Becoming a member of ARC will open up professional and educational pathways within a membership platform with readily available resources, regional workshops, panel discussions and virtual events that allow our members to network and support each other.
The ARC Audit tool was compiled by: Dr Adele Thacker, Marianne Doonan, Dr Sarah Cooper, Lizzie Watt, Dr Heather Webb Jones, Melynda Walton and Dr Anne Marie McBlain. Permission to use this document has been given exclusively to The Attachment Research Community (ARC). The purpose of this self-assessment audit tool is to support educational settings to reflect on core areas of knowledge, understanding, applied practice and organisational systems, which support development of TIAA (Trauma Informed Attachment Aware practice).
The ARC Audit is a partner self-evaluation tool to sit alongside the ARC MATRIX; which can support conversations in school around self-evaluation. The goal is to work towards developing trauma responsive organisational change, while remembering that this is a journey not a destination. All settings need systems, which are inclusive, holistic and equitable.
Settings are encouraged to recognise strengths and next areas to develop which lead to an action plan in relation to these next steps. These can be incorporated into the SIP and SEF. Please see the glossary for an explanation of terms used within the audit. The MATRIX, which is cross-referenced to OFSTED criteria, can then be used to gather evidence and support the embedding of practice. The audit tool can be used as a means to orientate a setting, an overview of their AATI journey.
The recommended ARC journey, no matter the extent of the school or settings TIAA journey, would be to begin with the completion of the audit. By completing the audit, schools and settings will be able to orientate where to start, establish what they have already done and plan next steps, knowing explicitly what is involved; across the whole school system. The audit tool is a comparable document that can be completed every 12 months to assess progression and refocus school leadership teams during their TIAA journey, and will help to build 12 monthly development plans, showing areas in need of improvement; allowing a clear progressive pathway for training and professional development.
Following each bespoke development plan, settings will start to gather evidence, resources, evaluations and examples of best practice and populate their ARC MATRIX, following the guidelines and criteria provided within the self assessment tool. The ARC MATRIX tool allows education professionals within a school/setting to collaboratively work on sections, assign topics to individuals and assess the progression of the settings journey; whilst aligning with Ofsted grading criteria.
Each setting has the option to work on The ARC MATRIX on an individual school approach, alongside the support and guidance of their Virtual School and EP service, as well as having the opportunity to share their findings with colleagues in external settings at a local, regional and national level.