Practical, trauma-informed leadership to foster safety, connection, and systemic change across your educational community. Authored and delivered by Jessica Parker and Gemma Fieldsend.
Leading Whole-Setting Mental Health in Education
Establishing an effective, sustainable approach to mental health across a school or college is a shared leadership journey, not an isolated duty meant for one person to carry alone. This professional development portfolio is crafted to empower Senior Mental Health Leads (SMHLs), designated safeguarding leads (DSLs), SENCOs, and pastoral leaders with the practical tools and reflective space needed to build compassionate, resilient educational settings.
Rooted in core trauma-informed principles—safety, trust, relationships, regulation, voice, choice, and collaboration—our approach moves beyond treating emotional wellbeing as a collection of isolated initiatives. Instead, we support educational leaders to weave mental health into daily practice, connecting it directly with safeguarding, SEND, attendance, behaviour, and learning.
Whether you are establishing your foundational vision, auditing an existing strategy, or navigating urgent operational challenges, our flexible portfolio meets your setting where it is.
Our Trauma-Informed Leadership Framework
Trauma-informed educational leadership goes beyond crisis management. It is about designing systems, policies, and environments where every learner and staff member experiences genuine psychological safety, agency, and belonging.
Drawing on Trauma-Informed Approaches in Schools: A Guide for Senior Mental Health Leads and aligned with DfE SMHL learning outcomes, our portfolio focuses on three core pillars:
Relational Systems: Developing school environments, policies, and communication styles that actively reduce distress and support emotional regulation rather than unintentionally causing shame or exclusion.
Integrated Leadership: Breaking down silos to align mental health strategies seamlessly with safeguarding, SEND, attendance, and pastoral workflows.
Sustainable Capacity: Protecting staff capacity, establishing clear professional boundaries, and ensuring wellbeing support is built into organisational structures.
Choose Your Professional Development Pathway
Every educational setting faces distinct priorities, and leadership capacity must be spent wisely. We offer two complementary learning routes so you can choose the exact support your setting needs:
1. Strategic Whole-Setting Leadership (Main Courses)
Designed for leaders who want a complete framework to evaluate provision, map shared responsibilities, align policy, and drive a realistic action plan.
Structure: 1 interactive training day + a copy of the course textbook + an individual 90-day action plan + a 2-hour reflective follow-up session 3 months later.
Course 1: Foundations for the Role: Best suited to newly appointed or new to role SMHLs and leaders without previous structured preparation.
Course 2: Reviewing, Strengthening & Sustaining Practice: Best suited to established SMHLs (including those trained by other providers) auditing existing provision to lead the next phase of change.
2. Targeted Issue-Led Development (Standalone Masterclasses)
Designed for leaders seeking immediate, practical guidance on specific operational challenges without committing to a full strategic programme.
Structure: Independently bookable 2-hour live online webinars featuring real-world case studies, application tasks, and practical review tools.
Flexible Access: Book any masterclass independently; no prior TICS training or course completion is required.
Key Topics: EBSNA, reducing exclusions, dysregulation, neurodivergence & SEND, waiting lists, family trust, peer harm, self-harm coordination, staff overload, and transition points.
Distributed Leadership: SMHLs are encouraged to attend alongside a relevant colleague (such as a SENCO, DSL, or Attendance Lead) to foster shared ownership across teams.
Adapted for Every Educational Setting
All training examples, audit tools, and planning frameworks are differentiated to reflect the specific operational realities of primary schools, secondary schools, further education (FE) colleges, special schools, and alternative provision (AP). We recognise that school and college processes differ significantly, and our facilitation ensures strategies map directly onto your specific phase and context.
About the Facilitators & Authors
All training is developed and delivered by Jessica Parker and Gemma Fieldsend, co-authors of Trauma-Informed Approaches in Schools: A Guide for Senior Mental Health Leads. Bringing together extensive experience across education, mental health, safeguarding, and senior leadership, they provide grounded, compassionate facilitation that connects trauma-informed theory with the practical realities of leading change in schools.
Explore Your Options
