Venue details
Address (not for correspondence):
The Gateway Centre, 66-70 Lottbridge Drive,
Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN22 9PB
Opening hours
Days & Times: Supported contact : 1st & 3rd Saturday of month 10am to 1pm Supervised contact : Tuesday 9.30am - 1.30pm
Centre charges
£20 referral/admin fee.
£10 per hour –supported contact
£60 per hour- Supervised contact
Services available here
Supported family time
Supervised family time
Handover
Escorted family time
Accepts self referrals
Enhanced Accredited
Not For Profit
To make a referral,
contact:
Address: FSW Garton House, 22 Stanford Avenue, Brighton, Sussex, BN1 6AA
Telephone: 01273 832963
Contact
Website: www.familysupportwork.org/what-we-do/our-services/family-contact-centre/
Telephone: 01273 832963
This centre is accredited to provide supervised contact
Accreditation is a way of checking that your contact centre is safe and meets our standards.
How is a centre checked?
An assessorSomeone working on our behalf who has experience and an interest in child contact services and must assess if a service meets our standards. looks round the centre’s rooms, toys, equipment, and any outside play areas to make sure that they are safe and good for you to use. They talk with the people at the centre to make sure that they are trained and helped to do their job as well as possible. They then check the informationThe assessor checks through the centre’s accreditation portfolio which includes policies, procedures, risk assessments, reports (if the service offers supervised contact) and information for families. on what happens at the centre and how it keeps you safe. If your family time happens in the community The service might use local community venues to deliver their service or in some cases, residential properties including family members’ homes, where this is safe and appropriate., then the assessor will check that this is going to be safe for you.
When the assessor is happy that a centre meets our standards then they are awarded their accreditation and you can find them on this website. Accreditation happens every three years with extra checks if needed.
Accreditation Summary
Date: 06/10/2024
Summary:
Eastbourne Family Contact Centre has running for over 20 years and is run by the Sussex charity, Family Support Work, in partnership with the Mothers’ Union. The service is a well-established provider of supported contact and has now taken the next step into supervised contact. The service leases the Gateway Centre which is a church venue hosting several different services including the contact centre, foodbanks and support groups for those in need. The centre is accessible to all and is a five-minute walk from Hampden Park train station and is served by regular buses. On-site parking is also available.
The reception area is large with seating and tables (which is used as a dining area for children attending over lunch), and families pass through this area to reach the supported contact hall and supervised rooms. The contact hall is now divided into three ‘rooms’, giving the service options as to how the space will be used and when. These rooms accommodate one family each and vary slightly in size to accommodate for large and small families. The centre is well equipped, well lit, clean and tidy, with various toys and games. Parents are also encouraged to provide toys and games for the sessions.
The centre has a detailed, bright, and inviting website and leaflets with a range of information included on these for the children and families that may use the centre. This information helps them to anticipate everything from making a referral to the appropriate steps to take if they are unhappy or feel unsafe.
The co-ordinator has put a great deal of effort into the portfolio, record keeping is secure, and the recent merge (between Family Support Work and the Mothers’ Union) does not appear to have affected the current service which is running well. The centre meets the standards for enhanced (supervised) contact accreditation
Photos from this centre
