Establishing Bairns’ Hoose in Scotland
The story so far…
Bringing the international Barnahus model to Scotland has been a long-standing ambition for the Scottish Government. It is closely aligned with the Scottish Government’s commitment to Getting it Right For Every Child (GIRFEC), meaning that children, young people and their families will get the right support at the right time.
Barnahus was first established in Iceland in 1997, by Bragi Guðbrandsson, who was director of the Icelandic Government Child Protection Agency at the time. The model spread to other Nordic countries and began to be adopted more widely across Europe. The Barnahus Network was established in 2019 to support the adoption and alignment of Barnahus practice across Europe.
Work on Scotland’s National Bairns’ Hoose Standards also began in 2019, with the formation of a Standards Development Group who worked to adapt the European Barnahus Quality Standards for a Scottish setting. Scotland-specific Bairns’ Hoose Standards, developed in conjunction with Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate reflect best practice from the Nordic countries. Published in May 2023, the Standards are the outcome of a great collective effort to provide a solid grounding for Barnahus in Scotland.
Scotland’s Justice Secretary and Childcare Minister visited Iceland’s Barnahus in 2017 and former First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon visited in 2021, providing valuable insights into the model working in practice. These connections have been invaluable in informing the Scottish approach.
Bringing Barnahus to Scotland (as Bairns’ Hoose) has been a long standing, cross cutting policy ambition and will help to achieve national ambitions to plan and deliver services which improve outcomes for children, young people and families, to deliver holistic whole family support, and realise Scotland’s Vision for Justice. It is a key action in the Keeping the Promise Implementation Plan, the ‘Best Start, Bright Futures: Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022 to 2026’ and Refreshed Equally Safe Strategy 2023. Ministers have made a commitment for Bairns’ Hoose in our Programme for Government since 2021.
The overall vision of Bairns’ Hoose in Scotland is that all children in Scotland who have been victims of or witnesses to abuse or violence, as well children under the age of criminal responsibility who may have caused harm or abuse, will have access to trauma informed recovery, support and justice.
We are following a phased approach to implementation, to help us create a system that works for all children across Scotland. That means adopting a model that can be adapted to local requirements whilst guaranteeing the same quality of care.
We published a suite of documents on 1 June 2023, including our refreshed vision, values and approach, and Children and young people: participation and engagement plan which sets out our approach to participation and engagement, and the actions we will take. Through this, we will make sure that Bairns’ Hoose services best reflect the lived experience and views of those who matter most – the children and young people, and families of the children, who have experienced trauma.