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The SECURE STAIRS framework for integrated care is a trauma-informed approach to supporting staff and young people within the Children and Young People’s Secure Estate (CYPSE) in the UK. Within secure settings, therapeutic climate is a concept that encapsulates an individual’s perception of safety, connectedness with others and level of support within the environment. To support evaluation of the SECURE STAIRS framework, a Secure Children’s Home (SCH) within the North East of England examined therapeutic climate for staff and young people annually using the Essen Climate Evaluation Schema (EssenCES) over a three-year period. This paper aims to present the findings.

Over the three years, a total of 71 young people and 214 staff EssenCES questionnaires were administered. Between 2020 and 2021, the setting also experienced significant changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Numbers of young people also decreased within the setting over the three-year period.

Results indicated a positive trend for therapeutic climate sub-scores. For example, Experienced Safety for young people significantly increased from 2020 to 2021. Additionally, therapeutic hold for staff was significantly higher in 2020 and 2021 in comparison to 2018.

Findings are discussed in relation to implementation of the SECURE STAIRS framework and providing trauma-informed care for vulnerable young people within secure settings. Implications for practice are explored.

This paper seeks to identify and remedy a fundamental absence of psychological thinking in the current conceptual framework underpinning services for homeless people.

After describing the psychological limitations of current approaches to homelessness, an attempt is made to define what a psychologically‐minded service culture would look like and the concept of “re‐homing” is introduced. The concept of “psychologically informed environment” is explored as one important practical development in this direction. A brief case study is used to illustrate the power of re‐homing.

Findings and observations relating to the lack of psychologically‐informed practice within current approaches to homelessness and mental health are reported.

The originality of this paper lies in its identification of a clear psychological basis for limitations within the current service paradigm for homelessness people and its provision of a new and pragmatic concept of “re‐homing” based on the psychological‐mindedness that is already to be found in other aspects of human society and culture.

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) has its roots in the world of Organisational Development (OD), however, as a strength-based approach which is intrinsically creative and generative, it has been found to work well in many other fields. The purpose of this paper, Part 1 of 2, is to provide an introduction to AI and suggests its potential in homeless work. Part 2 reports a pilot study of implementation and evaluation.

This is a conceptual paper suggesting a new approach to the development of a Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE). The background of the approach (AI) is given, the pilot project described, and the way it contributes to a PIE is discussed. The beneficial and practical link with Positive Psychology is also explored. Part 2 will describe the outcomes of the implementation of AI in pilot at a homelessness hostel in Westminster.

AI has its roots in the world of OD, however, it has been found to work well in many other fields. The paper highlights some of the aspects of AI and Positive Psychology which could be meaningful to hostel residents, and give it robustness and psychological sophistication when used by staff and residents. The paper also considers the benefits of using AI with staff as a tool for organisational learning, there by making it an ideal approach for hostels which want to become a PIE.

AI is well-established as an OD process and less well known as a personal development approach and has not previously been articulated as a tool for working with hostel residents or for developing PIEs. The openness of PIEs to alternative psychological approaches is indicated. AI is a strength-based approach, and a well-structured alternative to some of the problem-based psychological approaches that have been used. In addition, AI supports defining features of a PIE such as reflective awareness.

The purpose of this study is to outline a process-oriented psychology informed view of the impact of ever-increasing acuity within an adult inpatient system and conceptualise how an integrated therapies team (ITT) can work with the chaos that this brings.

A reflective scientist-practitioner based approach was used over a two-year period.

Several factors lead to “chaos” in an inpatient unit, including societal inequality, the trauma and adversity it creates and the impact of this at a systemic, interpersonal and intrapersonal level. Chaos is one means of coping and can dominate inpatient working, whereas understanding the underlying distress is often marginalised. Developing an ITT can support working with chaos. The ITT holds the therapeutic perspective for the wider multi-disciplinary team (MDT) and therapeutic and facilitation skills are central to how it operates. Processing the chaos and working with the underlying distress is its overarching function.

Developing an ITT offers a robust structure for evolving inpatient MDT working to cope with increasing acuity in a psychologically informed way.

