Trauma informed and attachment aware practice in schools: A systematic literature review of school staff experiences.

This article systematically reviews UK school staff experiences of implementing trauma informed and attachment aware practices, focusing on facilitators and barriers to adoption. The review synthesizes six qualitative studies, revealing that staff report shifts in knowledge, attitudes, and school ethos toward nurturing, relational approaches that view pupil behavior as communication of unmet needs. Key facilitators include supportive leadership, positive staff attitudes, collaborative cultures, strategic planning, and aligned policies, while barriers involve unsupportive leadership, punitive behavior policies, limited training, time constraints, and competing priorities. The findings emphasize the role of Educational Psychologists in supporting whole-school cultural change through training, leadership engagement, and policy alignment to promote sustainable trauma informed and attachment aware practices.