The 70/30 Initiative

Childhood trauma sits at the root of many of the social and personal problems we see around us, from addiction and poor mental health to domestic abuse, crimininality and educational underachievement. Most of these problems are picked up by public services only long after the damage has been done, at enormous cost both to the people affected and to the public purse.

There is a better way. The evidence now available shows that much of this harm is preventable, and that prevention costs a small fraction of the consequences. The 70/30 initiative exists to make that case, and to build the public and political support needed to act on it.

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What are Adverse Childhood Experiences?

 Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, are stressful events or environments in childhood that have the potential to cause lasting harm. They include emotional, physical and sexual abuse, emotional and physical neglect, and household difficulties such as domestic violence, substance abuse, parental mental illness, parental separation, and having an incarcerated parent.

Psychological trauma is what happens when a person is overwhelmed by stress and cannot return to a sense of safety. When this happens to a child, it can leave a lasting mark on the brain's stress response system, so that the person continues to react to old dangers years after they have passed.

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How ACEs shape a life

The more ACEs a child experiences, the harder it becomes to develop the coping strategies that protect against long-term harm. Every ACE matters, and every one is worth preventing.

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What the evidence shows

Research from the United States, The United Kingdom and internationally now shows that ACEs significantly raise the likelihood of more than eighty negative life outcomes, including suicide attempts, alcoholism, drug addiction, criminality, mental ill-health, heart disease, liver disease and obesity. Around two-thirds of the population have experienced at least one ACE, and one in eight have experienced four or more.

The economic picture is equally stark. in Scotland, around 40 per cent of public spending goes on consequences that earlier action could have prevented, while only a small fraction of spending on children goes on prevention itself. The cost of inaction runs to several billion pounds each year.

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What can be done?

Three things, in order of importance:

Prevent ACEs before they occur, parfticularly in the first 1,001 days from conception to age two. This means supporting parentts to understand the impact of early experiences, helping them manage the pressures that can lead to harm, and ensuring that young children grow up in environments where their brains can develop healthily. This is the single most ppwerful lever available.

Train frontline workers to work in a trauma-informed way. Teachers, social workers, health visitors, police officers and prison staff who understand trauma can transform the impact of the services they deliver, both for the people they work with and for their own wellbeing.

Build trauma-aware communities in which understanding of ACEs and their impact is widely shared, so that the responsibility for preventing and healing trauma is carried by the whole of society rather than left to specialist services alone.

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The Commission of Inquiry

in 2022 the Cross Party Group for the Prevention and Healing of Adverse Childhood Experiences, in the Scottish Parliament, established a Commission of Inquiry to examine how the 70/30 objective could be delivered in Scotland. The Commission. chaired by Sir Harry BUrns, has now published its findings under the title Transforming Scotland in a Generation.

The Commission's reports will soon be available to download, and in the meantime, anyone wishing to see them can contact

Anthoulla Koutsoudi at [email protected]