About Kibble Children’s Charity in Scotland

Kibble supports at risk children and young people (aged 5-26) across the UK. Many of the young people we care for have experienced significant trauma in their lives and Kibble offers dedicated care and support to help them move forward. This includes residential and community support, as well as dedicated schools and wellbeing services.

We provide a safe, stable environment that is both nurturing and therapeutic. With a robust support network and wide range of integrated services, we offer young people opportunities and encourage them to believe in themselves, feel a sense of belonging, and realise their own self-worth.

Across Kibble, our practice is becoming increasingly trauma-informed. The development of our therapeutic, trauma-informed practice draws on learning from trauma and attachment theories, social pedagogy, Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) and through discussions with children and young people. All aspects of the charity, including the physical environment, staff training and culture are factoring in trauma-informed principles.

As a charity and a leading social enterprise, we’ve been helping young people for 160 years. Although we have changed since inception our priority remains the same, to support the young people who need our help most. As we move forward, and we develop our services, we do so with the vision of being able to further enhance our already high standards and increase existing provision, ultimately giving us the capacity to support more young people.

Our Services

As a specialist centre, we provide a range of integrated services to support children and young people. Our services include:

We help build positive futures for children and young people with complex social, emotional, behavioural and educational needs. The services that each young person uses will vary depending on their age and needs. Our Specialist Intervention Services team provides psychological support for all young people at Kibble, and we are currently rolling out a programme of trauma-informed practice across our services.

Our Social Enterprises

In 1996, Kibble embarked on a phase of its development that would see it become one of the country’s leading social enterprises. A social enterprise is a business model in which any financial surplus is reinvested into the organisation and never distributed to owners, shareholders, investors or directors. Almost two decades later, Kibble continues as one of Scotland’s largest social enterprises, and a key advocate for sustainable and ethical business models.

A Scottish Children’s Charity

Our nineteenth century philanthropic founder, Elizabeth Kibble, was heiress to a textile fortune and on her death in 1840, she left a portion of her wealth to establish a home for ‘youthful offenders’.
To learn more about how our charity has evolved over the last century and a half, click here.

“I was really impressed with the facilities and staff within Kibble and how much support the children get.”

Ross Turnbull, South Lanarkshire Council