National Bairns' Hoose Implementation Group minutes: May 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Andrew Watson (Chair), Scottish Government
• Natalie Don-Innes MSP, Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise
• Alan Hope, Tayside Pathfinder Partnership
• Alistair Hogg, Scottish Children's Reporter Administration
• Andrew Dick (interim member), Aberdeenshire Pathfinder Partnership
• Brian Taylor, Scottish Government
• Clare Cunning (acting as deputy for Kate Rocks and Mary Glasgow), North Strathclyde
• Danielle McLaughlin, Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service
• Edward Doyle, Scottish Government
• Graeme Simpson, Aberdeen City Pathfinder Partnership
• Helen Rankin (acting as deputy for Nicola McGovern), Police Scotland
• Hazel Emmerson (acting as deputy for Laura Buchan), Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
• Jane Simcox, Ayrshire Affiliate Partnership
• Jillian Ingram , National JII/SCIM Implementation Team / Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
• Jillian Taylor, Scottish Executive Nurse Directors
• Justine Craig, Scottish Government
• Kelly Gallagher, Scottish Government
• Kerry Milligan, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• Lesley Swanson, Scottish Government
• Lorette Nicol, Sycamore Affiliate Partnership
• Gareth Henderson (acting as deputy for Nicola McGovern), Police Scotland
• Olivia Robertson, Fife Pathfinder Partnership
• Sarah Kerr, Scottish Government
• Sharon Glasgow, Social Work Scotland
• Donna Munro, Highlands Affiliate Partnership
• Wendy Lowrie, Highlands Affiliate Partnership
• William Griffiths, Scottish Government
• Yuki Tsujino, Scottish Government
• Shawnna von Blixen-Finecke (external adviser), Promise Network
• Hannah Grubb (guest speaker), Fife Pathfinder Partnership

Apologies

• Charles Rocks, Dumfries and Galloway Affiliate Partnership
• Kate Rocks, North Strathclyde Pathfinder Partnership
• Mary Glasgow, North Strathclyde Pathfinder Partnership
• Neil Ferguson, NHS Regional Planner Representative
• Carolann Passey, Outer Hebrides Pathfinder Partnership
• Nicola McGovern, Police Scotland
• Laura Caven, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)

Guests/Observers

• Michael Sinclair, Private Secretary to Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise

Items and actions

Welcome and apologies (agenda item 1)

The Chair welcomed colleagues to the third meeting of the National Bairns' Hoose Implementation Group and facilitated a round of introductions.

Ministerial update (agenda item 2)

The Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise, Natalie Don-Innes MSP, delivered an update on the Bairns' Hoose programme. She highlighted the value of the recent Collaborative Learning Event in Perth, which brought together Bairns’ Hoose partnerships from across Scotland. The Minister noted that this event demonstrated the strong collaboration between partnerships and commitment to the programme, and welcomed the event’s focus on health and justice as key issues for further exploration for the testing of the Bairns’ Hoose Standards.

Ms Don-Innes confirmed that the Programme for Government 2025-26, published on 6 May 2025, had reaffirmed the Scottish Government's commitment to Bairns' Hoose as a key priority for supporting vulnerable children and young people. The programme is supported by up to £10.5 million of investment for 2025-26, secured through tri-portfolio agreement between Education and Skills, Health and Social Care, and Justice.

The Minister announced that an updated vision and delivery plan would be published later this year. She emphasised that the Group plays a crucial role in shaping this work through their strategic guidance and expertise.

​​​​​​​Spotlight on Bairns’ Hoose partnerships (agenda item 3)

Sycamore Partnership

The Sycamore Partnership provided an update on the transformation of the former St Katharine’s secure facility into the new Sycamore Centre, a child-focused venue in an established location. The initiative is driven by a commitment to improving services for children. As well as comfortable interview rooms, the new centre now features facilities such as a welcome area with a fully equipped kitchen, a flexible “your space” room and a wellbeing room suitable for medical examinations. The speaker highlighted the importance of involving children and young people in the process, while also acknowledging the practical and organisational challenges they have faced, for example with the transfer of the building from Edinburgh Council to the NHS and even down to the purchase of snacks for children and young people.

During the presentation, a video was shown which is shared with families accessing the centre.

The speaker underscored the message that meaningful change takes time and delays are to be expected. The partnership also reflected on the difficulties of securing recovery support, noting that limited flexibility within partner organisations can make it hard to access the right expertise and resources. There have been further delays due to complex procurement processes. Despite these challenges, the partnership is pursuing research in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh into the experiences of children and their families of the service and support in relation to safety, justice, rights and recovery, as well as multiagency professionals’ experience of the Sycamore Bairns’ Hoose.

