Dumfries and Galloway Public Protection Partnership Newsletter - Issue 11

All the latest updates from the Dumfries and Galloway Public Protection Partnership

Welcome to the third newsletter from the Public Protection Partnership in 2023. We aim to keep you updated with the latest news in the public protection arena – thank you to all our partners for their contributions. The eleventh edition of the DGPPP newsletter features a special article about Trauma Informed Practice and Dumfries and Galloway Council’s new Trauma Informed Practice Lead officer.

As a multi-agency group, we are responsible for the oversight development and delivery of services to the most vulnerable children and adults who are at risk of or experiencing harm. If you have a question relating to any of the content you read today, please reach-out to the team using one of the contact methods at the end of the newsletter.

Trauma Informed Practice

Lynsey Lightfoot has been appointed as Trauma Informed Practice Lead officer for Dumfries & Galloway Council for 18 months. Working as part of the Human Resources Team, the role will contribute to the implementation of the Council’s People Strategy and Health and Wellbeing Strategy as well as working with services to design and deliver initiatives that provide trauma informed practices for all staff and services at all levels of the Council.

What does ‘Trauma Informed Practice’ mean?

Understanding how common trauma is and the ways it can affect people is the first step. We can then use this understanding to make our services more accessible, useable, and manageable for people with trauma histories. Taking a ‘trauma-informed’ approach essentially is about making an organisation more psychologically accessible.  This is done by:

1. Realising how common trauma and adversity is
2. Recognising signs and symptoms of trauma in people (staff and service users)
3. Responding in a way that supports recovery and resilience
4. Resisting re-traumatisation
5. Recognising the central importance of Relationships which offer choice, empowerment, collaboration, and safety.

To find out more about the National Trauma Training Programme go to: National Trauma Training Programme - Home (transformingpsychologicaltrauma.scot)

Suicide Awareness

On 10 September, the Public Protection Committee communicated it was World Suicide Prevention Day using social media.

Richard Smith (Health and Wellbeing Co-Ordinator, Dumfries & Galloway Health & Social Care Partnership) said: "Sadly, the number of deaths by suicide in D&G for 2022 was 16. This number is slightly down as that for the previous two years; 2020–21 deaths, 2021–20 deaths. Every death is a tragedy and leaves a lasting effect on families, friends, and colleagues."

Dumfries and Galloway Suicide Prevention Action Group is working in partnership to reduce the number of suicides in our region. This multi-agency group is working to deliver Scottish Government and COSLA national strategy ‘Creating Hope Together: Scotland’s Suicide Prevention Strategy 2022-32 at local level’.

Richard added: "Every life lost to suicide is a tragedy, and we hope by working collaboratively that we can encourage a whole society approach to raise awareness and address the root causes of distress and suicide. Over the coming year the action group and partners will build on the previous work that has been delivered across the region, and will have a renewed focus on delivering accessible training to targeted groups/people and ensuring the message of hope and support is communicated across the region."

If you have any questions about the work of the Dumfries and Galloway Suicide Prevention Action Group, contact Richard at dg.hwl@nhs.scot

Education Involvement – 16 days of Activism Campaign

25 November to 10 December

Colleagues in education delivering MVP (Mentors in Violence Prevention) took time out to consider and plan activities around the 16 days of activism campaign.

There was good representation of schools from the east and west of the region.
Time was taken to consider the importance of the campaign and how to influence change.

In recognition of schools who are at different stages of their MVP, the group produced a range of suggestions that schools could use and promote within their setting to help promote the campaign.

The title of the campaign will be abbreviated to #16 for schools, making it snappier and children and young people may be more engaging with it due to the rebranding.

Some schools will attend the event at The Bridge. It is hoped that there can be an MVP stall to promote the fantastic work that is going on in secondary schools.

Dumfries and Galloway Recovery Together (DGRT)

DGRT is a peer led lived experience support group within D&G. There are seven active groups operating in the region – in Stranraer, Newton Stewart, Castle Douglas, Dumfries, Annan, Kelloholm and Thornhill. Each group is led by a volunteer who is supported by a coordinator. There is also a monthly online group meeting for all members across the region to mix with one another and share ideas and support.

