Venue details
Address (not for correspondence):
Old Station Yard, Highgate Road, Highgate,
Birmingham, West Midlands, B12 0AY
Opening hours
Days & Times: 7 days a week, 9am to 5pm.
Centre charges
Details available on request.
Services available here
Supported contact
Supervised contact
Handover
Supervised contact assessment
Escorted contact
Accepts self referrals
Enhanced Accredited
Virtual Contact (Supported)
Virtual Contact (Supervised)
To make a referral,
contact:
Telephone: 0121 440 8219
Alternative: 07955 073369
Contact
Website: www.familymattersenterprise.co.uk
Telephone: 0121 440 8219
Alternative: 07955 073369
Notes from this centre
COVID-19 UPDATE: Centre is open for contact (updated 14.5.21)
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: 23/11/2021
Summary:
Family Matters Enterprise (FME) is a not-for-profit Social Enterprise and Company Incorporated which was registered in September 2016 and offers supported, supervised, virtual and handover contact with referrals for both public and private law cases; from local authorities, solicitors, courts and self-referral. There are two registered Directors, who are both registered social workers and work at the centre at the weekend. At the time of the report the centre had been hit by the Covid pandemic with staff having periods of being furloughed. Only virtual contact could go ahead during lockdowns which seriously impacted upon the organisation’s finances. A grant was received from Birmingham Council which enabled rent and essential bills to be paid.
The reaccreditation visit was slightly delayed due to Family Matters Enterprise moving premises after the Covid-19 lockdown. The new premises are in a detached building based in a builder’s yard at the former Station Yard in the Highgate area of Birmingham. The building has been decorated and furnished to a good standard, is clean and tidy and has parking facilities. Thought has gone into meeting health and safety requirements whilst making the building as welcoming as possible. The service is within walking distance to the city centre and has both a bus and tram stop nearby. There are also parks, soft-play, Star City, Sea Life Centre, and a nature reserve in the area giving lots of choice for families using the centre for handover.
Upon arrival there are car parking spaces within the Station Yard and the building is entered via a secure buzzer system. The admin office overlooks the entrance so arrivals and departure can be easily seen. The building is accessible on the ground floor and has a disabled toilet, ladies & gents’ toilets and baby changing facilities, which are all very clean. A small kitchen is available to staff, where they can make drinks for families if necessary. There is a waiting room for resident parents, although this is not generally encouraged. Up to five rooms can be used for contact. Pre visits usually take place in the centre on a Saturday, although virtual interviews are in place for parents who live out of area.
A pre visit pack is available for parents which contains a range of information, including how to prepare children for contact. Operating procedures are sent to parents and referrers, setting out the range of services offered by the service and their prices. Contact centre rules are emailed to each parent before the pre visit to give them an opportunity to read and are signed at the meeting. Children are invited to visit the centre mid-week or at a weekend. They have an opportunity to visit the room they will use and play with some of the toys and meet staff. This helps them to become familiar with the allocated member of staff and with the room they will use for contact. Most of the contact takes place within the centre and there is a limited number of visits in the community which involve staff. Occasionally referrals from local authorities will require staff to escort children as part of a community assessment and to cover these eventualities there is a policy in place which sets out all the steps to be taken in terms of mitigating risks.
The assessor observed a lot of passion and commitment from both the directors and the staff. Any recommended actions following the visit are now complete meaning the service meets the standards for enhanced (supervised) accreditation.
Photos from this centre
