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This report highlights the progress made towards developing a national Bairns’ Hoose model, sets out revised overarching actions for 2025 to 2027 and provides a detailed delivery plan for the Pathfinder phase.

Introduction

The ambition of Bairns' Hoose, based on the Icelandic Barnahus (child's house) model, is that all children in Scotland who have been victims or witnesses of abuse or violence, which has caused, or is likely to cause, significant harm will have access to trauma-informed recovery, support and justice. This approach aims to create a more inclusive, compassionate, and supportive system for all children and young people in need of this support.

The delivery of Bairns’ Hoose in Scotland will support existing systems and processes to adapt to the needs of children, and to carry forward practices which streamline and embrace child-focused and trauma-informed approaches. One of the central aims of Bairns’ Hoose is to deliver whole family support while improving outcomes for children, young people and families as they recover from trauma.

Since launching the Pathfinder phase in October 2023, we have made substantial progress in supporting Bairns’ Hoose partnerships to test the Bairns' Hoose Standards across Scotland. Our six Pathfinder and four Affiliate partnerships are testing and developing approaches that will inform our national blueprint. This work has been further validated by Bragi Gudbrandsson, founder of the Barnahus model, during his visit to Scotland in October 2024. Reflecting on his tour of the partnerships, he stated that:

“I am truly impressed by Scotland’s commitment to implementing the Bairns’ Hoose model. Throughout my tour, I have witnessed firsthand the dedication and innovative approaches taken by each partnership. Scotland is uniquely positioned to adapt the Barnahus concept, given its robust child protection system and the incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The progress made in just one year is remarkable, and I’m confident that Scotland is setting a new standard in child-centred, trauma-informed care and support that will inspire others across Europe and beyond.”

We are also pleased to be supporting a number of development partnerships to support their early journey towards implementing Bairns’ Hoose, and build momentum in these areas to pave the way for incremental rollout of Bairns’ Hoose.

We are taking a phased approach to the implementation of Bairns’ Hoose to create a system that works nationally for Scotland. This allows time to build in the learning and evaluation needed to ensure that the Bairns’ Hoose model is achieving the correct outcomes and is aligned with other key policy objectives. Following extensive stakeholder engagement and learning during the initial Pathfinder stage in early 2024, Ministers agreed to extend the Pathfinder phase to spring 2027. This extension reflects our commitment to listening to stakeholders and getting the fundamentals right to ensure we have sufficient time to test and refine transformative approaches in trauma-informed recovery, support and justice before national implementation begins in 2027.

The complexity of multi-agency working within and across geographical boundaries, combined with our dedication to trauma-informed, rights-based, and child-centred care, requires this careful and considered approach.

This refreshed Pathfinder Phase Delivery Plan builds on collective achievements across Scotland and learning from 2023 to 2025, as well as the progress prior to launching the Pathfinder phase, and sets out our path forward from 2025 to 2027. It details how we will continue to develop and refine the Bairns' Hoose programme through our established governance structures, including the National Bairns' Hoose Implementation Group, while maintaining our focus on ensuring that children's voices and experiences remain at the heart of our approach. It also outlines the plan for the Bairns’ Hoose blueprint which will articulate the Bairns’ Hoose model for a Scottish context, and inform the incremental rollout of Bairns’ Hoose. These proposals will be subject to detailed discussion with key partners, including all Bairns’ Hoose delivery partnerships and members of the National Bairns' Hoose Implementation Group.

The Delivery Plan sits alongside the Bairns' Hoose Vision, values and approach, which outlines our Strategic context that all children in Scotland who have been victims or witnesses of abuse or violence which has caused, or is likely to cause, significant harm will have access to trauma-informed recovery, support and justice.

Bairns’ Hoose will also ensure that any child under the age of criminal responsibility whose behaviour may have caused serious harm or abuse will have access to trauma-informed, needs-focused support and recovery.

The implementation of Bairns' Hoose in Scotland remains a key priority in improving our healthcare, child protection, and criminal justice systems for children who have experienced trauma. Since its inception, this transformative approach has been embedded in several key policy frameworks and commitments, including the Keeping the Promise Implementation Plan; the Best Start, Bright Futures: Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022 to 2026; Refreshed Equally Safe Strategy 2023; and successive Programme for Government commitments since 2021.

In our Programme for Government 2025 to 2026, Scottish Ministers have committed to testing our approach to Bairns’ Hoose across ten areas – providing safe, trauma-informed environments for child victims and witnesses to get the support and recovery services they need – ahead of incremental national rollout from 2027.

The implementation of Bairns’ Hoose will critically help to support Scotland’s national ambitions to plan and deliver services which improve outcomes for children, young people and families; to improve public services; to deliver holistic whole family support under the ‘Getting it right for every child’ approach, and to realise the Vision for Justice in Scotland.

A coordinated and collaborative approach across justice, police, health, social work, and the third sector continues to be key for the development, implementation, and evaluation of Bairns' Hoose. We will continue to pursue international collaboration and learning from other countries implementing Barnahus or Barnahus-like models, while recognising the need for careful alignment with our own frameworks and policy developments.

Through our Pathfinder phase to spring 2027, we are strengthening these alignments while developing an evidence base through the work of our analysis workstream. We are committed to thoroughly test and refine our approaches, ensuring they work effectively across different geographical and organisational contexts.

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