Child House
CAMDEN, LONDON · 45 custodial and HEALTHCARE STAFF
Partnering with a UK Commissioning Support Unit utilising the Digital Outcome Framework we successfully bid and won the tender by MOPAC for Child House. The Child House concept is based on best practices learned from the USA and Scandinavia. We employed the ‘Barnahus’ model, a child-friendly response to child sexual abuse (CSA) that is multi-agency, interdisciplinary and made available from one location.
The Child House model recognises the vulnerability of the child victim and the harm caused to the child by multiple interviews. The Barnahus in Iceland provides one place in which the child can have forensic interviews and make court statements, have a medical examination and access therapeutic services, which are also available for the victim’s family. Since the Barnahus model was established in Iceland, the number of child victims of CSA coming forward for help has more than doubled per year, indictments have more than tripled, and convictions have more than doubled. The Barnahus model has since been exported to Norway, Greenland and Denmark, with pilots planned in Finland and Lithuania.
Under the scheme, a child suffering from the traumatising effects of abuse; will be able to access the services they need in a child-focused environment:
Medical and forensic examinations could be undertaken
A psychologist would be on hand to help with police interviews
Therapeutic help for the victims and their families would be available
A remote video link would be set-up for the child’s cross-examination for an ensuing trial.
The ‘Child House’ will provide a multi-agency, long-term support and advocacy service under one roof. Criminal justice aspects of after-care will be embedded in the service, with evidence gathering interviews led by child psychologists on behalf of the police and social workers, and court evidence provided through video links to aid swifter justice.
This facility will help ensure there is consistent support for the child and allow them to give evidence in a friendly environment instead of facing the terrifying ordeal of giving evidence in court.
Main Objectives
The JWPM Project Implementation Team has and will continue to work with internal and external stakeholders to achieve the following objectives which have been identified as crucial to attainment of the project goal:
To provide a secure and reliable ICT Infrastructure and reliable Case Management System for all Child House staff and Partner and Visitors
To deliver a timely, outcome focused front service desk that will also provide performance information and highlight any training or other trends that occur from the calls received
To deliver a timely, outcome focused training that will also provide staff with the skill necessary
To deliver a reporting platform
To ensure delivery of consistently high quality services in line with contracted service levels, applying appropriate remedial actions where needed
Technical Objectives
Integrate the Child House into the same support structure currently provided by on behalf of JWPM to their existing Sexual Assault Services clients
To achieve a system configuration which conforms to JWPM client's ICT security policies and in turn supports all partner ICT policies and business processes
To achieve a system configuration which conforms to JWPM client and NHS security data protection policies
To facilitate implementation of a safe and secure Case Management System
To facilitate implementation of hardware, software and related automation dependencies