Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of implementing trauma-informed training specific to the experiences of asylum-seekers and refugees for staff in the public sector.

In April 2021 a £1m spending review allocation was obtained to support the mental health and wellbeing of adult asylum seekers.

In September 2022 we contracted an external organisation of clinical psychologists, experienced in co-developing evidence-based mental health and wellbeing strategies, to explore how Trauma Informed Practice (TIP) could be embedded into asylum processes from first point of contact to asylum decision undertaken by the Home Office, whilst optimising outcomes of the process.

We prioritised far-reaching collaboration to shape recommendations. Intrinsic to this was operationalising governance structures involving internal stakeholders, health bodies, the UNHCR, Devolved Administrations, NGOs and people with lived experience of claiming asylum. We facilitated open discussion and generated informed contributions by sharing relevant information at every stage of the process with our partner group giving stakeholders opportunity to scrutinise, co-create and legitimise recommendations demonstrating objectivity and flexibility to reshape and re-frame their work in response to asylum policy changes.

This review and design phase was completed in March 2023. In April 2023 we launched the next phase of the programme, this work will continue until March 2025.