Compassionate Communication case studies

The University worked in partnership with its Students’ Union through a series of staff and student focus groups to review the Fitness to Study process. They found that the name of the policy had negative connotations for students. Furthermore, the policy did not include guidance and there was too much inconsistency in its application. Because of this, the ‘stage 1’ intervention for low risk or emerging concerns was rarely used, leading to missed opportunities for early intervention.

The new approach, Support to Study, included the following features:

• It was relaunched as a supportive process to combat the perception that it was a punitive, disciplinary process;
• The new process was more student centred, with students’ own agency emphasised and seeking support presented as an effective action for students to take;
• The process was clearly set out stage-by-stage, with clear descriptions of the process and possible outcomes;
• The emotional impacts of the processes were considered with regard to the number of people in attendance at meetings, the need to provide ample notice of meetings and to communicate clearly at all stages; and
• The process was written in plain English.

The University of Bristol has redesigned its Assessment and Feedback Strategy based on three core strategies. One of these – ‘designed for all’ – focuses on the commitment to embedding the principles of inclusivity throughout assessment and feedback activities.

Starting with the intended learning outcomes, teaching and learning builds towards summative assessment, with students having opportunities to learn from practice tasks and formative feedback. Academic programmes offer different varieties, choices, and topics of assessment which enable students to play to their strengths and minimise disadvantage. Where appropriate, alternative assessments are also planned from the start to reduce the risk of stereotyping which individual special arrangements pose.

Preparing students for assessment is integral to inclusive design, and includes practice tasks, the use of exemplars to show and discuss worked examples, both good and bad, and plenty of formative and dialogic feedback.

Programmes share and make transparent marking criteria, involving students in discussing the meaning of more abstract concepts. Feedback ‘designed for all’ highlights strengths, explains why, uses plain English, focuses on key points, and suggests ways to improve. Where appropriate, it may also consist of alternative formats, such as audio or screencast.

A programme overview of assessment avoids several deadlines occurring simultaneously, builds in gaps between assessments, promotes staggered hand-ins, and tames the volume of summative assessment, so that students can engage fully and deeply with each assessment and act on feedback.

For more information, see the University of Bristol’s Assessment and Feedback Strategy.

There is a growing interest across health and social care settings of the value of recognising the experience of trauma/childhood trauma, the impact of trauma on individuals and communities and how this recognition should drive service design and development. Referred to as a trauma informed approach, this is increasingly being adopted by a wide range of organisations and educational establishments.

A trauma informed approach recognises that trauma can significantly impact an individual’s neurological, biological, psychological, and social development. This approach aims to increase practitioners’ awareness of how trauma can negatively impact individuals and communities, and their ability to feel safe or develop trusting relationships with health and care services. It seeks to avoid re-traumatisation and works towards creating culturally sensitive, safe services that people trust and want to use. This approach shifts the focus from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”, fostering empathy and understanding.

The University of Sheffield has set out an ambition to adopt a trauma informed approach to Student Support Services. A pilot took place in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and the rise of the BLM movement, which led to the creation of a trauma informed support group for black and ethnic minority students who had been affected. A similar offer was made to the Indian Society in response to the public health crisis caused by the Covid pandemic. Both of these pilots were well received by students.

Since 2022, two hundred staff members have attended a Trauma Informed Practice Training workshop aimed at embedding this approach into their everyday practice. In December 2023, 12 key staff members (including representatives from Human Resources staff wellbeing team) attended a Pilot Train the Trainer session to enable the further development and cascading of this training.

Impact:

• Following training staff have reported a significant increase in their understanding of what a trauma informed approach is, and how to use this in their roles compared to before the training, and this is sustained two months after the training.
• Staff report they consider more the past experiences of people they are interacting with, and how their demeanour or behaviour may be influenced by experience of trauma.
• Staff have considered the impact of environment and communication in work environments and identified key changes and improvements within their own teams or departments that can be implemented such as privacy and wording of emails.

Future plans:

• Take a top-down approach to roll the training further into faculties and non-student facing roles.
• Offer ongoing support and development to Trauma Informed Trainers.
• Continue to evaluate sessions delivered by new trainers and the impact the training is having on how staff approach their work.
• Recruitment of more Trauma Informed Practice Champions or Trainers.
• Ongoing liaison and discussion with HR regarding how trauma informed practice will be embedded through training and policy documents more broadly.