Questions and responses:

• on medical facilities relocating to the Bairns’ Hoose: Although there are medical facilities within the Sycamore Centre, the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People is a short distance away, with access to specialist resources that are best equipped to meet children's needs in a trauma- informed way
• on the relationship between specialist centres and mainstream services: Two-way communication is in place, with trauma-informed practice developed within the specialist centre. There is keen interest in sharing learning with wider services
• on governance and cooperation between organisations: Open and honest communication is key, and that there are trusting relationships between all partners which allows for full discussion. Scale and geography of authorities may affect the way in which services may best be delivered to meet local challenges, while children's needs between areas remain similar

Highland Partnership

The Highland Partnership shared their progress, reflecting on a journey that began with what felt like overwhelming challenges. Since then, they have successfully developed two former adjacent semi-detached police houses in Inverness and an additional property in Wick, with appropriate facilities including interviewing rooms. Their model is evolving into a hub-and-spoke approach, aiming to improve access across the region and reduce the need for long travel times for children. The approach has been adaptive and pragmatic, making use of existing spaces rather than building new ones, and the partnership is now collaborating with neighbouring areas like Orkney and Shetland. However, geographical challenges such as harsh winter weather and seasonal tourism continue to affect travel and logistics. To better serve children, they also plan to develop a co-located working space in the garden of the main house, preserving the home environment solely for the child’s needs.

The partnership highlighted that while they’ve drawn on learning from other areas, significant local adaptation has been necessary. They are committed to delivering the Bairns’ Hoose Standards as fully as possible, even beyond the immediate scope of the house itself and have found the Scottish Government’s Self Assessment Standards tool helpful in supporting this. Ongoing challenges include working with complex cases involving children who are both victims and may have caused harm, requiring close collaboration across policy areas. Additionally, gaps remain in advocacy provision and services for children under 13 who have experienced sexual abuse, which the partnership is actively working to address.

The Minister provided her reflections on the presentations:

• The Minister expressed appreciation for hearing about the progress being made across the Bairns' Hoose partnerships
• she voiced hope to overcome delays caused by decisions about small administrative details in the implementation process
• she found it interesting to hear about the different links formed between organisations and how these connections have supported the development of Bairns' Hoose
• she commented on the resilience required by all partners and acknowledged the shared goals that unite them despite the different approaches taken
• she expressed interest in the different approaches being developed to tackle wide geographical distribution, health challenges, and considerations on how health arrangements affect the model
• she noted her particular interest in addressing the challenge of cases where children are both victims and may have caused harm

Minutes and actions of the last meeting (agenda item 4)

It was noted that no actions were outstanding from the previous meeting. An update on the work to scope victim support and Bairns’ Hoose was included in paper 2 for this meeting.

​​​​​​​Barnahus Network (agenda item 5)

Shawnna von Blixen-Finecke presented on the Barnahus Network, which includes 48 members across 28 countries.

The Barnahus Quality Standards were developed by a broad group, many of whom are actively delivering Barnahus services. These standards were created through a collaborative process involving meetings, study visits, presentations and discussions, which were then translated into draft text. They were launched in 2016 and are aligned with international legal instruments such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Shawnna emphasised that these standards function as a living document rather than being fixed in stone. They evolve and adapt to changing circumstances, are regularly updated to reflect new research, and are refined through years of discussion and feedback from practitioners.

She explained that the standards are just one component of the broader Barnahus approach. During her presentation, she shared a toolkit for standard 5 as an example of the concrete tools being developed. The Barnahus Network intends to develop similar toolkits for each standard, all produced through extensive consultation with practitioners. Additionally, training and advice opportunities are available to support implementation.

The Barnahus Network's current work focuses on addressing several key obstacles, including how to evaluate the quality of Barnahus implementation, how to demonstrate effectiveness to external stakeholders, and how to move toward a more evidence-based cycle of improvement. To address these challenges, they are developing a common evaluation framework for Europe, which is being drawn from a broad range of research and will be piloted in diverse European countries. Importantly, this framework is not designed to rank different Barnahus implementations against each other, but rather to support self-evaluation and improvement.

Regarding the Scottish Bairns’ Hoose Standards specifically, Shawnna noted that they are distinctive in being values-driven and praised the strong work of children and young people’s engagement in Scotland.

