School of Social and Political Science

Background

I am a Research Fellow on the Bairns' Hoose (Barnahus) Pathfinders partnership with Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City local authorities. The Barnahus model (the word means 'children's house' in Icelandic) is a multi-disciplinary, child protection, justice, health and recovery approach to supporting children who have been victims of or witnesses to abuse. The Scottish Government is funding six Bairns' Hoose ‘pathfinders’ (2024-2025) with the aim of trialling and understanding Bairns' Hoose in different contexts across different areas of Scotland. The pathfinder phase of this project offers an early opportunity to learn about and evaluate what will be involved in the future implementation of the Bairns' Hoose model nationally across Scotland.

I am a qualified social worker and previously worked in residential child care and statutory children and families settings. My doctoral research was funded by an ESRC 1+3 Studentship and examined layperson decision-making in the Children's Hearings system, Scotland's care and justice tribunal system for children and young people. I have been teaching and tutoring in the School of Social and Political Science at the university since 2017.