The organisation aims to build capacity for individuals in recovery to hopefully encourage sustainability in the future. There are social activities to promote inclusion and reduce isolation. September is recognised as Recovery Month across Scotland.

DGRT attended the National Recovery Walk in Greenock this year and this was a great opportunity to network, promote recovery and a safe space to remember loved ones lost to addiction. DGRT also participated in a local recovery walk in D&G for the same purposes. The group has an active social media presence, which is where most referrals from people being signposted come from. DGRT took part in a number of pop-ups and local events across D&G during the summer to recognise overdose awareness and promote the organisation.

If you have queries, call 07548309727, email faye.hardy1@nhs.scot or message Facebook – Dumfries & Galloway Recovery Together

New Social Work Out of Hours Alert

The new social work Out of Hours (OOH) Alert will be accessible within the business system Mosaic in the next few weeks. This will allow a more streamlined approach to daytime services notifying OOH of a concern and or updated safety plan. This will replace the current process of alerts coming to OOH via email and allow audit and quality assure that alerts have the necessary information to allow the service and wider teams to protect the most vulnerable children and adults out of hours.

Successful Collaboration

Dumfries and Galloway is a beautiful part of Scotland and a well-known tourist attraction to many visitors from across the UK and beyond. From time-to-time this can lead to people needing support from public sector partners. Recently, a successful collaboration and good example of multi-agency working led to a positive outcome for an older couple visiting the region in their motorhome, one who required urgent medical care resulting in an admission to hospital.

The other older adult had mild cognitive issues and associated anxiety due to the
admission of her husband. OOH social work was contacted by health colleagues in the Galloway Community Hospital Stranraer to undertake a wellbeing check, this led to a joint safety plan put in place until family travelled from down south to support both parents in the morning.

This frontline response allowed both adults to be supported with the older lady remaining in her motorhome – in a place she knew well. The introduction of social work standby in the west of the region has allowed the service to respond to a number of social issues in a timely way. With effective communication, each of Dumfries and Galloway’s OOH services are able to coordinate the support they offer to improve outcomes for individuals and keep them safe.

Dumfries and Galloway White Ribbon Campaign Announces Ambassadors

The Chief Executives of Dumfries and Galloway Council and NHS Dumfries and Galloway have been appointed the role of White Ribbon Ambassadors for Dumfries and Galloway by White Ribbon Scotland to support the development of the Dumfries and Galloway White Ribbon Campaign (DGWRC).

People can take part in the DGWRC in different ways. You can wear a White Ribbon and sign the WR Pledge to never commit, condone, or remain silent about any form of violence against women or girls; you can become a WR Speaker and deliver WR Talks – training is provided free of charge; or you can become WR Champions and support the development of the campaign in the workplaces, clubs, or places of worship.

For more information about the D&GWRC, email: WhiteRibbon@dumgal.gov.uk

New Training Registration Form

As part of our commitment to providing high quality training, we have updated our process when you book onto multi-agency training with us. You will now be asked to complete a short Microsoft Office form prior to booking onto multi-agency training. This will give us more specific data and adds efficiency to our process as the data will be linked to a public protection dashboard.

Prior to implementation, we got feedback and agreement from our Learning & Development Sub Committee with the type of questions that we should include. The questions asked will allow us to understand key information about our participants (learners) and will assist in improving training evaluation.

The new booking process is as follows:

New training opportunity advertised. You will be asked to complete a training registration form. The training registration form is accessed by clicking the hyperlink within the learning and development page as shown, and will also appear as a link within the training promotional advert.

Become a Trainer for the Public Protection Partnership?

We are passionate about providing valuable training via the multi-agency partnership but also providing our staff from partnership agencies the opportunity to be a trainer with us.

If you have an interest in volunteering to be a trainer with us, please email publicprotection@dumgal.gov.uk and we can discuss further your experience and the time commitment involved.

Do you have a news story that you think would be great for our next newsletter? Any queries relating to any of the content you have read today? Email:publicprotection@dumgal.gov.uk