The TRUST Project: Supporting Students with Difficult Backgrounds at West Lothian College
Authors
MARGARET FORISKY
Director of Access, Employability, and Schools
West Lothian College
JOANNA HENRY
College Lecturer
West Lothian College
Summary
West Lothian College needed a way to support students with difficult backgrounds, including justice system involvement and past trauma, without requiring them to repeat their story to every new member of staff. The Trust Project uses pre-briefed referral meetings, a dedicated Peer Navigator with lived experience, and regular staff training to build a whole-college, trauma-informed approach.
The challenge
West Lothian College recognised that some students with lived experience of trauma may struggle to fit into a mainstream programme, meaning without support they risk being disadvantaged both financially and academically. Many of the college’s potential students have experienced significant trauma, including abuse, involvement with the justice system, lack of structure, poor previous experiences of education, and a lack of positive role models. In many cases, this past trauma causes difficulty engaging with a busy and noisy college environment.
To support these students, a whole-college approach was needed. This required an institutional culture change, as many college staff were nervous about working with students from challenging backgrounds and uncertain how best to provide support. To welcome these students with compassion, the college needed to consider how it communicated both with and about its students.
The approach
In response, the college initiated the TRUST (Trauma Responsive Unique Support Tailormade) Project, a dedicated pathway designed to support students with difficult backgrounds as they transition into college life. Rather than expecting these students to fit immediately into standard college structures, the Trust provides a carefully managed easing-in period, with a tailored timetable designed to keep students alongside peers who share similar backgrounds and experiences. Where a student is struggling, the timetable can be adapted to their circumstances, such as incorporating counselling or addiction support, or stretching a course over two years where needed. This flexibility means students can remain on their course and continue to receive their bursary, removing a financial barrier that might otherwise force them to leave.
The college embedded compassionate communication into their approach through a range of means:
Referrals into the Trust come from social work, schools, and counselling services, as well as internally from lecturers. The process begins with a basic form, followed by a meeting held with the referring person, not with the student themselves. This means that, by the time they meet the student, the support worker is already informed, meaning the student doesn’t need to tell their story over again. This is a key principle of trauma-informed practice: students are not required to be present at every meeting held about them; instead, information is shared by trusted staff in advance, so that the student arrives already in a safe space, already known, and already supported. Student feedback consistently reflects that they are comfortable with this arrangement and relieved not to have to repeat themselves.
Staff training is delivered through a regular programme called West Lothian Wednesdays, held every third Wednesday and attended by all staff involved in delivery with students. The sessions cover a broad range of topics under the heading of care and wellbeing, bringing in external experts, including trauma specialists and professionals from care backgrounds, to cover areas such as relational practice and de-escalation. Additional in-depth opportunities arise after each session. A recent session featured a college counsellor, who highlighted the availability of counselling services, which many staff hadn’t yet recognised.
Peer support is provided through a Peer Navigator: a member of staff with their own lived experience of trauma, who can offer one-to-one support grounded in genuine understanding. Creating the Peer Navigator role was a unique and deliberate choice to recognise the particular value of an ‘expert by experience.’ At the start of each semester, the Peer Navigator is a visible presence across the college, visiting classes and making themselves known and available, helping students understand they can approach the Peer Navigator without fear of judgement. Staff also recognise and welcome this support.
The impact
As a result of the Trust Project, staff have observed students remaining on their courses where previously they might have left when things became difficult. The flexibility of the Trust model means that when challenges arise, the college can adapt the support around the student rather than to let them fall away. For some students, the focus shifts from achieving a qualification to simply attending, building routine, and gaining practical experience, which is treated as a meaningful and legitimate outcome in its own right. The student, and their goals, remains at the centre.
The Trust supports students in figuring out what they actually want to do, including changing direction if the right course emerges. The emphasis throughout is on ultimate outcomes — getting each student to where they want to go — rather than on following a fixed course structure. The result, over time, is a visible growth in student confidence and a sense of empowerment that, for many of these students, represents a significant and hard-won change.