National Bairns' Hoose Implementation Group minutes: January 2025

Attendees and apologies

 

• Andrew Watson (Chair), Scottish Government
• Alan Hope, Tayside
• Alistair Hogg, Scottish Children's Reporter Administration
• Anna Donald, Scottish Government
• Carolann Passey, Outer Hebrides
• Charles Rocks, Dumfries and Galloway
• Danielle McLaughlin, Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service
• Edward Doyle, Scottish Government
• Graeme Simpson, Aberdeen City
• Jane Simcox, Ayrshire
• Janet Blair, Sycamore
• Jennifer Nesbitt Thomson, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
• Jillian Ingram, National Joint Investigative Interviewing team and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities
• Jillian Taylor, Scottish Executive Nurse Directors
• Justine Craig, Scottish Government
• Kate Rocks, North Strathclyde
• Kelly Gallagher, Scottish Government
• Louise Langfield (acting as deputy for Kerry Milligan), Public Protection Health Representative
• Iona Mitchell (acting as deputy for Leigh Jolly), Aberdeenshire
• Lesley Swanson, Scottish Government
• Mary Glasgow, North Strathclyde
• Neil Ferguson, NHS Regional Planner Representative
• Nicola McGovern (replacing Carron McKellar on the Group), Police Scotland
• Olivia Robertson, Fife
• Sarah Hill, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• Sarah Kerr, Scottish Government
• Sharon Glasgow, Social Work Scotland
• William Griffiths, Scottish Government
• Shawnna von Blixen-Finecke, Barnahus Network (External Adviser)

Apologies

• Brian Taylor, Scottish Government
• Donna-Marie Munro, Highland
• Yuki Tsujino, Scottish Government

Guests

• Clare Cunning, North Strathclyde (guest)
• Grace Gilling, NHS Tayside (presenter)
• Franca Macleod, Scottish Government (presenter)
• Dafni Dima, Scottish Government (presenter)

Items and actions

Welcome and apologies (agenda item 1)

The Chair welcomed colleagues to the second meeting of the group and noted the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise would be joining the meeting at 10:45am to provide a ministerial update and would be staying to listen to the spotlight sessions on Bairns’ Hoose partnerships. 

The Chair facilitated a round of introductions 

Minutes and actions (agenda item 2)

The Chair noted that minutes have been circulated and the actions that had been completed. He also noted a couple of actions that could be updated as follows: 

• An updated Bairns’ Hoose vision would be shared in coming weeks for input from group members.
• The Terms of Reference was being finalised following discussion with group members on a couple of outstanding points. The final version will be shared shortly for agreement.

A request was made to ensure the minutes of the September meeting reflected Jillian Ingram’s role representing both the National JII team and COSLA. A clarification was also made that the note of the previous meeting should make clear it was the National JII Governance group that had its final meeting, not the JII National team. 

Actions

• updated Bairns’ Hoose vision to be shared for input from NBHIG
• terms of reference to be circulated once finalised
• minute of September meeting to be updated and finalised

Ministerial update (agenda item 3)

The Chair invited the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise, Ms Don-Innes, to provide a Ministerial update to group members. Ms Don-Innes acknowledged the progress made by Bairns’ Hoose partnerships in testing the Standards in their local areas. She noted the positive developments of the programme and highlighted the value of the anniversary event in Aberdeen last October in bringing together partners and sharing learning. 

Ms Don-Innes emphasised the progress being made in transforming how we support our most vulnerable children, which we see this through a number of areas having established Bairns’ Hooses, or are in the process of establishing a Bairns’ Hoose. 

She highlighted that while the achievements represent progress they still highlight the challenges ahead and reflected on the value of this group in addressing some of these key challenges. 

The Minister stated that the Government remains committed to the full Pathfinder phase of Bairns’ Hoose through to 2027 and that the Scottish budget is making good progress through parliamentary processes, assuring that 2025 to 2026 funding for Bairns’ Hoose will be no less than this year with an indicative increase agreed spend of up to £9 million.

She highlighted that the progress being made through the working groups and knowledge exchange programme demonstrates our commitment to gathering learning of how the Bairns’ Hoose Standards work in practice and using this to underpin continuous improvement

Spotlight on Bairns’ Hoose Partnerships (agenda item 4)

Fife Bairns’ Hoose Partnership

Olivia Robertson presented to the group on the progress made by the Fife Bairns’ Hoose partnership. She outlined the development of governance structures to support delivery and highlighted four sub-groups with a focus on participation and engagement, Justice, Child protection oversight group and Health and therapeutic support. 

Olivia updated on how Children and young people’s voices are at the centre of the process, listening and empowering them to ensure Bairns’ Hoose achieves the goal of providing safety and support in a compassionate way. 

The group noted the engagement with children and young people and ensuring their voices are heard, while not wanting to ask the same questions repeatedly. 

Olivia highlighted the benefits of working across agencies, but noted that this takes time and could at times present challenges. She noted the value of reviewing their self-assessment as a helpful tool for underpinning their work going forward. 

The group noted the priorities over coming months, including capital works, upgrading accommodation and medical suite, as well as an emphasis on workforce. The group also noted that a shared vision had been agreed upon by partners, but that this may be revisited as needed over time. 

The group noted the intention to focus on developing one building in Fife, with the potential for future hub and spoke approaches as needed.

