Bairns’ Hoose in Scotland

A child-centred approach to justice, care and recovery.

Bairns’ Hoose is Scotland’s approach to the Icelandic ‘Barnahus’, which means ‘children’s house’. Bairns’ Hoose provides Scotland with an opportunity to provide a genuinely child-centred approach to delivering justice, care and recovery for children who have experienced trauma, including, but not only, child sexual abuse.

Bairns’ Hoose is about connecting services around the needs of the child by collaborating across agencies and disciplines. This focuses on bringing together child protection, health, justice and recovery services in one setting. It’s important to reduce the number of times children are asked to retell their stories as this can be difficult and retraumatising. Instead, trauma-informed practice is prioritised to support the child’s recovery in a safe, respectful, friendly, and welcoming environment.

The values underpinning Bairns’ Hoose are that:

• We are child-centred, trauma-informed and respect the rights and wellbeing of the child at all times
• We provide consistent and holistic support, which enables children to have their voice heard, access specialist services and recover from their experiences
• We aim to prevent children being retraumatised and to improve the experience of the justice process for children and families
• We demonstrate connectedness and national leadership to uphold children’s rights to protection, support, participation and recovery

In October 2023, Scottish Government launched the Pathfinder Phase of Bairns’ Hoose. With this launch came the announcement of six Pathfinders (Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Fife, North Strathclyde, the Outer Hebrides, and Tayside) who will help test how Bairns’ Hoose works in different contexts and the support required to achieve this.

Scottish Government also announced four Affiliate partnerships, Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Sycamore Partnership (Edinburgh, East Lothian and Midlothian), who are offered lighter touch support and earlier access to funding. Scottish Government believe it is important to keep the momentum of Bairns’ Hoose strong across Scotland in order to reach the ambition of every eligible child having access to this support.

Scottish Government continue to support Pathfinder and Affiliate partnerships, and the Pathfinder Phase will run until 2027 to allow time to test, learn and develop, ensuring Bairns’ Hoose is adapted to the variety of communities in Scotland.

It is important that children and young people engage in the process of developing Bairns’ Hoose and have their voices heard. To help inform the development of Scotland-specific Bairns’ Hoose Standards, children and young people were asked what Barnahus means to them. One young person described it as, “A safe place that is comfortable where children have the freedom to get on with their lives and not worry.”[1]

Continuing this work on engaging young people, Scottish Government also work in partnership with Children 1st for the Changemakers project. The Changemakers are a group of young people from across Scotland, including those who are recovering from trauma, who share their views and ideas to impact decision-making regarding Bairns’ Hoose.  One young person described the importance of Bairns’ Hoose:

“When I went to court, I had to sit in an empty box room with no windows, no sweets or anything and a few broken toys. I was 9 years old. If you’re coming from dealing with something terrible you don’t want to come to somewhere broken when you already feel broken. It’s good to know kids can come to the Bairns Hoose and it’s a safe place.”[2]

We listen to children and young people’s voices and aim to meet the needs they describe, helping them to recover and ultimately, flourish.

Children 1st are key partners in the North Strathclyde Bairns’ Hoose, which is already operational and delivering protection, care and recovery support to children and young people. It is brilliant to see each of the Pathfinder and Affiliate areas progress, and we are delighted by the recent launch of the Highland Bairns’ Hoose partnership in May. Milestones like these are key in ensuring that Bairns’ Hoose happens wherever the child is, finding creative solutions to deliver the best support possible across the range of communities in Scotland.

If you would like to learn more about Bairns’ Hoose, you can visit our website: www.bairnshoosescotland.com

[1] Glasgow Initiative of Facilitation and Therapy on behalf of Moira Anderson Foundation, INTERIM REPORT Engaging with children and young people: what does Barnahus mean to them? 2021, Barnahus Report — Glasgow Initiative of Facilitation & Therapy (giftscotland.co.uk), p.19.

[2] Transforming Care, Justice and Recovery for Children, Children 1st website, Bairns Hoose | Children 1st | Children 1st

End of page.