Venue details
Address (not for correspondence):
1st Floor, 120a London Road,
Benfleet, Essex, SS7 5SQ
Opening hours
Days & Times: Monday to Sundays, 10am to 7pm, subject to availability
Centre charges
Details available on request Cancellations made less than 7 days notice will result in 25% of fee being retained Cancellation within 48 hours result in the full fee being retained
Services available here
Supported contact
Supervised contact
Handover
Supervised contact assessment
Indirect
Life story identity contact
Supervised - Community Based
Accepts self referrals
Enhanced Accredited
Virtual Contact (Supported)
Virtual Contact (Supervised)
To make a referral,
contact:
Address: 120a London Road , Benfleet, Essex, SS7 5SQ
Description
We are an independent provider facilitating child-centered supervised and supported contact for children and family members in the UK. Our aim is to enable children to keep in touch with their parents and families in a safe, friendly, and informal atmosphere. We match our workers to meet the needs of the children and their families and are able to match workers to meet the diverse needs of children and their families i.e language, race, cultural, behavioural and disability needs. We have qualified social workers and experienced staff who will facilitate the supervised and accompany the family and they are DBS checked. We are able to provide the service to as close to where you live as possible.
Local services
East London and Essex.
Notes from this centre
Referrals by email only
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: 19/04/2022
Summary:
Great Future Support (GFS) is a service without a venue covering the southeast of England (Kent, London & Essex) with a head office in Southend, Essex. It is a well-established residential support service providing supported living for adults with additional needs and has recently moved into contact services, providing ‘Improving Child and Family Arrangements’ (ICFA) for Cafcass in Kent and Essex. GFS hopes to take private law referrals soon.
GFS makes use of community areas such as libraries and community centres as well as public spaces for contact services. They currently access two community centres regularly and ensure that they have risk assessments for the spaces such as emergency evacuation procedures, PAT Testing and fire maintenance. The service keeps records of building risk assessments and visits them prior to hiring rooms or community spaces.
GFS has a contact agreement, which sets out the rules of the centre and expectations of staff and parents attending. This document is to be signed by both parents and the staff completing this. The agreement refers to policies that link with contact such as safeguarding and the disclosure of information, as well as the use of mobile phones within contact sessions. Staggered arrivals can be put in place if needed. GFS have a review process that if implemented will work well for their families including changes, input from all involved and that a report will be provided. GFS do not escort or provide transport to children, however, on occasion staff may undertake home visits as part of the ICFA programme.
The co-ordinator has ample experience in working for local authorities, having been a social worker in children and families teams in Essex and London prior to starting their own company. Processes in place are robust and as a result Great Future Support is organised and equipped to provide a good quality service, looking to branch into private law services soon. Staff providing this service are well trained and appear to be well managed with regular supervision and support when lone working in the community. The service is running well so far and the assessor is confident that they are able to provide a positive and consistent service to the families that they work with. Any recommended actions following the visit are now complete meaning the service meets the standards for enhanced (supervised) accreditation.
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