Children and young people impacted by CCE often face overlapping traumas including abuse, neglect, poverty, exclusion, and community violence. These experiences shape their behaviour, trust, and engagement with services. A trauma-informed approach is essential to safeguarding, ensuring responses are compassionate, coordinated, and effective.

Children and young people may:

• Appear angry, withdrawn, or “difficult”
• Struggle to trust adults or engage with services
• Minimise or deny their experiences
• Show loyalty to exploiters

These are survival strategies and not signs of guilt or defiance. Practitioners should respond with curiosity, not judgement, recognising behaviour as a reflection of trauma.

Systems can unintentionally retraumatise by:

• Repeatedly asking children to recount traumatic events
• Using stigmatising or blaming language
• Failing to explain decisions or processes
• Responding with punishment instead of support.

Children affected by CCE can and do recover when they are:

• Believed and supported
• Surrounded by safe, stable relationships
• Given opportunities to grow, learn, and thrive

"When someone believes in you, it changes everything"

"Professionals being more welcoming - feeling wanted in the room and feel like you can tell them anything and they will listen and not judge."

Practitioners should:

• Recognise how trauma influences behaviour and decision-making
• Respond with empathy and understanding
• Avoid re-traumatisation through sensitive practice
• Build trust through consistent, respectful relationships
• Support recovery, resilience, and long-term wellbeing.

This approach must be embedded across all sectors: health, education, justice, social care, and the community and voluntary sector. Further guidance on trauma-informed practice can be accessed on the SBNI website.