 Okay, so we are here today at the Oslo Social Care Conference and I have stolen a bit of your time. You gave the opening keynote this morning, so do you mind introducing yourself and explaining what you do? Sure, so my name's Tony France and I'm shocked to be asked to come and speak. I do two things. I'm a psychotherapist, so I do some clinical work, but I also provide a lot of training for parents and for professionals around therapeutic skills. What is it to be therapeutic or trauma-informed? They're all words that get banded around without anybody ever asking what people mean. And that was kind of where you started today really, wasn't it? So you've got 300 inspectors in the room who go around and assess children's homes and places like that and you ask that question, how would you know if somewhere was trauma-informed and can you talk through what that looked like for you? Because there are lots of organisations who might kind of tune into this who feel like, yeah we're trauma-aware, we're trauma-informed, but what does that mean? And I think that was where I started, so when I was asked what would I do this on to be or not to be therapeutic, the first question I thought was, well how would I know? If I went and looked somewhere, what would I notice? What would I notice in the environment? Well I'd notice that I felt welcoming in environment, that would be the first thing that would tell me that it's therapeutic. And I suppose what is welcoming for different people is completely different, so welcoming needs to be for who lives here and who spends time here and that means that you know some people find really sensory rich environments or really busy environments really difficult, other people don't, they need that so as they're able to concentrate. So we need to tailor it somewhat to the children. And whether that's in, we can we can usually get a good guess from our, from the children's homes, so if they live at home what's their bedroom like, how do they like it and how do they, how well do they sleep? So we can think about really taking some ideas from home which helps us engage with parents and think about those things. So it's kind of welcoming, that feeling of belonging and sort of nurture. Okay, so number one is if you're welcoming too. Two, that it is, it's aware of potential triggers. So actually there aren't triggers in the environment that are likely to make children feel unsafe, there aren't images that will make them feel unsafe or environments that you know in busy really busy environments where there's lots of adults in the environment and they don't know where they sit. So actually it's not only the physical environment but also if you like the relationships in the environment. Do they feel safe? Do they know what they can do, how they can do it? Schools especially can be really socially complex, helping them work that out. It's really difficult. So how do you do, I mean if you're say, I'm a headteacher watching this video and I go, okay that's a great point. How do I do it? Is it about being predictable, having consistent rules about working with individuals? I mean yeah. I suppose all of those things. So it's got to be predictable, adults have got to be safe and they've got to be recognised as that and not just there to teach. Okay, just rewind, adults have got to be safe. What does that mean? It means that they are approachable by children, they are consistent in their response, they are very, they're calm in their response. Okay. No matter how distressed they are by what the child's telling them, they're actually able to respond in ways that contains the child's distress. Okay. And they're, most importantly, they're able to spot the signs of when a child is starting to become distressed or upset or experience some level of difficulty. And do you have to be nice to be safe? No. I think it's a really interesting question. Yes, we need to be kind and compassionate. Yeah. Nice is an interesting word. We can be kind and compassionate without necessarily being nice I think. Yeah. But also that the children, we've got to be warm and children who have had really difficult experiences in early life with adults will be drawn towards adults close to those that they recognise. Sometimes they choose the teachers that you think, oh my God, why would you choose them? But it's the closest thing that they recognise to an adult who's been consistent in their life. So we don't all need to be clones of the same kind of person, but we do need to be compassionate and kind. And I guess that's why it's important that we train all our staff, isn't it? Absolutely. Yeah, we might pick out Mrs Jones, who's the Key Stage 3 leader as the best person for kids to talk to, but they might pick that gnarly history teacher. Exactly. And I think that's really important. And everybody needs training. That we need to provide training that is not just awareness training. And to think that therapeutic is to send a child to see a cancer or a psychologist. That actually it's those relationships that make the difference. Yeah, because you said in your talk, so we'll get to number three in a minute, but you use this number 168. Yes. And that felt relevant. So what was that? They're 100 and there are 168 hours in a week. Yeah. And for specialists and clinicians like ourselves. If you're really worried about a child and you sent them to see us, they might see us for one hour of that per week. There are people who spend many, many more hours with children. Yeah. And they are the people that are going to have the true effect, a cumulative effect of increasing safety in that child's environment. Yeah. So actually, the relationship that your teaching assistant is building with a child, for example, is going to be actually having a bigger impact. Far more powerful. And they need and so and therefore, they need to be trained to recognise the importance and understand how to work in that relationship to build resilience, to help them thrive in ways that they're struggling to do. Okay, that makes sense. It sounds like quite a tall order. Yeah. That makes sense. So, I mean, if I am, you know, I'm that teaching assistant, I'm watching this video going, Oh, gosh, what I do really matters. I mean, what would be your top tip there be? I mean, how do I make that time count with that child? A to be present. And when I say present, I think one of the most difficult things that we do. And I think we as parents as professionals, is remain present when a child is really, really distressed. And they become really dysregulated or distressed. Emotionally present. Both. Both. I think we emotionally withdraw first. Yeah. And then and then we physically withdraw because it's just too much. Yeah. And actually, what they desperately, desperately need is for us to co-regulate with them and help soothe the distress if they're unable to do it on their own. But I'm a teaching assistant and this kid is opening up to me about all this stuff that is way outside my comfort zone. And I'm really upset because I really like this kid and it's really difficult. What do I do? You listen and you connect to something inside yourself that just recognises how difficult life is right now. They don't need you to solve all their problems. They don't need you to to say, all right, okay, well, what we're going to do? It actually that