School of Social and Political Science

Description

Bairns’ Hoose is a model of multi-agency and multi-disciplinary working being developed in Scotland which draws on the internationally recognised, evidence-based Barnahus model for responding to reports or disclosures of harm or abuse in children. Barnahus, which means ‘children’s house’ in Icelandic, is based on the concept of having ‘four rooms’ comprised of child protection, health, justice and recovery services working together to best meet the needs and rights of child victims and witnesses of violence and abuse under ‘one roof’. It seeks to support children in a way that avoids re-traumatisation through different agencies repeating interviews, lack of joined-up systems and support, and the imposition of processes which are not child-centred. Dr Mary Mitchell at the University of Edinburgh is leading on a number of formative evaluations of the implementation of the Bairns’ Hoose model. The 3-year-evaluation of Scotland’s first Bairns’ Hoose in North Strathclyde has just concluded, with work recently started on an evaluation of the Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City pathfinders. 

Key learning so far has highlighted the importance of: strong partnership between agency partners; common values, shared vision and clear governance processes; a child-centred and trauma-informed space; and a clear recovery model which supports a holistic view of the child alongside more clinical therapeutic support. Within this context, the importance of a robust evaluation of the service development and delivery is clear. It is hoped that learning from the evaluation will inform the wider rollout of the Barnahus model across Scotland and make a significant international contribution to the theory and practice of working with children affected by violence and abuse.

“The ambition of the Bairns’ Hoose is transformational change for children, young people and their families when they experience child protection and justice processes.”

                                Professor John Devaney, Centenary Chair and Head of Social Work

North Strathclyde Bairns' Hoose

In April 2020, Children 1st, Victim Support Scotland, Children England and the University of Edinburgh came together to develop Scotland’s first Bairns’ Hoose in North Strathclyde. This was the first time the model had been developed and tested within Scotland, and only the second service informed by the model within the UK. Led by Children 1st, this three-year demonstration project (2021-2024) was funded Postcode Dream Fund, which was raised entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. North Strathclyde Bairns’ Hoose provides support for children (and their families) living in the North Strathclyde (East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and Renfrewshire) area of Scotland. As part of the partnership agreement, the University of Edinburgh agreed to carry out the evaluation of the project. 

The formative evaluation has had two distinct phases and has been was framed by the overarching question of: 

‘How does the Children 1st/ North Strathclyde Bairns’ Hoose contribute to the Safety, Justice, Recovery and Recognition of children (and their families) who use the service?’

Phase One was undertaken between November 2021 and December 2022, prior to the opening of the North Strathclyde Bairns’ Hoose. This phase focused on two key areas: 

• understanding the context children and families’ current experiences of services in North Strathclyde after abuse and maltreatment (the system as is), and 
• understanding the processes through which the Bairns’ Hoose is developing. 

Phase One findings can be found in North Strathclyde Bairns Hoose Evaluation Phase One Report. 

Phase Two of the formative evaluation covers the first months of the opening of the service from August 2023 – April 2024, and provides learning on the initial operation of the service from different perspectives including children and young people, family members and professionals.

Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Bairns’ Hoose Pathfinders

In October 2023, the Scottish Government announced funding for six key pathfinder partnerships in Fife, North Strathclyde, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Tayside and the Outer Hebrides. These pathfinders are intended to act as early test sites for the application of the Scottish Barnahus Standards across different regions and operational contexts. In January 2024 the University of Edinburgh agreed to partner with Aberdeenshire Council and Aberdeen City Council’s Bairns’ Hoose Pathfinder projects on their implementation journeys. Learning from these pathfinders will inform the next, full pilot stage of the project across Scotland. 

What is a Barnahus?

The Barnahus model was established in Iceland in 1998, informed by Children’s Advocacy Centres in North America. It is a rights-based model, and, although implemented differently in different contexts, it is guided by a shared set of standards (Lind Haldorsson, 2021). It was inspired by Children’s Advocacy Centres set up in the USA in the 1980s, but diverged in the way that the model became embedded in the country’s child protection legislative systems and sought to avoid children requiring to be present in court.

