This afternoon, the Minister for Social Rights, Carles Campuzano i Canadés, opened a new Barnahus children’s home, in Granollers. This service will support children and adolescents from El Vallès Oriental who have suffered sexual violence, as well as their families. This is the fifth service of this kind launched by the Catalan Government, after first piloting it in Tarragona in 2020, and subsequently putting into operation the Barnahus centres in Lleida, Terrassa, and La Seu d’Urgell.

This model of comprehensive care for victims ensures all the departments involved in a case are coordinated and work under the same roof, in premises away from police stations and hospitals, allowing for the creation of a child-friendly environment. It also has a closed-circuit television system to record the testimony of the child or adolescent, which allows for the creation of documentary evidence. This ensures the victim will not have to testify an average of four times in different places and in front of different people.

The main objective of the service is therefore the assessment, care, treatment, and follow-up of any child and adolescent in El Vallès Oriental who has suffered sexual violence. The professionals at the centre will also collaborate in the prevention and detection of this crime.

During the centre’s opening, Campuzano stressed that the implementation of Barnahus throughout the country is a cross-cutting and priority project for the Catalan Government. “We are pioneers. Thanks to the Barnahus network, Catalonia has become a leader in southern Europe for addressing child sexual violence”, he said. The Minister explained that one of the most important aspects of the Barnahus is that the space is prepared to prevent revictimisation: “The experience in Tarragona has been a success because we have managed to better assist the victims and it has allowed us to detect more cases.It has revealed an unacceptable reality that we were unaware of and that needed to be tackled”. Campuzano also stressed that this is an area where collaboration is key and that “the involvement is not only between ministries of the Generalitat, but also has the complicity of local councils, the third sector and the judiciary”.