must be really, really hard. Is an answer that really helps is an acknowledgement of just how difficult life is or has been or and then given some level of cause because often when they're really distressed, they struggle with processing. Yeah. So, you know, that I can't imagine how difficult that is or a recognition of how difficult and how hard that is. And then to think about, is there anything I can do to help? How simple is that? Okay. You're not just giving us permission to not fix it. Absolutely. Calm, caring, listening. Yes. And it's okay that we feel all that stuff. We've just got to kind of hold it in. Until such times as we can give it to somebody else. But not back to the child. Yes. Okay. So, we've got, we're a safe and welcoming environment. We have enabled those children to feel safe. We thought about our children as what's number three? I suppose the thirties that we are then we remain the adult in the relationship. We don't try to be their friend. Yeah. We try to be a safe adult and really recognising those different transactions that we have with children and that they are useful transactions. We need to be bigger, stronger, wiser and they need us to be bigger, stronger, wiser along with being safe. So, for me that it's really and we need to empower people to do that. Yeah. To not just think that mental health and resilience is a secret garden for mental health professionals like you and I. Actually, the front line of mental health profession is people in the classroom or people who are present in children's lives. So, if we're genuinely kind of trauma-informed, trauma aware, this is something that any member of our staff would reflect even if they maybe don't know the language. Absolutely. Absolutely. We designed some training specifically for working in those environments and for staff working in those environments and I was really shocked to see how little was taught in training around co-regulation skills or knowing that we will have attachment as well as children. And co-regulation teams have gone that you've come back to quite a few times. I mean, what's the kind of crux of that? You know, if you have to give people sort of a very brief, you know, this is how you do it. Well, I think it's about not that it's about that remaining presence. So, co-regulation is when a child needs co-regulation, when they're unable to calm or self-serve on their own, that they just they seem to melt down and it becomes dreadfully, dreadfully distressing and what we tend to do is we step away from that. Co-regulation is to be is for us to step into that environment, emotional environment with them, be aware of our own distress and our own breathing so as they and to start to mirror so to reflect their sense of urgency in distress and then to step by step help them come down from that both through physical touch, through breathing, through all of those things that we're able to do. So, you end up both role-modelling but also supporting in that moment as well. Yes, at the same time. You also talked about outcomes and what kind of success looks like in the trauma-informed environment and what kind of outcomes should we be looking for? Well, if everything we know from the the adverse childhood experiences work is true, which is that you can lose 20 years of your life, your average lifespan, if trauma remains unresolved in your life, then the ultimate outcome is to give the opportunity of longer healthier life to children. In short term it's just the ability to maintain and sustain a healthy relationship, then in the longer terms for them to be able to do that at a more intimate level for themselves and in time to be able to be the parent that they need to be so as they have children who are ace-free of trauma that really, you know, I think we need to think, we need to think bigger, we need to think beyond today and tomorrow and see it beyond that. So that might be quite hard for, say, a school, because actually you're thinking about this child's life course and what they're worried about maybe is what would Ostend say if they came in next week, but that, yeah, actually we're looking at the medium and the long term here rather than just today, although from what you said, actually if we practice in a trauma-informed way with our kids then they are likely to be engaging better in class. Well, I've recently, I'll say recently, about two years ago I was asked to be a governor, trustee of a pupil referral unit, which I went along to and said, yeah, okay, great, I'll do that. At the time they were really struggling as a school and restraints for children were somewhere between six and ten a week. Wow. They were all adolescents, although there is also a small primary unit and we managed to get Ostend to agree, because they were already in requires improvement, that we were going to take some extra time for staff CPD and for professional development and training. A year, well 14 months down the road, we've just got a good from Ostend and attendance has gone up by 80% Wow. And there have been three restraints in nine months. Wow, down from six per week. Down from six per week. So, and that was by changing the adults, change the adults in the environment and, you know, young people feel safer and they will behave in ways that safe children behave. I guess a key message from that is actually one of hope then, isn't it, that we can feel like we're in a fairly hopeless circumstance, but as you found... And what we're, yeah, and what we're not in, it was really interesting to see the conversation with the lead inspector, because I, as you can imagine, they put me ahead of behavior, so I get all that. And are they doing a lot of learning? Not yet. Not yet. But now they're safe. And the conversation was really, I was really grateful for the conversation that said we've pretty much chucked out everything apart from make safe. This has got to be a safe place. When everything, when relationships are safe, when the environment's safe, when they're safe with each other and safe with us, then we can think about a platform for learning. Yeah. But if we are driven by what are they learning, we will never create safety. Yeah. So those foundations really... Absolutely. Fantastic. Have you got anything fine or you want to say I'm aware of it? Take a lot of your time. Well, this stuff's just so really important and I'm incredibly passionate about we can be better for the children, young people in our charge. And there are things that we can all do. Absolutely. Every single one of us. Parents, teachers, everybody. Fantastic. And the more, you know, the more we understand that, the better life we breathe. I will link to all your websites and stuff below. Do you want to give a brief summary of what you offer training? We offer, so we do two things. We offer clinical services, so psychological assessments and long-term therapy. But for me, my most important passion is providing skills-based training. We don't provide awareness training. We provide skills-based training for anybody working with children and young people, including qualifications that truly I believe are practical and make a difference to children's lives. And you give mean conference keynotes too. Thank you. Thanks so much for your time. Enjoy your lunch. Thank you. Love you, see you. Look forward to working with you again. Thank you.