The Barnahus model has grown in influence across Europe. It is an internationally recognised evidence-based model for children and families affected by violence and abuse. It seeks to provide a child-friendly space under one roof where law enforcement, criminal justice, child protective services, and medical and mental health workers cooperate and assess together the situation of the child and decide upon the follow-up. In some countries, the prosecutor will decide if it is a likely criminal offence before the child is admitted to Barnahus. In other countries, children are directly referred to Barnahus by social services or the police. An investigative interview will take place, and a forensic medical examination of the child may be required. Police will investigate the situation around the alleged criminal offence, and lawyers and representatives of the judiciary will be involved. The need for short-term and long-term therapeutic and family support will also be assessed. 

Evaluation team

North Strathclyde Bairns Hoose Evaluation Reports (Phase 1 and Phase 2)

Download the North Strathclyde Bairns Hoose Evaluation: Phase One Report.

Download the The Story So Far: North Strathclyde Bairns Hoose Evaluation Phase 2 Report

 

Publications and outputs

Mitchell, M., Lundy, L., Hill L (2023) Children’s Human Rights to ‘Participation’ and ‘Protection’: rethinking the relationship using Barnahus as a case example in Child Abuse Review Vol 32, Issue 6  http://doi.org/10.1002/car.2820

Mitchell, M., Warrington, C., Devaney, J., Lavoie J. and Yates, P. (2023) North Strathclyde Bairns Hoose Evaluation: Phase One Report. Child Safety, Justice and Recovery Group, University of Edinburgh

Hill, L., Lundy, L. and Mitchell, M. (2021) Building a culture of participation in Barnahus: Implementing Children’s Right to Participate in Decision-Making. The Council of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat

Building a culture of participation in justice and recovery for child victims (Webinar)
This session was held at the World Congress on Justice with Children 2021. The session introduces how Barnahus in Europe have involved children in their work, and explores ways of embedding child participation into safe and informed pathways to justice for children. The session draws on a Promise paper on building a participatory culture in Barnahus and the Lundy model of child participation.

Lavoie, J., Hemady, C., Mitchell, M., Devaney, J., Hill, L., (2021)  Responding to Child Victims and Witnesses of Trauma and Abuse: Addressing the Support Needs of Children and Families Through the Barnahus Model
University of Edinburgh for Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

Lavoie, J., Devaney, J., Mitchell, M., Bunting L., Miller, A. and Hill, L. (2022) Putting the Child at the Centre: Barnahus (Children’s House) - a one-door approach to supporting children who have been sexually abused in Northern Ireland. University of Edinburgh for Northern Ireland Children and Young People’s Commissioner. 

Powers, L., Mitchell, M. and Allaggia, R. (2022)  Trauma Informed Multi-disciplinary Working in the Bairns Hoose - Briefing Note FIN.pdf Briefing Note of Round Table Event, 22 November, 2022

Relevant links

• The University of Edinburgh Bulletin: The Barnahus: Scotland’s first Child’s House for Healing 
• The University of Edinburgh: New centre will offer safety for children exposed to crime
• Children 1st: Scotland’s first Barnahus: transforming care, justice and recovery for children 
• Barnahus Network
• Scottish Government vision for the Scottish Barnahus
• Scottish Government Bairns’ Hoose Project Plan

Barnahus Evaluation Blog

‘Sitting with hope’? Evaluating system change for children after violence and abuse

by Camille Warrington

In a recent interview – part of the North Strathclyde Bairns Hoose evaluation - a third sector practitioner described how children and families, who seek support after an experience of violence or abuse, were often left ‘sitting with hope’ for services which in many cases did not materialise or have resources to fulfil their perceived promises. Listening to the palpable frustration of this practitioner I was struck by the potential cruelty of systems that ask children and families, usually at highly vulnerable moments, to invest trust in them, before failing to adequately meet their needs. It’s a dynamic, which though unintentional, feels all the more punishing given the betrayals of trust that lead children to engage with services in the first place. It’s also undoubtedly part of explaining why systems designed to help can be experienced as re-traumatising. While such shortcomings are rarely the fault of an individual professional - or even a service - they highlight fault lines that emerge between siloed services resulting in poorly coordinated support for children and families.

