Pathfinder Phase

The Pathfinder Phase of the Bairns’ Hoose programme was launched in October 2023 with the announcement of six Pathfinder Partnerships and four Affiliate Partnerships. The announcement marked a significant milestone for the development of Bairns’ Hoose in Scotland setting out our ambition for continued collaborative work with all Partnerships as we capture learning from a range of geographical and operating contexts which will allow us to understand and address the complexity of the required systemic change.

The Pathfinder partnership areas are Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Fife, North Strathclyde, the Outer Hebrides, and Tayside.

The Affiliate partnerships are Ayrshire, Dumfries & Galloway, Sycamore Partnership (Edinburgh, East Lothian and Midlothian), and Highland Affiliate partnerships. Affiliate partnerships are offered lighter touch project support to develop their work towards implementing the Bairns’ Hoose model in their area.

The Pathfinder phase aims to test the Bairns’ Hoose Standards, inform the development of a Bairns’ Hoose blueprint, and identify learning around methods, practices and resources required for implementation. The Pathfinder partnerships will form part of a quality improvement and service design process to identify how the Standards may be applied in different contexts, including remote or islands areas.

The learning identified during this phase will help develop a Blueprint for a national Bairns’ Hoose model in Scotland. This will then be used in an incremental rollout of Bairns’ Hoose following the Pathfinder Phase.

Scottish Ministers have agreed to extend the Pathfinder phase of the Bairns’ Hoose programme to spring 2027. This extension follows broad engagement with key stakeholder groups, who were strongly in favour of an extension to the Pathfinder programme. In operationalising this extension, we want to strike the right balance – ensuring that we move at pace to implement the model whilst also building in the necessary time to ensure learning from the Pathfinder phase.

Scottish Government investment in Bairns’ Hoose
The Scottish Government has invested £2.6m in 2023-24 and £7.23m in 2024-25 to support the Pathfinder phase of Bairns’ Hoose development and to enable Pathfinder partnerships to test the Bairns’ Hoose Standards in different contexts to support the design of a national Bairns’ Hoose model.