Fair Ways Feelings Thermometer helps to promote wellbeing
NACCC accredited child contact centre, Fair Ways, has introduced a range of creative initiatives to help best support its children and families.
Based in Southampton, Hampshire, Fair Ways Child Contact Centre provides a safe, welcoming and nurturing environment where children can enjoy spending family time with parents and family members they no longer live with following divorce/separation.
With the focus on putting the needs and wellbeing of the child first, and a commitment to ensuring visiting family members are treated with the utmost care and respect, Fair Ways staff recently introduced a new Feelings Thermometer, to help create more positive family time sessions for both parents and children.
Fair Ways Child Contact Centre Manager, Michelle Wyatt, said
Before the start of each session, we show the visiting parent the thermometer to see how they are feeling. This approach helps to remove any shame from them having to articulate their feelings and allows us to offer appropriate support if needed. For example, if a parent indicates they may become overwhelmed, we will offer them a short time away from the session.
Alongside the Feelings Thermometer, parents are also presented with a support ‘prompt’ sheet which includes examples of additional support they might require and invites parents to share any concerns they may have.
Michelle continued:
This holistic approach allows the parent to easily raise any worries or concerns and encourages them to ask for support if or when it is needed. It enables parents to have a more positive experience which, in turn, helps to support the best interests of the child. It also helps us to progress families forwards, giving parents confidence for when they see their children in the future without the need for our service.
In addition to the Feelings Thermometer and support sheet, large child friendly timers are being used to support both parents and children, helping them better understand when their family time session will come to an end. This ensures they have enough time to say goodbye until they see each other at the next contact session.
Furthermore, at the end of each session children are asked to give their feedback via a child-friendly Feeling’s Board, where they choose a face on the board which best represents how they felt about the session. This helps let the child know that their feelings are important and allows them to process and evaluate each family time session with additional support available if required.
Fair Ways is a well-established child contact centre, offering supervised and supported contact sessions both in the centre and in the local community.
The centre currently supports around 40 families and holds contract reviews every 12 weeks, a process which involves staff talking to parents/care givers and offering professional feedback. This ensures the process moves forward at the correct pace for both the parents and the children, and allows parents to raise any concerns and/or give valuable feedback.
The centre is open seven days a week; operating from the first floor of an office building with parking, food, shops, café and a park nearby.
The centre offers two generous and well-equipped indoor spaces with a range of toys and activities for children to enjoy.
During family separation/divorce, child contact centres may be the only method of contact available for some families. Without them, children can go many months without seeing a non-resident parent whilst official and often lengthy court proceedings are determined.
The centre accepts self-referrals from families in and around the Southampton area.
More information about Fair Ways Child Contact Centre can be found on NACCC’s webpage.
Fair Ways is an award-winning not-for-profit children’s services charity, providing residential, fostering, educational, health and family services to support over 500 individuals annually.
For more information about Fair Ways full range of services, please visit Fair Ways website.
