training, as would have a better understanding of the resistance to engage, which often leads to individuals being deemed as hard to reach, rather than our lack of understanding.
Andy Bickley Former Independent Chair, Plymouth Adult Safeguarding Partnership; Independent Quality Assurance Lead, Plymouth Safeguarding Children Partnership
The Trauma Informed approaches in Plymouth had a significant impact on the thinking and considerations applied to both children and adult safeguarding. The approaches opened perspectives that had historically not featured in nor influenced decision making. It’s now regularly part of the conversation and helps us to deliver a more personal and person-centred service recognising both the needs of those at the heart of safeguarding and the professionals involved too.
Dr Davina CullCriminal Justice, Partnerships and Commissioning Manager, Office for the Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall
The trauma network in Plymouth has become a valuable source of information, support and guidance across many areas of our shared partnership work over the last couple of years. We have worked with the network on a number of different projects, but most notably they helped to support our policy work around lived experience engagement. Through their input, the Commissioner, our colleagues and the public can be assured that our scheme has been shaped and influenced by people who really know our systems and what it takes to be trauma responsive. We are delighted that the network is going from strength to strength and look forward to continuing to work together going forward.
Amanda SherriffSouth West Commissioning, Partnerships and Health and Justice Manager at HM Prison Service, former Making Every Adult Matter Coalition – South West Partnership Manager
Plymouth Trauma Informed Network have offered their skills and expertise to several other MEAM approach areas who are setting up their own networks, through one to ones, attendance at meetings and sharing their learning and documentation freely to anyone who can make use of it. I would like to pay particular attention to the Leadership Workshop delivered to the South West Reducing Reoffending Board. Simon, Anna and Emma didn’t just deliver the workshop but spent a considerable amount of time preparing it to ensure it was relevant and had maximum impact. The session was thought provoking and insightful and gave us a grounding on who we, as individuals and system leaders, need to be to create a truly trauma informed system.
Emma CrowtherDivisional Director of Torbay Adult Social Care, former Strategic Commissioning Manager for Plymouth City Council
The Trauma Informed Network is proving to be ever more significant in influencing the commissioning and delivery of services in Plymouth. It is built into our new children and young people’s plan A Bright Future 2021–2026 as a key driver and is becoming embedded in our specifications and approaches to procurement and design of services. We now routinely challenge ourselves when thinking about commissioning services as to whether our approach is trauma informed – we still have some way to go but it is increasingly becoming a part of what we do every day.
Sheila Taylor (MBE)CEO, NWG Exploitation Response Unit
The NWG Network (formerly The National Working Group for Sexually Exploited Children and Young People) have welcomed the move towards understanding and responding to trauma across the country and Plymouth is a good example of this. We asked the team to present to our members the work they had done and how they had integrated the trauma work through their workforce. The virtual event was so popular, with approximately 100 booking, and the feedback was extremely positive. We felt their message was so important we asked them to return and present their work at our National Conference, which once again received very positive feedback. Keep going – you’re doing an amazing job!
George Hosking (OBE)CEO & Research Director, Wave Trust
We know of no more successful and effective grass roots approach than the Trauma-informed Plymouth Network, ably led by Simon Hardwick and Anna Moss. We have been using it as a model in work with the World Health Organisation to create Trauma-informed Communities in Europe, in meetings of our All Party Parliamentary Group to prevent child trauma, and as a recommended model for other local areas. The Plymouth Network has contributed to all these initiatives, through presentations, advice and its deep pool of experience and wisdom. I cannot commend them enough.
Jim ColwellDeputy Chief Constable, Devon & Cornwall Police
As Deputy Chief Constable, I recently chaired a Business Board meeting in which we considered adopting a Trauma Informed pledge for the organisation. The pledge concept was developed within the Trauma Informed Plymouth Network and support for it was unanimous. This is not a conversation that I believe would have happened at the organisational level of the force without the ground-breaking work delivered in Plymouth over some time. That work has led my own organisation to view the way we deliver services into communities through a different lens, and is now serving to drive cultural change across an organisation of 5,500 people.
Sarah Daniels-Day
…Extremely useful and really well thought through. I would also like to say the additional pre-learning has been amazing – I am so impressed with the quality of the resources and the video/vimeos etc – which were really thought provoking and at times quite moving. They really helped put TI into more context and there was a fantastic mix of sources. I am really looking forward to this afternoon’s training and feel I am much better equipped for the session.
Trauma Informed Practice course attendee
It was very emotive. And it showed how simple this approach is. It’s not complicated. It’s kindness, compassion and thinking outside the box. It’s accessible to everyone!! I loved the videos. I cried at the Ian Wright one. So simple but shows what a big difference understanding and compassion can have in someone’s entire outlook on life. Honestly 2 hours flew by. I loved it.
Join our movement for change
Our ambition is for Plymouth to be a trauma-informed city. Our independent network is open to anyone connected with Plymouth with a desire to learn about and promote trauma informed ways of being. You too can join our Network and help Plymouth become a safer and kinder place, where the impact of trauma and adversity is both recognised and responded to with sensitivity and compassion.
