With the ongoing social care reforms, local authorities are being asked to provide stronger evidence that their trauma-informed strategies and commissioned services are improving outcomes for children, families, and the workforce. Training alone cannot meet the expectations of Ofsted, commissioners, or DfE. What matters now is impact, how trauma-informed practice changes culture, improves experiences, and prevents escalation into statutory services.
At Innovating Minds, we support local authorities to move from “we provided training” to “we changed practice, culture, and outcomes at scale.” The shift happens when systems measure what truly matters and embed evaluation into everyday practice.
This article offers a practical, proportionate framework for local authorities to evaluate trauma-informed programmes across children’s social care, early help, family hubs, education, youth services, and commissioned provision. You’ll find tools (surveys and outcome measures), data strategies (quantitative and qualitative), and continuous improvement methods that align with the wider reform agenda.
Trauma-informed approaches are now recognised as essential for strengthening early help, stabilising the workforce, improving placement outcomes, reducing crisis demand, and ensuring children feel safe, heard, and supported.
For local authorities, measurement supports:
A trauma-informed system depends on a confident, emotionally regulated, and reflective workforce. Measurement here can help authorities:
Because workforce instability is a major resource pressure and a key priority for local authorities and the government, measuring improvement in staff wellbeing and practice quality is essential.
These indicators reflect what trauma-informed practice should feel like for children and families, and are core to Ofsted’s judgments about quality of help, protection, and support.
Improvement in these areas demonstrates effective prevention, something local authorities must showcase as part of Family Help and children’s social care reforms.
To measure meaningful impact, local authorities need a clear and proportionate framework. A trauma-informed approach requires simplicity, sensitivity, and consistency across teams.
Start with the three core questions:
Local authorities often implement trauma-informed approaches across multiple systems. Clarity is essential. You may be measuring:
Being specific allows you to demonstrate targeted improvements and clear return on investment.
Choose outcomes that link back to local strategic priorities, such as the Children & Young People Plan, SEND strategy, or Family Help model.
Examples include:
Selecting variables linked to local authority priorities ensures the evaluation will have strategic value.
Local authorities benefit from using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data to build a robust, credible picture of impact.
Quantitative data allows local authorities to track change across populations, teams, and services. Tracking change is also referred to as distanced travelled.
When choosing which tools to implement, it is important that you use tools that are valid, reliable and suitable for the children and families you will be supporting (i.e. age, gender).
Below are some outcome tools that may be considered.
These measures demonstrate clear, numerical evidence of improvement, vital for reporting to Ofsted, DfE, Scrutiny Boards, and lead members.
Trauma-informed work is relational and emotional. Qualitative data captures the human experience behind the numbers.
Local authorities can use:
Qualitative evidence is powerful in articulating how trauma-informed approaches create safer, more responsive services.
Local authorities often worry about the burden of data collection. The key is a proportionate approach that strengthens, rather than overwhelms, practitioners.
Here are core principles:
Use the same tools across teams for clearer insights.
This ensures tools are trauma-sensitive and acceptable.
Avoid creating additional pressure for frontline staff.
Trauma-informed systems support practitioners, not blame them.
Use data to deepen understanding and improve practice.
Provide regular updates to:
This reinforces momentum and culture change.
Trauma-informed programmes help local authorities strengthen early help, improve practice quality, stabilise the workforce, and enhance children’s experiences of care. But to make this visible, authorities must measure what matters - safety, trust, wellbeing, emotional development, practitioner confidence, and system stability.
When local authorities adopt proportionate, trauma-aware evaluation frameworks, they not only meet inspection and commissioning expectations—they create a more sustainable, compassionate, and effective system.
If your local authority would benefit from support designing a trauma-informed evaluation approach or implementing evidence-based programmes like Healing Together, Innovating Minds is here to help.