Bairns’ Hoose (Barnahus)

Bairns’ Hoose, based on an Icelandic model ‘Barnahus’, will bring together services in a ‘four rooms’ approach with child protection, health, justice and recovery services all made available in one setting.  Bairns’ Hoose aims to ensure that every child victim or witness has consistent and holistic support, access to specialist services and receives ongoing therapeutic care from services coordinated under one roof. 

The overall vision of a Bairns’ Hoose (Barnahus) in Scotland is that:

All children in Scotland who have been victims or witnesses to abuse or violence, as well as children under the age of criminal responsibility whose behaviour has caused significant harm or abuse, will have access to trauma informed recovery, support and justice.

The key values through which this vision will be achieved are that:

• we are child centered, trauma informed and respect the rights and wellbeing of the child at all times
• we provide consistent and holistic support, which enables children to have their voices heard, access specialist services and recover from their experiences
• we aim to prevent children being re-traumatised and to improve the experience of the criminal justice process for children and families, and
• we demonstrate connectedness and national leadership to uphold children’s rights to protection, support, participation and recovery.

In 2019, the Scottish Government commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate to jointly develop standards which will provide a blueprint for a Scottish Barnahus (Bairns’ Hoose).  Also in 2019, a Standards Development Group with representatives from across social work, police, health, justice and children’s voluntary organisations began developing the standards. In March 2020 Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate paused the development of the standards in order to reduce undue strain across the system and prioritise resources to support the national response to Covid-19. A refreshed Standards Development Group recommenced work on the Bairns’ Hoose standards in January 2022. 

The final standards are now available to download. We have also developed a version of the standards for children and young people. The standards will help to support a consistent national implementation of the Bairns’ Hoose model.

Update on Barnahus July 2023

For further information regarding the project, see other reports published to date:

• Consultation summary report
• Joint impact assessment
• Children’s rights and wellbeing impact assessment
• Bairns’ Hoose Standards: Phase 1 engagement pack
• Standards Scoping Report Bairns’ Hoose (Scottish Barnahus)
• The Foundations for Bairns’ Hoose (Scottish Barnahus)

Deaths of young people in continuing care

Deaths of young people in continuing care

Local authorities must notify the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Government of the death of a young person in receipt of continuing care as soon as is reasonably practicable.

Local authorities must:

• complete the attached DCC1 form and send this to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• send a copy of the completed DCC1 form to the Scottish Government at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please note, this is separate from the duty of a registered care service to notify us of the death of a service user. These should be submitted via our eforms system.

More information about notification and reporting arrangements can be found here.

Please submit all relevant forms/reports through secure email to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

The main contact for this work is Karen McCormack, strategic inspector or Sharon Telfer, strategic inspector, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Deaths of looked after children

Deaths of looked after children

Local authorities must notify the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Government within 24 hours of the death of a looked after child.

Local authorities must:

• complete the attached DLC1 form and send this to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• send a copy of the completed DLC1 form to the Scottish Government at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please note, this is separate from the duty of a registered care service to notify us of the death of a service user. These should be submitted via our eforms system.

More information about notification and reporting arrangements can be found here.

Please submit all relevant forms/reports through secure email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

The main contact for this work is Karen McCormack, strategic inspector or Sharon Telfer, strategic inspector, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Notification on controlled drugs

Notification on controlled drugs

Providers should notify the Care Inspectorate to any adverse events and concerns involving schedule 2, 3, 4, and 5 controlled drugs used in care settings, when they occur, and while the service user is receiving care in the care service.

• Notifications about controlled drugs: guidance for providers

Please note, it is a legal requirement for care services to notify the Care Inspectorate of the matters listed in this document. Where the requirement is limited to a specific type of care service, this is detailed in the guidance.

Guide to using the portal

Creating an account

To register for an online account and link your current service information to the portal please read:

• How to create an account on the digital portal

To create your online portal account visit: https://portal.careinspectorate.gov.scot/Account/Register

Managing access to your service or provider

You can also grant additional user access to the service information.  For example, a provider may want to allow a service manager access to a service, in order for them to view service information, submit applications and update service details.

Find out how to add a new user with service access. 

Find out how to add a user with provider access.

If you have access to a service on the eForms system, you can also use this to grant access on the digital portal. Please read our guidance on granting access to a service or provider.

Registering a new care service

You can apply to register a new care service using the digital portal. If you are an individual applicant, please see our guidance for contents of the application form for an individual applicant. If you are an organisation, please see our guidance for contents of the application form for an organisation.

We also have guidance to support you with accepting your conditions and becoming registered, and how to withdraw an application to register a care service.

If you need to add or amend a service managers details while you are in the process of registering a care service, please see our guidance for adding and amending managers details.

You can request advice from our registration team before you submit your application form using the portal. To do this, you must create an application to register a care service and fill in some details first.  If you need support with this please see our guide for requesting advice.

Viewing and changing  your service and provider details

For support with seeing your service details, please read our guides to viewing your service and provider details.

You can apply to change your service details such as change of manager or change the service address. These changes will require Care Inspectorate approval. 

You can also update (without the need for approval) your contact details –  email address and phone numbers and these will be updated on your record immediately.

Please see our guidance for changing service details and changing provider details for support with this.

Apply to become inactive 

You can apply online to become inactive.  Registered services must operate within the legal framework laid out within the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, (the “Act”).  We have policy where any service can make an application to stop operating for up to 12 months, without having to cancel their registration.  Where such an application is granted, a service will be referred to as ‘inactive’. 

Reasons for a service to be treated as inactive would be limited to:  

• refurbishment of premises
• provider has caring responsibilities for a limited period of time
• provider maternity leave
• provider health issues.

There may be, on occasion, other exceptional circumstances, which we may consider on an individual basis. 

If you need help with this form, please read our guide to becoming inactive.

Apply to cancel a service 

Any registered service can voluntarily apply to cancel their registration, giving a minimum of three months’ notice.   

If you want to cancel your registration, you can now complete the application to cancel a care service form through your portal account.  This must be completed  before we can progress with your cancellation.   

If you need help with this form, please read our guide to cancelling a service

Apply to vary conditions of registration

If you need to vary, (add, amend or remove) the conditions of registration of your service, you should in the first instance discuss this with the inspector responsible for your service.  You will now be able to make an application to vary the conditions of your registration on the portal.  Note, you are currently only able to have one application for variation in progress at a time.

Unless otherwise agreed with us, the date the variation is to take effect from must not be less than three months after the date of application.  We can only grant or refuse an application to vary a condition – we cannot change the detail of the variation that you have originally requested.  However, whilst the application is still in progress you can update/amend the application yourself within the portal.  Where you subsequently decide that you no longer wish the variation request to be progressed, for instance, if it is no longer necessary due to a change of circumstances, then you should discuss this with whoever has been dealing with your application.  You must then withdraw the application via the portal, and we will receive automatic notification of this.

If you need help with this form, please read our If you need help with this form, please read our guide to a variation for a premises based service and guide a variation for a non-premises based service.