Trauma Responsive Social Work Services Programme: data protection impact assessment

Description of the project

Policy Context

The Scottish Government and COSLA have a shared ambition of creating a trauma informed and responsive workforce and services that can recognise where people are affected by trauma and adversity, and that respond in ways that prevent further harm, support recovery, address inequalities and improve life chances. The National Trauma Transformation Programme (formerly known as the National Trauma Training Programme) is a major and long-term change programme, which aims to support this vision across Scotland. More information, including governance can be found online.

The Trauma Responsive Social Work Services Programme

Ensuring that Scotland’s social work services can recognise where people are affected by trauma and respond in ways which reduce the risk of retraumatisation and support recovery is a priority for the Office of the Chief Social Work Adviser. A programme of implementation and learning to support this ambition will be delivered in collaboration with key partners through the Trauma Responsive Social Work Services Programme. More details on the programmes action plan and governance can be found at Trauma Responsive Social Work Services Programme.

The Trauma Responsive Social Work Services programme workstreams, which this DPIA should cover are as follows:

Development of training and learning materials

Development of learning materials and resources to be used by the TRSWS team to support social work services to improve their practice by embedding trauma knowledge and skills, and provide more consistent training around mental health, wellbeing, and reflective practice supervision. This training may be provided to all staff working within social work services, which may include other professions and support staff working in multidisciplinary teams (as agreed with the local implementation sites) within a health and social care partnership context. Some training may also be provided to social work students, newly qualified social workers, qualified social workers, and learning and development staff through agreement with their employers, higher education institutions or via self-registering for training.

• Data gathered: Development of training materials may include recording of video and audio material involving members of the TRSWS team or other individuals, which will be used as part of the training course content.
• Methods used: A consent form will be developed, and all individuals recorded will be required to complete this to provide evidence of their permission for video material to be utilised for the purposes of TRSWS training. This will include recording of individual conversations on MS Teams calls and in-person recording.
• How is data stored: Consent forms and recordings will be saved in eRDM, Scottish Governments secure filing system. The recordings will only be used during training delivery by the TRSWS team.

Delivery of training

The TRSWS team may deliver training to those who work within social work services and multidisciplinary teams, including social work students, newly qualified social workers, qualified social workers, social work service leaders, and learning and development staff through agreement with their employers, higher education institutions or via self-registering for training. This data will be used to communicate with individuals regarding training delivery, issue pre and post session feedback and to complete and issue certificates for completing training, when appropriate.

• Data gathered: Attendance will be recorded for training sessions by collating name and email addresses of those attending.
• Methods used: Gathered through the completion of an attendance sheet at in-person training or via gathering from completion of MS Form or direct from MS Teams attendance tracking.
• How is data stored: Once training is complete, the TRSWS team will upload attendance record onto eRDM where the administrator will update attendance into training attendance spreadsheet. Once inputted, paper and other attendance copies will be destroyed.

Recording of training sessions/webinars to share with those not able to attend training

Certain sessions may be recorded to share with individuals who may not have been able to attend online sessions.

• Data gathered: Sessions will be recorded using the in-built function of MS Teams. Individuals will be notified in meeting invites, and on joining the call that this call will be recorded.
• Methods used: At the beginning of the meeting, individuals will be notified that the meeting will be recorded and will be reminded of their rights.
• How is data stored: Once gathered, this video will be downloaded from MS Teams and saved into a restricted MS Teams Channel file. The video will be uploaded to Youtube as an unlisted video where only individuals with the link can view this video. This link may be shared with externals who could not attend training.

Communicating with those attending training and issuing certificates

While delivering training, the team may ask for contact details to communicate with individuals about the training, and issue cerfificates.

• Data gathered: All individuals may be asked to provide their name and email address to allow the team to contact individuals regarding training delivery, issue evaluation forms or certificates for completion of training.
• Methods used: Gathered by completing paper attendance record or attending online training session. Privacy notice is shared at beginning of all online sessions.
• How is data stored: Once attendance is gathered, this will be inputted into attendance spreadsheet in eRDM, the secure filing system and the other copies of attendance will be destroyed.

Working with implementation sites

Chief Social Work Officers across Scotland were invited to submit expressions of interest for support from the TRSWS team. Four initial sites have been identified to engage with the programme and further sites will be added in due course. The TRSWS team will support leaders through a programme of implementation support, training and coaching to embed trauma responsive approached into their organisations over a 12-18 month period. The TRSWS team will work with leaders to identify staff within scope.

• Data gathered: A record of attendance will be gathered including name and email addresses for those attending sessions. This data will be used to communicate with individuals regarding training delivery, issue pre and post session feedback and to complete and issue certificates for completing training, when appropriate. This will also be used for evaluation purposes.
• Methods used: Gathered through the completion of an attendance sheet at in-person training or via gathering from completion of MS Form or direct from MS Teams attendance tracking.
• How is data stored: Once attendance is gathered, this will be inputted into attendance spreadsheet in eRDM, the secure filing system and the other copies of attendance will be destroyed.

A data sharing agreement will be developed to ensure attendance data can be shared between implementation sites and the TRSWS team. Once this is in place, the attendance spreadsheet will be saved in eRDM/ eRDM Connect, the Scottish Government’s secure filing system, with access only being provided to those required across the TRSWS team and implementation site.

Completion of pre and post training session surveys

All individuals attending TRSWS education and training events may be asked to complete pre/post session questionnaires that capture any changes in intended learning objectives to enable monitoring of programme efficacy in relation to learning and learner experience. Post session questionnaires will also gather feedback on attendee experience of the event to support further development/ improvement of TRSWS learning materials and delivery methods, and support evaluation of the programme objectives.

