Our Way of Working

The Our Way of Working (NWOW) is a Cheshire West and Chester Council initiative that is funded by the Department of Education. The project is part of a wider Partners in Practice programme aimed at providing a framework for multiple agencies to work together in order to support our families. The main focus of the project is to ensure current research and understanding is utilised to support children and their families. Although the school started their journey to becoming a Trauma Informed educational setting prior to the NWOW initiative, it is comforting to know that other agencies around the borough are also on board with the new approach of understanding trauma. We understand that shared language is important and working together to support our families is important to us.

The framework provides consistency and a shared language when supporting a family ensuring that families are supported in the best possible way. The support our children and families receive is based on the continuum of need set out by the Children’s Trust. The Continuum of Need takes into account the child’s developmental needs, parenting capacity and both internal and external environmental factors which may inhibit the child’s development.

The core values of the initiative are as follows:

• A ‘One Children’s Services’ approach to meeting need across our partnership

• A strong preventative approach at all levels of need

• Preventing children and young people becoming vulnerable and needs escalating

• Ensuring lasting solutions within families to improve resilience, emotional health and wellbeing

• Improving overall outcomes for children and families (West Cheshire Childrens Trust, 2019)

ARC Model

The Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC) framework is a framework to support children through various interventions aimed at supporting children who have been negatively affected by traumatic stress and attachment related difficulties. The model not only supports the development of children on an individual level, but is also used as an organisational framework for developing a trauma informed environment in school (ARC, 2016)

Attachment

The framework focuses on ensuring that the child’s caregiver requires support in understanding the child’s needs. We understand that a child might have multiple stressors that might impact the child’s development.

Intervention to support attachment

• Supporting caregivers in understanding attachment related difficulties

• Help caregivers to understand a child’s behaviour

• Building effective trauma informed responses to behaviour