The chaos in question is often viewed as patients’ issue but from a collectivist perspective it is something that all members of society are responsible for.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to conceptualise the chaos on an inpatient ward as a process needed by the system as a way of coping and propose the addition of an ITT to inpatient working.

Training in therapeutic community and related approaches has not been widely available, and there is debate about the form this should take. This has had a negative impact on the field. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The authors consider the history of training in democratic therapeutic community methods in the UK in particular, and trace some of the reasons for its lack of development.

With the expansion of TC methodology into new areas, such as therapeutic and enabling environments, the ability to provide training in DTC approaches and techniques is increasingly important. The developing evidence base, and the increasing detail in which the method has been described, make dedicated TC training increasingly important.

Training in therapeutic community methods, and enabling and therapeutic environment approaches, provides a grounding in technique and theory that would otherwise be impossible to acquire for most workers, and can lead to a general increase in the level of competence and confidence in the way these environments operate.

The purpose of this paper is to explore service-users’ hopes and expectations of a psychologically informed planned environment (PIPE) located in the high-security prison estate.

A semi-structured interview was used to explore the hopes and expectations of five male Category A PIPE prisoners. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.

Analysis resulted in two overall themes: “Progression” and “Being Part of a Community”. Relevant sub-themes were considered to portray processes within these two wider themes.

In applying these findings to practice, this study provides evidence that places value on the current referral process which ascertains prisoners’ motivations to attend the PIPE.

This is the first known study that explores service-users’ hopes and expectations of the pilot PIPE service. The PIPEs are included within the recently introduced Offender Personality Disorder Pathway.

This paper aims to offer a critical analysis of the potentially traumatising nature of working with (dis)stressed and traumatised people with complex needs who are homeless. It also seeks to provide a commentary on the contribution of Psychologically Informed Services: A Good Practice Guide in addressing the impact of these difficult dynamics upon workers, teams and organisations.

The paper is an invited piece and is based on the specialist experience and viewpoint of the authors working as psychotherapists with a background in therapeutic community work and of their experience of reflective practice and team development consultancy with teams working in homelessness services.

With increasing demand and more restricted funding for homelessness resettlement services, the authors raise issues in the complex interaction of institutional and social and interpersonal dilemmas for staff “stuck in the middle” between the (dis)stressing nature of clients' “unhoused” minds and the (dis)stressed response of the systems of care. A group‐analytic, systems psychodynamics approach is used to shed light upon the risks to workers when services do not make time to reflect upon these (dis)stressing and potentially traumatising dynamics. They also point towards some of the personal and professional characteristics required in consulting to staff teams and agencies working with such complex dynamics.

The new operational guidance is welcomed, however, the authors suggest that the successful implementation of Psychologically Informed Environments (PIEs) is reliant on the capacity of any given organisation to build effective cultures and structures to support the development of reflective practice and team development.

The purpose of this paper is to apply current understanding of service user involvement (SUI) to forensic practice with reference to the benefits and drawbacks. Specifically, it discusses models of SUI and their application to a psychologically informed planned environment (PIPE) located in a Category C male prison.

Drawing upon residents’ experiences, the evaluation reflects on the contribution of cultural, environmental and political factors to the success or failure of SUI within the PIPE service.

The evaluation will review current systems and explore ways of improving and strengthening strategies by referring to the “whole systems approach” to SUI (Wright, 2006).

The evaluation makes recommendations for local and national SUI within PIPE services.

The purpose of this paper is to extend our understanding of the issues facing those who experience multiple moves around homelessness projects. It considers these issues and how they relate to best practice, informing the delivery of psychologically informed environments (PIEs).

A qualitative design was employed, with interviews undertaken with men currently residing in hostels for those with additional needs. These men had already experienced multiple moves within the hostel system. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the data.

Main themes consider issues and challenges associated with hope and moving forward; help and the conditional or temporal nature of this; identity and stigma; and intimacy and relationships. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Implications include best practice for future planning with service users, the relational nature of hope, how best to manage endings and practical guidance for service developments in these settings.

These findings further the understanding of the challenges faced by service users with complex needs and how best to address them. They build on PIE guidance, offering tangible advice for practice.