Venue details
Address (not for correspondence):
Christ Church Pastoral Centre, Chester Close, Castlefields,
Runcorn, Cheshire, WA7 2HY
Opening hours
Days & Times: Alternate Saturdays (with Widnes) 1.30pm to 4pm
Centre charges
No charge for service
Services available here
Supported contact
Handover
Accepts self referrals
Accredited
To make a referral,
contact:
Address: Co-ordinator, c/o Christ Church Pastoral Centre, Chester Close, Castlefields, Runcorn, Cheshire, WA7 2HY
Telephone: 07944 930711
Notes from this centre
All correspondence & telephone calls to this address & number, not to the venue.
This centre is accredited to provide supported 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 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.
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: 19/10/2021
Summary:
Runcorn Child Contact Centre was established in 1996 and together with Widnes operates jointly as Halton Child Contact Centre. It opens on alternate Saturday afternoons from 1.45 to 3.45 with Widnes operating on the opposite week. Both Widnes and Runcorn Centres were closed for most of the pandemic with Runcorn re-opening in September 2021. The centre operates from church premises (Christ Church) but is not part of it and does not run any other services. The centre’s website includes referrals forms and information as well as a parents’ information leaflet.
Christ Church is a convenient venue with good transport links – a bus stops by the contact centre and there is a small car park. There is good disabled access to both main front entrance and rear from the outside area.
The main contact room is light and airy and pleasantly furnished though without comfortable seating such as settees because it is the main worship area for the church. The small outside area is secure with a safe surface. The kitchen is not used by parents and they wait if necessary in the foyer. The centre was not in use during the accreditation visit so it was not set out for a session.
One of the committee members has recently taken on the role of co-ordinator and has already attended co-ordinator training with the Deputy Chair covering if necessary, who has also attended the co-ordinator training. The co-ordinator is to start recruiting for new volunteers as there has not been any recruitment in the past three years.
Because the centre was closed for so long during the pandemic and at the time of the report had only very recently re-opened, none of the previous families have returned and new referral numbers are still building up. The centre was only taking a small number of families at each session with some attending both centres so that they can have weekly attendance. The centre undertakes comprehensive pre-contact meetings that include the children and two staff. Risks are assessed and families often refused if supervised contact is more appropriate.
This is a long-established centre and a lot of work has been done during the reaccreditation process to bring Runcorn fully into line with NACCC standards. It now fully deserves to be reaccredited.
Photos from this centre
