Trauma Informed training
Date of request: 10 March 2026
Reference: 14632510
Request
I would be grateful if you could provide the following information in relation to training provided to police officers within your force.
1. Trauma-Informed Training
a) Does your force provide training relating to trauma-informed practice or trauma awareness for police officers?
b) If yes, please provide:
– The name of the training programme
– Whether it is delivered internally or by an external provider
– The duration of the training and frequency of refreshers
– Whether the training is mandatory or optional
2. Training on Empathy or Communication with Vulnerable Individuals
a) Does your force provide training specifically focused on empathy, communication, or engagement with vulnerable individuals (for example victims of trauma, mental health crisis, or individuals with adverse childhood experiences)?
b) If yes, please provide:
– The name of the training programme
– The duration of the training and refresher courses
– Whether it is mandatory or optional
3. Initial Police Officer Training
a) Is trauma-informed practice included within initial police officer training for new recruits?
b) If so, please provide a brief description of how this is delivered (e.g. lectures, scenario-based training, online learning).
4. Specialist Training
Does your force provide any specialist trauma-informed training for particular roles (for example safeguarding officers, domestic abuse investigators, or neighbourhood policing teams)?
If yes, please provide brief details.
5. Training hours
a) Approximately how many hours of training related to trauma, ACE’s, neurodiversity, vulnerability are provided during initial police training within your force?
b) Approximately how many hours of training related to empathy, communication and engagement with vulnerable individuals are provided during initial police training within your force?
c) if available, please provide a breakdown of training hours, dedicated to the following areas within initial police training and throughout policing career:
-Vulnerability/safeguarding
– Mental health and neurodiversity awareness
– Trauma informed practice
– Communication and empathy
6. Training Materials or Guidance
If available, please provide any publicly shareable guidance documents, policy documents, or training outlines relating to trauma-informed policing or empathy-based approaches.
Response
Avon and Somerset Police holds information on the subject of your request. However, we cannot provide a response without exceeding the appropriate cost limit. This is because the information is not recorded in a way that allows automated retrieval. Extensive manual searches of our files would therefore be required to complete our response.
To identify the number of training hours provided during initial police training on the subjects you have specified in question 5 would require an extensive manual review of our records. Your request also requires us to collate all training materials, courses and guidance documents relevant to trauma-informed practice and empathy and communication with vulnerable individuals. We estimate it would take more than 18 hours to complete a response to this request.
Section 12 of the Act allows public authorities to refuse requests where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit. For police authorities, this limit is £450 or 18 staff hours. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2.5 working days determining whether the department holds the information and locating, retrieving, and extracting it.
This letter represents a Refusal Notice under the Act.
If you would like to refine your request, we may be able to supply you with some information that may be of use:
In relation to question 6, we would be able to consider a request for our Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) procedural guidance and related information held within our intranet pages on TRiM and our trauma informed approach.
Relevant information is also contained within the following guidance available via the link provided:
To assist further, please see the information below that had already been collated in relation to your request, at the point of establishing that a complete response would take over 18 hours.
Avon and Somerset Police provide the following training relating to trauma-informed practice or trauma awareness for police officers:
- Trauma Informed Educators programme (9 days)
This is an optional, externally delivered, ‘Train the Trainer’ programme for Trauma Informed Educators. Once trained, Educators deliver optional trauma informed training to teams across the organisation in the form of a two-hour Introduction to Trauma Informed Practice session.
- Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) Awareness Training 60 minutes.
- TRiM briefings (post incident 15 mins).
This training is mandated as part of curriculum and delivered internally by a TRiM Coordinator. TRiM briefings are mandated but having a TRiM assessment is voluntary.
Awareness Training is delivered to all new Police Officers, new PCSO’s Transferees and new Comms Staff. It is also delivered upon any requests, for example as part of professional development or training days in other departments. TRiM Briefings are delivered 24/7 post incident on request.
Trauma-informed policing is also taught on the following courses:
- Professionalising Investigation Programme (PIP) 1 – including in Achieving Best Evidence (ABE)
- PIP 2 Interview Course for serious and complex crime
- First Response Officer (FRO) training.
- SSAIDP – sexual offence investigation course.
- SCAIDP – child abuse investigators course.
- Specialist Investigative Interview (SII) victim/witness course – Tier 3 level