Children’s houses’ gardens are a growing success

Senior management staff recently enjoyed a visit to three East Ayrshire children’s houses, with an exclusive tour of their newly transformed gardens.

EAHSCP Director, Craig McArthur, accompanied by Eddie Fraser (EAC Chief Executive), Marion MacAulay (Head of Children’s Health, Care and Justice Services) and Clare Wilson (Senior Manager for Authority Wide Services), enjoyed a wonderful afternoon exploring the homes and gardens and chatting to the young residents about their hopes for the future:

“This month I was delighted to finally be able to visit our three children’s houses: Benrig, Montgomery and Sunnyside, along with Eddie, Marion and Claire.

Each of the houses received Covid grant funding to redevelop their gardens, and with work largely complete (when is gardening ever completely done!), we were invited to visit the gardens for a wee party. 

A huge amount of work has gone into transforming the gardens, and the teams and children we met were rightly proud of their new look outside spaces."

"This is the first opportunity I have had to visit our children’s houses and I have been proudly telling everyone since of what an uplifting day it was. 

I was hugely impressed by the look and feel of the houses – so welcoming and friendly. I heard fantastic stories from our young people, who were happy to share some of their own successes, hopes and aspirations for the future.

Shona at Benrig, Alana at Sunnyside, and Selina and Bernie at Montgomery, ably supported by the young people, led us on a tour of the gardens, pointing out all their own favourite spots. 

We ate cake, met chickens, tried out the summer seats, and even watched the Council Chief Executive having a shot on the trampoline. Do Friday afternoons get any better than that!?

My thanks to Clare Wilson and her team for arranging the visits and to all of the teams in all three of our children’s houses, who take such good care of our young people. 

A special thanks as well to the young people who welcomed us so warmly into their homes and shared some of their stories. You are all wonderful!”