Bairns' Hoose - pathfinder phase: delivery plan 2025 to 2027

5. Bairns’ Hoose Pathfinder phase: next steps

To best support the testing of the Bairns' Hoose Standards and work of the Bairns' Hoose partnerships, the national Bairns' Hoose Pathfinder programme is delivered through five workstreams: analysis, knowledge exchange, quality improvement, participation of children and young people, and funding support.

These workstreams have been developed in close collaboration with partners in the Bairns' Hoose project team and through our wider programme structures, creating a robust framework that powers our collective efforts across Scotland. Together, these interconnected workstreams create a comprehensive support system for partnerships testing the Bairns' Hoose Standards, ensuring we gather crucial learning to inform the Bairns' Hoose blueprint while supporting partnerships to deliver transformative change for children across Scotland.

This chapter outlines the ambitious next steps for each workstream, demonstrating how this coordinated approach is delivering real impact for children and families at their point of need.

5.1 Analysis

The analysis workstream captures crucial learning from across Bairns' Hoose partnerships, providing the robust evidence base needed to develop our national blueprint. Through comprehensive evidence collection, this workstream ensures that Scotland's approach to Bairns' Hoose is informed by real-world experiences across diverse settings, from urban centres to remote islands.

Next Steps

As we move forward, the analysis workstream will focus on:

• Conducting comprehensive qualitative interviews and focus groups with key professionals across partnerships through our collaboration with Ipsos Scotland.
• Analysing funding reports and the StART 2 submissions to track implementation progress.
• Co-developing a draft set of quantitative indicators and reporting template to enable consistent monitoring across all partnerships.
• Publishing a final research report bringing together all learning from across partnerships to inform the Bairns' Hoose blueprint.

Through this systematic approach to gathering and analysing evidence, the analysis workstream ensures that Scotland's Bairns' Hoose model will be built on solid foundations of knowledge, enabling effective incremental national rollout from 2027 onward.

5.2 Knowledge exchange

The knowledge exchange workstream, coordinated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS), facilitates the vital sharing of learning, expertise and best practice across all Bairns' Hoose partnerships and beyond. By creating dynamic forums for collaboration, this workstream ensures our partnerships benefit from both international insight and local innovation, building a vibrant community of practice that strengthens Scotland's implementation of the Barnahus model.

Next Steps

As we move forward, our knowledge exchange workstream will:

• Continue to provide opportunities for partners to learn from progress in Scotland.
• Deliver further international webinar series featuring expertise from established Barnahus or Barnahus-like services.
• Facilitate additional insights series sessions for structured learning and evidence-informed discussion between partnerships.
• Establish a regular pattern of in-person collaborative events with an increased emphasis on partnership-led content and peer learning.
• Maintain and enhance the Bairns’ Hoose website and YouTube channel with webinar recordings and best practice resources.

Through this comprehensive approach, the knowledge exchange workstream ensures that partnerships can learn from each other and international best practice, accelerating our collective journey toward a Scottish Bairns' Hoose model that represents the very best in trauma-informed support for children.

5.3 Quality improvement

The quality improvement workstream provides essential expertise and support to help partnerships develop their local Bairns' Hoose models in ways that are both innovative and aligned with the Bairns’ Hoose Standards. By offering tailored improvement advice and facilitating the sharing of best practice, this workstream ensures partnerships can effectively respond to local needs while maintaining the core principles of the Barnahus approach.

Next Steps

As we move forward, our quality improvement and service design workstream will:

• Continue to provide tailored support to partnerships as they test and implement the Bairns' Hoose Standards in diverse Scottish contexts.
• Help partnerships develop therapeutic support and recovery services, drawing on the rich bank of learning from the Trauma-Informed Roadmap.
• Support workforce development and training to ensure staff across all sectors have the skills and knowledge needed to deliver trauma-informed services.
• Facilitate continuous learning and improvement by connecting partnerships with similar challenges and sharing innovative solutions.

Through this comprehensive approach to quality improvement, the workstream ensures that each Bairns' Hoose partnership can effectively develop services that meet the unique needs of children in their area while maintaining the core principles that make the Barnahus model so effective.

5.4 Participation of children and young people

Children and young people's participation is a cornerstone of the Bairns' Hoose model, recognising their fundamental rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024. This workstream ensures that the voices and experiences of children and young people remain central to both the implementation of Bairns' Hoose at the local level and the development of national policy.

The approach upholds Article 12 of the UNCRC, which enshrines children's right to express their views and be heard in all matters affecting them. This rights-based approach transforms how we design and deliver services for children and young people by creating safe, supportive spaces for their meaningful participation.

Next Steps

As we move forward, our children and young people engagement workstream will:

• Support partnerships to deepen meaningful participation locally, including through the development of additional resources and guidance.
• Further develop the link worker model to ensure children's voices remain central to service design.
• Facilitate work with children and young people with lived experience to contribute directly to the national programme.
• Scope best approaches for meaningful engagement in programme structures, particularly in relation to the development of the Bairns' Hoose blueprint.

This approach ensures that children's voices and experiences remain at the heart of both local implementation and national policy development as we move toward realising the Bairns' Hoose model across Scotland.

5.5 Funding support

The funding support workstream ensures robust financial management and resource allocation to support the development of Bairns' Hoose across Scotland. Working through our independent fund administrator, this workstream maintains the grant monitoring and due diligence processes essential for responsible public spending, while engaging constructively with partners to shape funding criteria that meet evolving needs.

Our funding framework provides tailored financial support across different partnership types and development needs through the Bairns’ Hoose funding streams. This structured approach ensures appropriate resources are available to test the Bairns' Hoose Standards in diverse contexts while enabling innovation in critical areas such as therapeutic support and recovery services.

Next Steps

As we move forward, our funding workstream will:

• Implement the refined funding model for 2025-2027, ensuring sustainable support for partnerships through to the blueprint development phase.
• Continue to manage grant administration and support partnerships in effectively utilising their funding.
• Gather and analyse key learning from funding reports to inform the Bairns' Hoose blueprint and demonstrate the value of the model.
• Maintain constructive engagement with partners to address emerging funding needs.
• Begin planning for funding approaches beyond the Pathfinder phase to support the incremental rollout phase from 2027.

This workstream remains essential to supporting the development of Bairns' Hoose across Scotland, ensuring resources are effectively deployed to test and refine approaches that will inform the national blueprint and subsequent incremental rollout.

5.6 Programme-wide actions

In addition to the workstream milestones outlined above, we will continue to work closely with the National Bairns' Hoose Implementation Group in its crucial role of providing support and advice on the testing of the Bairns’ Hoose Standards.

As we approach spring 2027, our focus will increasingly turn to consolidating learning from the Pathfinder phase to develop the national Bairns’ Hoose blueprint for incremental rollout from summer 2027 supported by a National Bairns’ Hoose Resource Kit. This will include detailed implementation guidance and clear frameworks for governance and quality assurance, ensuring we are fully prepared for this phase.

We are committed to a collaborative approach that brings together the expertise and experiences of all stakeholders. We will continue to work with partners, and children and young people to design approaches and solutions.

Key programme-wide actions include:

• Develop a Bairns' Hoose blueprint through engagement and collaboration with partners and stakeholders.
• Develop an implementation toolkit to support implementation.
• Carry out impact assessments, as appropriate.