Over the past three years, our evaluation of Scotland’s first Bairns’ Hoose in North Strathclyde has tracked the journey from a shared vision to a working model — from the pre-opening period, through the early months of operation, to the point where real evidence of impact is beginning to emerge.
Now, as we begin the third phase of this work, our focus turns to something that sits at the heart of why Bairns’ Hoose exists: recovery.
Why recovery, and why now?
Phase 1 of the evaluation revealed what many practitioners already knew — that existing systems for children after abuse were not meeting their needs. Children and families described services that were fragmented, confusing, and at times retraumatising. Professionals across health, social work, police, and justice described a system where the needs of children were often superseded by those of the justice process.
Phase 2 showed us what happens when you begin to change that. Since opening in August 2023, the North Strathclyde Bairns’ Hoose has brought investigative interviewing, court evidence, and recovery support under one roof. In its first two years of operation, the partnership has provided recovery support to over 200 children and more than 150 adults. Eighty percent of joint investigative interviews are now conducted on-site in a trauma-informed setting, using the Scottish Child Interview Model. The facility is already deeply valued by children, parents, and professionals.
But what we’ve also learned is that recovery work in this context is still evolving. The Children 1st recovery team model — relationally driven, combining advocacy with therapeutic support — is distinctive. It aims to walk alongside children and families not just in the immediate aftermath of disclosure, but through the often protracted justice process and beyond. Funding for this recovery work, however, remains short-term, and the model’s place within statutory decision-making structures is still being negotiated.
What Phase 3 will explore
This third phase narrows our lens to focus specifically on the Children 1st recovery and advocacy model. We want to understand how recovery-focused advocacy is being delivered in practice — not just the theory of the model, but the lived reality for children, families, and the professionals who work alongside them.
Our key research questions include: How is the recovery and advocacy model delivered to children affected by abuse and their families? How does it connect to the broader system of child protection, health, and justice services? And how does this model sit within wider understandings of recovery work with children — in Scotland, across the UK, and internationally?
We’ll be drawing on qualitative methods, working closely with practitioners, families, and the children themselves to build a picture that is grounded in experience rather than abstraction.
Why this matters beyond North Strathclyde
Scotland now has ten Bairns’ Hoose partnerships across the country, with national rollout planned from 2027. Each operates in a different geographic and organisational context. The question of how recovery support is resourced, structured, and embedded within multi-agency working is one that every partnership will face.
Our hope is that this phase of the evaluation will generate learning that is useful not just for North Strathclyde, but for every area in Scotland working to make the Bairns’ Hoose model real — and for the international community watching Scotland’s progress with interest.
We’ll be sharing findings as the work progresses, here on the blog and through our resources library.
Dr Mary Mitchell leads the Bairns’ Hoose evaluation at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Science, within the Child Safety, Justice and Recovery Research Group.