Questions raised included:

• how Scotland is using international materials: It was noted that these were key in informing the work to develop the Scottish Bairns’ Hoose Standards, and their value in complementing and underpinning the development of the Bairns’ Hoose model in Scotland
• potential challenges with developing a Barnahus model in Scotland: The ongoing work to prevent the need for children to appear in court was noted in this context

Policy and programme update paper (agenda item 6)

William Griffiths delivered an update on the policy and programme, with Jillian Ingram specifically covering the Scottish Child Interview Model (SCIM).

William provided updates on several key areas of work. He outlined that the Scottish Government is reviewing the shared vision, values and approach for feedback, with views welcomed until 5 June 2025, and confirmed that a delivery plan will be shared with the Group for feedback in the coming months.

The April Collaborative Learning Event in Perth had received positive feedback, with particular interest expressed in the justice-related sessions and a call for future exploration of health and Bairns’ Hoose. Feedback also requested a focus on children and young people's engagement and analysis and outcomes for future events. William explained that the blueprint development will consider wider international sources as it progresses, and noted that blueprint scoping sessions are planned to develop a terms of reference for a blueprint development group and define what the blueprint will entail. The Group noted the intention to hold workshops with key stakeholders over the summer; and that this would include targeted engagement with the Group.

William informed the Group that Argyll and Bute had launched their Bairns' Hoose in Helensburgh, and expressed interest in hearing about other future milestones from Group members.

Jillian Ingram then provided an update on Joint Investigative Interviews (JII). She explained that an oversight group for SCIM has been established to support its continued implementation. An evaluation of SCIM has been conducted by the Children and Young People Centre for Justice (CYCJ) and will be published shortly.

Jillian highlighted that discussions are underway to develop new materials for SCIM, and work is ongoing with the Crown Office to train prosecutors, with similar plans for defence counsel. Knowledge is being shared and support provided by the national team across Scotland. She noted that work is being done to improve processes for language interpreters, and improved research and data collection has been implemented for disabilities. Numerous national and international events have been conducted to share learning about the model.

William then provided updates on programme workstreams:

• analysis: The current focus is on Standards Assessment and Readiness Tool (StART) 2 completion and qualitative fieldwork being carried out by Ipsos
• knowledge exchange: Two sessions are planned for June 2025 bringing the current programme to a close. Feedback will be sought for a draft programme from September onwards
• children and young people engagement: This topic would be covered later in the agenda
• funding: He noted that funding had been largely allocated for the current period

Feedback on milestones is being sought from members to inform future planning. Group members are invited to review and provide feedback on the milestones outlined in paper 2.

A question was raised about interpreter work, with positive feedback received. The JII team indicated they would be happy to share emerging learning from this area of work.

​​​​​​​Children and young people engagement update (agenda item 7)

Hannah Grubb presented the Fife Children and Young People Participation and Engagement Framework to the Group. Her presentation covered the framework's objectives, goals, stakeholders and intended outcomes, providing a clear overview of Fife's strategic approach to ensuring meaningful participation from young people.

The framework includes a detailed engagement timeline that has been carefully developed with children and young people's involvement from the outset. Hannah explained how young people had directly contributed to creating the support worker role, assisting with both the role description and the hiring process. She highlighted ongoing work to engage with children and young people to confirm the accessibility of language used in materials and communications. This participatory approach extends to working collaboratively with a diverse range of young people and organisations to establish well-rounded processes and robust data collection methods.

Looking ahead, Hannah outlined plans for continuous feedback gathering from 2026, with an evaluation of the framework scheduled for 2027.

Hannah discussed how third sector involvement has been central to the framework's development. She described a successful event held in May that updated partners on Bairns' Hoose progress and involved them in collaboratively shaping a brief for upcoming bids. She emphasised that the third sector would continue to be a key partner in incorporating children and young people's engagement throughout the programme's development.

During the discussion, it was noted that a dedicated team responsible for children and young people engagement has been a valuable asset. An observation was made that having children and young people's input on decisions that affect them is valuable in a broader context.

​​​​​​​Any other business

The next meeting will be held online on 23 September 2025. Possible topics include blueprint development and the Spotlight sessions would be maintained as a standing item on the agenda, given how well-received they have been by Group members. Thought would also be given to how the valuable learning of partnerships can be shared more widely. The Chair welcomed members to provide feedback on this meeting and submit suggestions for topics for the next meeting.

The Chair noted that the presentations would be shared with attendees along with links to the toolkit produced by the Barnahus Network shortly after this meeting.

The Chair announced that William Griffiths would be leaving the Bairns' Hoose Unit and expressed his sincere gratitude for William's contributions to the programme and wished him every success in his future endeavours.