• Data gathered: This information will gather some non-identifiable professional information such as job role, length of time in profession, length of time in current role, practice area and employing organisation will be gathered.
• Methods used: Information will be gathered by asking individuals to complete a questionnaire on MS Forms. This will highlight the privacy notice clearly which advises individuals of their data rights.
• How is data stored: Once questionnaires have been completed, the data is saved on Microsoft servers. Once all responses have been saved, an Excel version of the data will be uploaded onto eRDM and the MS Form data will be removed from their platform.

Baseline survey

All staff included within scope of the TRSWS programme in each local implementation site will be asked to complete a baseline self-report survey questionnaire prior to attending formal learning and implementation sessions. This will collect the following data:

• Demographic and personal information (see details below)
• Professional responsibility within job roles (line management and supervision)
• Knowledge and understanding of trauma informed and responsive approaches,
• Perceptions relating to implementation of trauma informed approaches,
• Perceptions relating to available supports to enable implementation in routine practice.

The survey will be repeated at agreed intervals throughout delivery of the TRSWS programme to facilitate evaluation of programme outcomes including participant experience, TRSWS processes, and wider impact.

This survey will include standardised and psychometrically robust self-report measures relating to attitudes towards trauma informed and responsive practice and opinions regarding professional quality of life. Details on specific measures included below.

The Attitudes Related to Trauma Informed Care (ARTIC) Scale – 45 item version: The completion of ARTIC 45 is voluntary and individuals are informed of this before completing. The ARTIC 45 item scale is a self-report questionnaire designed to measure attitudes towards trauma informed care. Items for this scale were generated by experts via a community-based participatory research approach and tested on a sample of 760 service providers in human services and education. It has been shown to have excellent internal consistency (α = .93) and strong test-retest reliability (Baker et al., 2016). ARTIC Scales have been administered to over 170,000 professionals to date. It is associated with a cost per participant.

The Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQol) – version 5: The completion of ProQol is voluntary and individuals are informed of this before completing. The ProQol is a 30-item self-report questionnaire designed to measure perceived professional quality of life in helping professionals. It is useful for understanding the experience of professionals who perform emotional labour as well as those who may be exposed to traumatic situations in a work context. It is a useful tool in supporting self-monitoring and prompt self-care. It is the most commonly used measure of the positive and negative effects of working with people who have experienced extremely stressful events (Stamm, 2010). It is psychometrically robust with good validity and reliability. It is free to use and copy, without individualised permission, including reformatting the measure for online use.

The International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ): The completion of ITQ is voluntary and individuals are informed of this before completing. The ITQ is a brief 18-item self-report questionnaire measuring perceptions regarding the impact of previous traumatic experiences. It is psychometrically robust with good validity and reliability. ITQ is freely available in the public domain to all interested parties. It will be used to indicate the proportion of the workforce in scope, who have experienced traumatic events. Sample questions can be found at ITQ.

• Methods used: Data will be gathered using a survey tool on Qualtrics XM, an experience management platform. Agreed with local area, the team will share a link to the survey with key individuals in local sites across Scotland, who will use in house distribution lists to cascade this to all workers within scope. Potential data subjects will receive a link to the privacy notice developed by TRSWS along with the survey link asking them to complete on a voluntary basis.
• How is data stored: Data gathered from data subjects in local sites will be stored on Qualtrics cloud servers initially, which are based in the United Kingdom, and will be accessible only to the TRSWS team. The personal data to be recorded on Qualtrics can be found in the table below. A backup of this data will be saved on a fortnightly basis in the eRDM, the Scottish Governments secure filing system by the TRSWS team. In terms of governance of data held on Qualtrics servers, please see the Data Protection Agreement for Qualtrics cloud servers. Data will be deleted form Qualtrics servers once access no longer is required. There is a 48-hour temporary storage backup system, during which time deleted information can be reinstated. However, following this any information deleted from Qualtrics is not recoverable. As a result, should a data subject withdraw consent for any of their data to be held, this information can be deleted from eRDM and Qualtrics servers within 72 hours.

Evaluation of the Programme

An initial evaluation plan has been produced by the TRSWS team which highlights the information which will need to be gathered to evaluate the process and impact of the TRSWS programme within implementation sites. This data is currently be gathered and the team will work to procure support to evaluate. This DPIA will be updated once procurement has been completed external evaluator is in place.

• Methods used: Early thoughts on what tasks will be undertaken by evaluator include:
  • Analyse data received in surveys, pre and post evaluation questionnaires, opinion polls and other training feedback.
  • Organise qualitative feedback through focus groups/workshops with early implementation sites.
  • Produce an evaluation report analysing the approach and recommending next steps.
• How is data stored: All information on implementation sites will be saved in eRDM, the Scottish Governments secure filing system and contents will only be accessible by the TRSWS team in the first instance. Once an external evaluator has been contracted, eRDM Connect will be set up so the contractor can view the necessary information. All data gathered through MS Forms (surveys, questionnaires etc) will be saved into eRDM, the Scottish Governments secure filing system and contents will only be accessible by the TRSWS team and the evaluator once procured. Once the MS Form is no longer required, this data will be deleted from that platform. All data gathered through Qualtrics XM will be saved into eRDM, the Scottish Governments secure filing system and contents will only be accessible by the TRSWS team and the evaluator once procured. Once the MS Form is no longer required, this data will be deleted from that platform.