The Home Office Asylum Mental Health and Wellbeing Team invited Migrant Help LEAP members to be involved in their Trauma-Informed Practice (TIP) project which aims to sustain and embed trauma-informed practice within the Home Office.

LEAP member involvement in the project has included:

• Attending online workshops to develop TIP training content including an e-learning animated video
• Visiting physical Home Office buildings to pilot a Trauma Informed Physical Environment Audit Tool, to help the Home Office better understand the impact that the physical environment can have on people who have experienced trauma
• Reviewing and feeding back their thoughts and reflections on many aspects of the training, including questionnaires and informing research design
• Featuring in the actual e-learning to share their knowledge and experiences
• Co-presenting at a Round Table event, along with Home Office colleagues
• Undertaking research interviews, along with Home Office colleagues, as peer researchers
• Analysying the qualitative data collated from research interviews
• Reviewing the final recommendations that have come out of the project to ensure sustainability

Seven TIP training modules have now been produced and piloted by Home Office staff. In recent feedback to LEAP members the Home Office clinical lead Claire Arnold really highlighted the importance and benefits of involving people with lived experience in the project:

‘Some Home Office staff who had recently completed the training shared how having individuals who have sought protection in the UK, and directly experienced the Home Office journey, really helped them engage in the training, and see the relevance to the jobs that they do.  Here are a few of their comments:

“Hearing about real experiences made it more realistic, it really brought things to life”

“It really made it real, gave you the opportunity to listen and hear directly from those that were affected”

“It helped me understand the full impact that it has on an individual”

The Asylum Mental Health and Wellbeing team would not have got this far, nor would the training have been so relevant and well received, without the invaluable input of our many lived experience colleagues.’

Claire also reflected on the tenacity of people with lived experience working on the project and acknowledged that working alongside the Home Office could have been triggering and emotive for them.

‘What has perhaps struck me the most about this particular project, is the courage and determination that lived experience colleagues have shown in working directly with the Home Office. (LEAP members) have shown nothing but professionalism, respect and an openness to working with the Home Office’

We were really mindful of these challenges when embarking on this partnership and have worked with our LEAP members to develop a checklist tool to be used when asking clients to engage in projects with organisations with authority or ‘perceived’ authority to ensure meaningful and safe involvement.

The TIP Customer Experience Evaluation element of this project  was co-lead by Reno Jaison-Mathew from the Home Office Mental Health and Wellbeing team and Dr Ingi Iusmen from the University of Southampton. Our LEAP members shared their experiences of working on this project with them, Claire and Christian Fitzhugh Home Office Asylum Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead.

‘I always felt safe. The Home Office staff provided me with the information required to participate in this project, also they gave me the freedom of opt out at any point even if I said yes at beginning’

‘When people with lived experience hear about the Home Office sometimes it can be scary but I like to face them directly, they are only human and I like to share my experiences with them to help bring them together with people like me. We can learn from each other. I loved the way they handled this project, they were very transparent, open and easy to communicate with.’

It has been great to see our LEAP members be so meaningfully involved in this Home Office project and develop their skills and confidence along the way. I look forward to exploring how this partnership can further develop and to creating more opportunities for our clients' voices to be heard.