Forth Valley Partnership is undertaking work to consider options for developing a Bairns’ Hoose model for the area.

The Forth Valley Partnership, which includes NHS Forth Valley, Police Scotland and the local authorities from Clackmannanshire, Falkirk & Stirling, has commenced an exercise to establish whether it is feasible to set up a ‘Bairns’ Hoose’ in the Forth Valley area. The work is focused on supporting the Scottish Government’s national ambition to improve outcomes for children, young people and families by planning and delivering services in a manner to realise Scotland’s Vision for Justice.

What is Bairns’ Hoose?

Bairns’ Hoose is Scotland’s approach to the Icelandic ‘Barnahus’, which means ‘children’s house’. Bairns’ Hoose aspires to provide holistic, child-centred support to those who have been victims or witness of abuse and to children, under the age of criminal responsibility, whose behaviour has caused harm. The model is based on a ‘four-room approach’ that aims to bring child protection, health, justice and therapeutic recovery services together in seamless care delivery. It is hoped this will reduce the number of times children are asked to retell their story and enable better multi-agency working.

Forth Valley Partnership has only just begun to explore a potential Bairns’ Hoose service; however you can find out more about the six Pathfinder services across Scotland that are helping to facilitate Scottish Government’s vision for national implementation.

Children First has been asked to undertake two elements of this ambitious project:

Mapping

To support our understanding of how to progress towards the Bairns’ Hoose approach, Children First has been asked to undertake a mapping of the local context, including information relating to geographical and organisational boundaries. Children First will also gather data from agencies to develop an understanding of where current services are based, how these are accessed and levels of demand. This data will help Forth Valley Partnership consider the current child protection and justice journey for children, identify strengths and what works well just now, as well as highlight any gaps or inconsistencies for children.

Participation of young people

Forth Valley Partnership is committed to conducting meaningful participation of young people, to capture their stories and voices in order to inform the Bairns’ Hoose development work.  To support this, Children First will work with local providers who are already in contact with, and connected to, young people who are participating in co-design work, to agree how the participation will work best for them. We anticipate that the development phase of this work will help to inform the priorities and delivery plan for 2025/26.

We would like to hear from you if:

• you are an adult or a team which supports children and young people who have been subject to child protection and/ or interviewed by the Joint Interview Team, or are a witness or victim of a crime with experience of the justice system.
• you are supporting a child, young person or family who has experience of the child protection and justice process and you think they may want to share their views on this.

The Bairns’ Hoose values are underpinned by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), while also aligning with key policy programmes of Keeping The Promise and Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC), which recognise that all children must receive the right help at the right time.

In collaboration with Children First, the Forth Valley Partnership is focused on three activity streams that aim to capture the lived experience of children, young people and their families who:

• have engaged with the current NHS Forth Valley forensic medical pathway
• are approaching their 18^th birthday and require support to transition between child and adult services.
• Have experienced the NHS Forth Valley therapeutic recovery service and the referral pathway