Such pervasive dynamics will be familiar and recognisable to those working across child protection, mental health, education, and the justice system. Indeed existing research means we already know a fair deal about the shortcomings of welfare and justice support for child victims and their families. Such work mirrors emerging evidence emerging from our own evaluation, and recent Scottish Government research which demonstrates how children and family’s welfare needs can be undermined by justice system requirements - despite policy intentions to avoid this. 

The challenge thus remains: how to foster hope and engagement among children and families - supporting them to see a pathway through and beyond traumatic experiences - while ensuring expectations are carefully managed and unrealistic promises avoided? 

The Barnahus model

It is into this context that the Barnahus model (or Bairns Hoose), arrives in Scotland with ambitious objectives to deliver systems change for young victims of abuse and their families[1]. The first iteration of the Bairns Hoose has been driven and developed by a partnership led by third sector organisation Children 1st with police, health, social work and justice in the North Strathclyde region of Scotland.

The Bairns Hoose is based on the Icelandic Barnahus model developed in 1998 and designed to meet children’s welfare and justice needs after identification of abuse or maltreatment. The model itself was inspired by (and innovated on) Child Advocacy Centres in the USA (now also present in Canada and Australia). It has subsequently been adapted across 22 European countries. Critical characteristics of the model include co-located multi-disciplinary services[2] spanning child protection, health, recovery and justice; and service delivery within a space that is safe, comfortable, welcoming and age appropriate – often referred to as a ‘child friendly space’.  Though every iteration is different, cross country collaboration has endeavoured to ensure that a shared set of standards and principles ground the model within diverse cultural and legislative contexts.

As Scotland moves closer towards implementation of the Barnahus model, the system itself can be seen to be ‘sitting with hope’: aware of its own shortcomings and keen to invest in a model which addresses them. During early stages of the evaluation, here in Scotland, I’ve been struck by the widespread buy in for the model, and the enthusiasm it garners. From early contacts, meetings and interviews with stakeholders, the palpable passion for the model is clear – spanning individuals from diverse professions and disciplines. Such support and momentum has no doubt influenced ambitious pledges from the Scottish Government to ensure all children in Scotland have access to a Barnahus by 2025 and plans to minimise child victims and witnesses court contact. Part of the appeal for the model may also lie in its tangible, practical nature – a system which rooted in multi- disciplinary work but largely delivered from a single building and centred on consistent relationships around the child and family. Subsequently it provides a vision that can be easily imagined and shared - embodying hopes to simplify and contain the complex systems navigated by children and families. 

Evaluation of this system

The next steps on this journey in North Strathclyde and beyond will be critical. They will indicate the degree to which Bairns Hoose can deliver on policy commitments and meet ambitious hopes invested in the model to deliver the significant system. 

As evaluators, our job is to capture learning along this journey, supporting the laudable ‘test, learn, develop’ principles of the partnership. This includes capturing other people’s hopes and documenting to what degree they are fulfilled while also recognising that the nature of expectations are themselves diverse. Indeed we have already seen from phase one of our evaluation how different stakeholders and individuals sit alongside one another with slightly different visions or priorities for the future system – and that this can bring both challenges and innovation. The approach adopted by our team to complete this work this draws on realist evaluation – often used to research complex and dynamic systems. Crudely speaking, realist evaluation aims to understand not only what and if an intervention delivers – but also why and how – unpicking the mechanisms, context and relationships that lead to change and considering how these may differ for different individuals in different circumstances. 

The task feels both daunting and exciting. Getting to travel alongside such significant system change from an early stage is nothing short of a privilege. And here we sit with our own hopes: for rich transferable learning; and knowledge about the system change required to ensure future children and families own hopes for safety, justice and support after harm are never misplaced.
 

[1] The Child’s House for Healing follows only one other UK Barnahus model - a sexual abuse specific iteration - The Lighthouse which serves North London.

[2] While precedents for co-location of multi-disciplinary teams exist in UK children’s services exist they rarely bring the breadth of professional representation of this model which brings health, social care, police, the crown office and third sector partners together.

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