Bairns' Hoose – children and young people: participation and engagement plan

3. Participation and Engagement to Date

3.1 Rights and Participation Project

From 2019 – 2022 the Scottish Government funded Children 1^st to carry out rights and participation project work with children and families with lived experience of child protection and justice processes. The Sharing Stories for Change | Childrens 1st Report produced key learning points including:

• Children have a right to be heard when they have been a victim or witness of violence. The right place, the right people and the right support are all needed to create the space for children to communicate what has happened.
• Children and families should have opportunities to participate in the design and development of services when they have been the victim or witness of violence.

3.2 The Changemakers

The Changemakers group of young people, between the ages of 13 and 19, was formed in February 2022, to support the shaping, design, development and influencing of the North Strathclyde Bairns' Hoose.

This builds on the "Sharing Stories for Change" learning, which was gathered through the delivery of the child's rights and participation project above, with a focus on participation work for the development of the Bairns' Hoose. The project enables children and young people, and their families, to have a significant role in the design and development of a Bairns' Hoose model that is right for Scotland. The project is:

• Engaging with and amplifying the voices of children and young people who have experience of child protection and justice processes, to be part of transformational change, which enables recovery from the point of disclosure.
• Creating safe and empowering spaces for children and young people and parents/carers to participate in the design and development of the Bairns' Hoose. This may include, but is not limited to, the establishment of advisory groups, creative projects, recruitment and training of staff, influencing people in power and communicating key messages.

The Changemakers group has been important in upholding the rights of children to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them (UNCRC: Article 12).The group has also had involvement in influencing work nationally in the design of a national Bairns' Hoose model, by contributing their views to the draft National Bairns' Hoose Standards; and sharing their voices at the Delivering the Vision strategic group and the European Barnahus Forum in Stockholm (via a film created), as well as writing letters to “To my school” and “To my recovery worker”.

3.3 Creative workshops

Children 1st committed to facilitate participatory workshops across Scotland, which would help explore what matters to children, young people and their families in response to the design and development of the North Strathclyde Bairns' Hoose. The sessions invited families to share their ideas, views, and wishes on what a Bairns' Hoose should look like, feel like, who would work there, and how all children's rights should be upheld in Bairns' Hoose. The workshops were built around a 3D cardboard house, which symbolised the Bairns' Hoose. A total of 8 workshops were facilitated across Scotland, which consisted of 79 participants.

3.4 Individual participation

Individual participation offers an opportunity for children and young people to share their stories, ideas, feedback and experiences in a personalised way. For some children and young people, the process of sharing their story is a supportive and empowering aspect of their recovery journey. Children 1^st have two examples of individual participation – Sophie's song and Anya's poem. These have been facilitated in a way that both young people have been able to express their experiences and voices, based on their own strengths and interests.

3.5 Bairns' Hoose Standards

The Scottish Government commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) and the Care Inspectorate to develop Scotland-specific standards for Bairns' Hoose based on the European PROMISE Quality Barnahus Standards, which are in turn based on best practice from the Nordic countries. Engagement with children and young people has been a key feature of the development of these Standards.

The Bairns' Hoose Standards Development Group was established to develop standards according to the agreed scope, timelines and other quality criteria. Its membership comprised representation across justice, health, children's services, and third sector. The Group had two co-chairs representing the health and social care sectors respectively and has now concluded with the publication of the Standards.

From February 2022, participation and rights workers from six organisations supported children to play an active role throughout the Standards development period. Through creative sessions, play, videos, group work and one-on-one sessions, children inputted their ideas into the draft Standards and fed back on their experiences to the Standards Development Group at every meeting. Each organisation nominated a 'link worker' (usually a rights or participation worker) to act as the go-between between the children and the Standards Development Group.

Link workers:

• undertook sessions, workshops or one-on-one participation work with children, young people or non-offending families to ask for input on four themes related to the Bairns' Hoose Standards: the principles, the place, the process and the platform
• following each review cycle, collated feedback from all sessions and presented the outputs of the sessions to the Standards Development Group. This included:
  • written or verbal reports of sessions
  • pictures, images or art materials
  • videos or multimedia, or
  • any other form of output that session attendees wished to share
• provided support to children and young people who wished to attend Standards Development Group meetings or otherwise present their work themselves
• attended all Standards Development Group meetings in the role of 'link worker' to advocate for session attendees and gain the knowledge, context and materials to plan other sessions, and
• attended a weekly huddle to report on progress and ask for support as required.

3.6 Applying the European Barnahus Quality Standards to the Link Worker Model

The European Barnahus Quality Standards ^[2] are well supported internationally. They cover key themes which are core to developing a Barnahus. In recognition that they should equally apply to developing standards for a Barnahus in Scotland, they were used to underpin the engagement approach used to develop the Bairns' Hoose Standards. The European Standards were translated into a set of engagement principles which directed the Barnahus Standards Development Group's approach. In addition, this has provided a framework of accountability for the approach.

For example, Barnahus quality standard 3 stresses that all children have equal access to the service and are offered a multi-disciplinary response. This principle has been applied to the development of the Bairns' Hoose Standards as all children have equal access to influence and shape the development of the Standards, regardless of what has happened to them. Recruitment of link workers and decision panels include equality and diversity considerations as well as children in remote or rural areas.

Applying the Barnahus Quality Standards in the development of the Scottish Standards has ensured that the process is rights based, informed and responsive to the needs of children and young people.

3.7 Success and Key Learnings from this Phase

Children and young people's feedback about the implementation of the Standards has been shared, including how children and young people should be involved. The aims of the link workers throughout the Standards development were to ensure that:

• Children are supported and given meaningful opportunities to express themselves and their views, needs and concerns
• Children and young people's rights to express their views and to receive information are respected and fulfilled
• The process is designed to ensure that children's needs are met and feedback is fully implemented where possible.
• The project team communicates with children and young people involved in the project in a way that is right for them.
• There is space for link workers to collaborate, share learning and develop practice

The HIS project team sought feedback from the link workers on the process and approach. Their feedback has indicated key areas of success:

• The children and young people involved were very proud to say that they built the children's version of the Standards.
• A number of organisations involved now have a group of young people that they consult with on a regular basis on issues affecting young people.
• This work has provided a useful model for developing meaningful and sustainable engagement.
• Young people with lived experience of the current system have felt some positivity in being able to use their experiences to make the future better for others.

Some key learning points also emerged, namely the need for time and space, flexibility and wisdom in the engagement process. It takes time to recruit and bring together a group of young people to talk about an emotive and complicated subject like Bairns' Hoose. Time and space enabled the children and young people to build trust and become comfortable with each other. As the engagement progressed, the link workers found the young people became more communicative and confident in discussing the Standards.

It was key to let the children and young people work at their own pace and let them explore the subject matter in a way that was right for them. Therefore, it was important that the project team showed flexibility in how the key messages from the Standards Development Group were fed back to them. Throughout the work, feedback was also sought from the link workers on the approach, with revisions and improvements made as a direct response to their comments.

The children and young people with lived experience showed great wisdom in being able to take that experience and verbalise how it could have been made better for them. They have also stated that this project needs to be delivered and there are key messages around accountability and implementation that need to be heard and acted on.