Tayside Bairns’ Hoose Partnership

Grace Gilling and Alan Hope presented to the group on progress made by the Tayside Bairns’ Hoose partnership. The presentation highlighted the progress relating to health and Bairns’ Hoose in Tayside, as well as the work to engage children and young people in the development of Bairns’ Hoose. 

The group noted that Tayside Bairns’ Hoose operates as a hub and spoke model with Seymore house and Dundee being the main hub and the spokes being Belview house in Angus and Ada Band house in Perth. 

A core component of the Tayside Bairns’ Hoose journey has been around the health room which was reflected in their original Pathfinder bid. The group noted the intention to offer a more integrated health journey that sits within wider multiagency pathway from the original disclosure Inter-agency Referral Discussion (IRD). 

The group noted the benefits and potential challenges of multiagency working. They also noted the valuable visual guide of a child’s journey that Tayside had completed. 

Alan Hope shared current process for engagement with young people, and their plans for involvement of local children to help design the outdoor space. 

Reflections

The Chair thanked the presenters and emphasised the value of hearing about the progress of Bairns’ Hoose partnerships in this forum. He noted in particular that there were common themes in terms of progress and also challenges faced and that this group would serve as a valuable forum to address these issues. The group welcomed the intention to have future spotlight sessions on partnerships.

The Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise reflected on the updates from both partnerships. She was pleased to hear the considered and compassionate approach taken to engagement with children and young people, and welcomed the progress made by partners in delivering Bairns’ Hoose in local partnerships. She welcomed the spotlight sessions on partnerships, and hoped to be able to visit these areas in the future. 

Action

• Slides to be shared after the meeting, alongside a video produced by the Tayside Bairns’ Hoose partnership. 

Policy and programme update (agenda item 5)

The Chair provided an update on funding, stating we are still working on the budget across Government but are working on the basis of assurance that 2025 to 2026 funding for Bairns’ Hoose will be no less than this year with an indicative increase agreed spend of up to £9 million core funding for the programme. The group noted that this will be outlined in greater detail and discussed further at information sessions later that week.

Lesley Swanson provided an overview of the Pathfinder phase noting that we are moving into the second full year of the Pathfinder phase with some real progress being made across the ten delivery partners.

The group noted the value of the reporting from partnerships on funding, and that this helped to build and strengthen the case for Bairns’ Hoose, as well as informing the Bairns’ Hoose blueprint that will underpin the next phase of the programme. 

The group noted that the ongoing support of the Bairns’ Hoose project team to Pathfinders and Affiliates. The group noted the plans relating to the co-design of the Bairns’ Hoose blueprint and toolkit and that further engagement would take place with the group on how these should be developed. 

Jillian Ingram presented on the progress of the Scottish Child Interview Model (SCIM), sharing that the National JII Project team has continued to develop oversight arrangements for the next stage. The group noted the work to allow for deep discussion on the trickier issues that have emerged at the previous stage of the project. 

Update on analysis (agenda item 6)

Dafni provided an update on the analysis workstreams of the Bairns’ Hoose programme. 

The group was reminded of the overarching aim of the Bairns’ Hoose programme to support partnerships to test the Bairns’ Hoose Standards in different areas and contexts across Scotland. 

Dafni outlined how the analysis workstream of the programme captures and shares the learning from partnerships to inform the development of the Bairns’ Hoose blueprint which will inform future implementation. 

The group noted the ongoing work to support this, including development of an international literature review, analysis of self-assessment tool, analysis of funding reports and qualitative research with professionals. This material will come together in a final research report which will inform the Bairns’ Hoose blueprint; and will provide advice to Ministers about what should be included in the core Bairns’ Hoose model and where flexibility can be allowed.

Dafni also updated on the development of indicators which are intended to support monitoring and evaluation and provide baseline data base for a future evaluation of the national roll out phase. The group noted the plans for the qualitative research to be undertaken by Ipsos, on behalf of Scottish Government. The group noted the research aims which include identifying facilitators, barriers, best practice from Pathfinders across their Bairns’ Hoose journey. The proposed research questions were shared with the group. 

The group noted the plans relating to the Indicators Working Group, and the proposals for areas of focus for upcoming meetings of the group. 

Dafni mentioned key partners’ contribution to analysis, including completion of the Self Assessment and Readiness Tool (StART) 2 in August 2025; participation in the qualitative research; and engagement with the Indicators working group. The group discussed how to avoid work duplication and to protect people’s time. The group also noted ongoing discussion to ensure learning was gathered from all partnerships.

Action

• Slides from the analysis presentation will be shared with the group. 

Update on working groups (agenda item 7)

Will updated on the progress of the working groups, making reference to the above Indicators Working Group and Children and young people engagement working group, which brings together link workers from across partnerships to ensure children and young people’s voices are heard at the local and national level.

Due to time constraints it was agreed that the Chair would write out to group members with an update on the working groups and plans relating to further exploring victim support and Bairns’ Hoose.

Actions

• Request for volunteers for scoping work for victim support and Bairns’ Hoose  to be issued.
• Action – The Chair to provide an update to the group on progress of working groups and sharing key milestones.  

Any other business

No items of any other business were noted. 

Closing remarks 

The Chair thanked attendees and speakers and noted the progress made from one year to the next and welcoming reflections to be sent via email.