The Fit and Healthy Childhood All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) has called upon the Government to unlock the trauma trap of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and free the nation’s children with a population-wide public health strategy.
The publication of the APPG’s 21st Report: ‘Adverse Childhood Experiences: Roads to Recovery,’ was welcomed by Chair Steve McCabe MP who said:
‘The fact that Adverse Childhood Experiences can blight the entire life courses of individual children and their families is something that is ignored and obscured by stigma and shame but the individual tragedy of ACEs transmits a legacy of misery that can devastate entire communities. The roadmap laid out in our Report is a call to action – a promise of resilience and recovery that a UK Government can and will deliver to its future generations. ACEs are and must be a national public health issue.’
Steve McCabe MP - Chair, Fit and Healthy Childhood APPG
The ACE Roadmap is made up of:
•A National ACE strategy
•Enhanced Data Collection and Research
•Strengthened Early Intervention and Prevention
•ACE Awareness Integrated into Education Policy
•Support for Families
•Cross-Sector Collaboration
•Public Awareness Campaigns.
Dr Viki Veale, Senior Lecturer in Early Years and Primary Education at St Mary’s University and Trustee at TACTYC said:
‘Communities need a population–wide national strategy with a public health approach rather than targeted initiatives which stigmatise and deter those who are most in need of help. ACEs have a ripple effect, contributing to ever higher levels of mental and physical illnesses, social disintegration and cycles of violence and substance abuse. It is about crafting a legacy of care and proactive protection for every child and family touched by the shadow of adverse experiences.’
Dr Viki Veale, Senior Lecturer in Early Years and Primary Education at St Mary’s University and Trustee at TACTYC
Lead Author Helen Clark added:
‘This is the approach that unites economic and social justice because the UK works best when it can harness the abilities and talents of all of its citizen. It’s time for Government to unlock the trauma trap and free all children to build their future and ours too.’
Helen Clark - Lead Author
Contributor to the report, Keith Godfrey, Professor of Epidemiology and Human Development at the University of Southampton and the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre said:
‘Adverse child experiences have lasting impacts that impair a child’s ability to fulfil their potential. At a population level their consequences place a serious burden on the healthcare system and limit economic productivity. The cost of inaction is substantial. We can, and must, do better in preventing adverse child experiences and in mitigating the life course consequences.’
Keith Godfrey - Professor of Epidemiology and Human Development at the University of Southampton and the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre
The NCPS were delighted to be asked to contribute significantly to this important work, and it's heartening to see that counselling and psychotherapy form a key part of the report's recommendations in terms of both the reparative and protective ways in which it can support a programme aimed at reducing ACEs.
Jyles Robillard-Day, CEO of the NCPS, says,
'Counselling and psychotherapy play a really important role in prevention, mitigation through things such as resilience-building, and ongoing support for those children and young people that have sadly had these adverse experiences. It's perfectly positioned in the therapeutic spectrum to work in a long-term, person-centred way with a range of issues, including trauma and abuse. It can also help parents of those young people to better support them, and to work through any issues of their own that they may have that may or may not be contributing to the child's adverse experiences.'
Jyles Robillard-Day - CEO, NCPS
