Compassion is at the centre of the Framework. There are several reasons for this. Compassion enables us to tolerate pain or struggles in self and others. Physiologically, compassion helps calm the body’s natural defence systems, helping people feel calm and safe. Compassionate interactions help students feel understood, valued and dignified, which can be particularly restorative for students who have experienced trauma.

A compassion centred core is essential for meaningfully embedding the six core principles of trauma-informed practice. These well-established, strengths-based principles originate from SAMHSA in the USA and are represented as the petals in the EMBRACE Framework; they are:

• Safety
• Trustworthiness and transparency
• Collaboration & mutuality
• Peer support
• Choice, voice & empowerment
• Cultural humility and respect for diversity.

To ensure the core principles of trauma-informed practice are meaningfully and authentically embedded in practice, it is important address power imbalances, biases and stereotypes. Students from underrepresented or marginalised communities may face additional systemic barriers that compound trauma, such as discrimination, racism, or socioeconomic disadvantage. With an Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) lens, schools can mitigate these structural inequalities and work to dismantle them, ensuring that the trauma support offered is sensitive to these broader societal issues. Similarly by incorporating a Children’s Rights lens, trauma-informed practices in schools can align with broader obligations to respect and uphold children’s fundamental rights.

Co-designing trauma-informed initiatives with students and families, is an important way of sharing power, ensuring participation, and developing responses that are culturally and contextually appropriate. Critical and sustained reflective practice is also key in enabling teachers to process difficult emotional reactions that inevitably arise as part of their professional roles, whilst also serving as a support to continually probe personal values, beliefs and practices.

The outer circles in the EMBRACE Framework emphaise organisational level change. Schools are complex, dynamic social systems; a systems perspective facilitates deeper understanding of issues, multi-layered stakeholder analysis, and solutions that are iterative, responsive and co-designed.

The Whole School Continuum of Support, also referred to as the Multi-Tiered Support System (MTSS), acknowledges that children and young people have varying needs that can evolve over time. Those facing greater risks or with more complex needs may require specialized, targeted interventions in addition to the general support provided to all students within their class groups. This approach allows schools to respond flexibly to the changing needs of students, adapting support strategies in line with the school’s resources and specific context.

The EMBRACE Framework emphasises that becoming trauma-informed at a whole school level also involved multilevel and integrated adaptations to four intertwined areas of school practice:

• Curriculum and pedagogy,
• Policies and procedures,
• Relationships & partnerships
• School culture, climate, and ethos.

These four areas of practice align with the Department of Education Framework for wellbeing.

Beyond the concentric circles, school systems are shaped and influenced by wider national, international and transnational policies, access to and quality of community network and support services, changing social and environmental conditions, as well as differing ideas on the goals and purposes of education. All these changing dynamics influence the nature of the trauma-informed innovation and change.

The vertical arrow on the left of the Framework represents the barriers and facilitators that influence the implementation and sustainment of trauma-informed approaches in schools. There are several known factors that are known to facilitate the uptake of trauma-informed practice in schools, including staff professional development, robust leadership and resourcing.

The path at the foundation of the Framework underscores that trauma-informed practice is an ongoing, evolving process—a journey that progresses from trauma awareness to sensitivity, responsiveness, and ultimately becoming trauma-informed. As with any journey, the road may not always be straightforward; there may be detours and challenges along the way. Yet, despite the twists and turns, the journey is both meaningful and essential.