What is Bairns' Hoose?
A Bairns' Hoose, based on the Icelandic model, ‘Barnahus’ (child’s house), bringing together services in a ‘four room’ concept - justice, health, social work and recovery support. The aim is to deliver integrated support to best meet the needs of children and young people who are victims of abuse or have witnessed violence as well as children under the age of criminal responsibility whose behaviour (currently 12 years of age) has caused significant harm to others. A key aim of the model is to reduce the number of times children have to recount their experiences.
Why have a Bairns' Hoose?
The Scottish Government’s vision is that by 2026: “All children in Scotland who have been victims or witnesses to abuse or violence, as well as children under the age of criminal responsibility whose behaviour has caused significant harm or abuse will have access, within one setting, to trauma-informed recovery, support and justice.” The Bairns' Hoose Standards set out the full expectations of a Bairns' Hoose in Scotland.
How are we, as a Partnership, planning to deliver a Bairns' Hoose?
In Autumn 2022 Aberdeen City’s Public Protection Chief Officers Group unanimously committed to delivering an Aberdeen City Bairns' Hoose on a collaborative basis. To enable this, the partnership applied to become a Scottish Government Bairns' Hoose Pathfinder in Autumn 2023. In November 2023 the partnership was notified it was one of 6 partnerships that had been successful in their Pathfinder application.
Being a Pathfinder enables partnerships to bid for some limited Scottish Government funding to support the redevelopment of a building to enable it to fulfil the functions of a Bairns' Hoose. It’s important to recognise that there are aspects to the support and intervention delivered by a Bairns' Hoose which are not currently funded for. The Pathfinder phase will run up to 2027.
The building we identified as our Bairns' Hoose offers flexibility in terms of the physical space required for a Bairns' Hoose as well as good transport links.
Central to delivery and development of our Bairns' Hoose is the Scottish Child Interview Model (SCIM). The SCIM model went live in Aberdeen City in November 2022.
Building on our existing partnership and alignment with the Fit Like Service, Children First will work to develop a trauma recovery service. Children’s Rights and advocacy will be central to this role. This activity will build on the ongoing efforts to capture the voice and views of children, young people and families going through child protection processes. Their voices have directly influenced the planning for the design of the proposed Bairns' Hoose.
How will we know we are making a difference?
An early Pathfinder activity is to undertake a self-assessment of our current practice against the Bairns' Hoose Standards. This will be repeated at different stages of the Pathfinder phase. In addition, we have partnered with the University of Edinburgh (UofE) to evaluate our delivery of our Bairns' Hoose. This will build on the work the UofE have undertaken with the North Strathclyde partnership who recently opened their Bairns' Hoose in partnership with Children First.