Venue details
Address (not for correspondence):
Unit 11 Kensworth Gate, 200-204 High Street South,
Dunstable, Bedfordshire, LU6 3HS
Opening hours
Days & Times: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday : 09:30 – 18:00, Friday appointment only. Saturday: 09:00 – 16:00, Sunday: 09:00 – 13:00 (after 13:00 is appointment only). The centre is closed on a Tuesday.
Centre charges
This centre has a price list which can be sent out on request.
Services available here
Supported family time
Supervised family time
Handover
Supervised family time assessment
Indirect
Escorted family time
Life story identity family time
Accepts self referrals
Enhanced Accredited
Virtual family time (Supported)
Virtual family time (Supervised)
Not For Profit
Contact
Website: www.instagram.com/yourfamilyservices/
Telephone: 01582 476002
Email: Duty-CC@yf-services.co.uk
Description
Our main venue of business is 11 kensworth Gate just off Garden road in dunstable which has access for Disabilities. Your Family Services is a community organisation that provides a safe, friendly, and neutral place where children of separated families can spend Family Time with one or both parents and sometimes other family members. We offer a child centred environment that provides toys, games and facilities that reflect the diverse needs of children affected by family breakdown. Your Family Services are affiliated to the National Association of Child Contact Centres. Opening Hours Monday appointment only. Wednesdays and Fridays 9:00- 18:00. Saturday 09:00-16:00 Sunday fortnightly 09:00-13: 00, (We are exploring extending Sundays opening hours so call for assistance if Sundays were required) Tuesday and Thursday we are closed. Parents/Solicitors can call the centre for a general discussion – usually when they are in court trying to organise Family Time. We will then send a referral via email to the referring party. The referral form needs to be completed, this can be done electronically and then emailed back to us. An administration fee also needs to be paid before we referrals are processed. The admin fee is non-refundable. Once the referral and fee have been received, we will organise pre- meets with parents. We invite parents to come to the centre (separately) or if there is a distance to travel, we will complete the meetings on the phone to review the referral, complete a risk assessment and discuss how Family Time will commence. Once the pre- meets are complete, we will schedule Family Time. We are usually able to schedule within a two-week period or less depending on how quick the referral comes in and if parents can do pre-meets quickly. We do receive urgent referrals and providing we have a referral, payment and have completed pre-meets we have facilitated Family Time in 48 hours. Services Supervised Family Time, this includes use of rooms, supervisor and written report. Supervised Family Time in the community this includes supervisor and written report. Supported Family Time in the centre. Handover – collect and return Preparatory work. Women's Freedom programme weekends only from Jan 2025 (group sessions available, call for more details) Sibling assessed Family Time Family network meeting Additional letter/ report request Parenting/Pre-birth and Viability Assessments by a senior qualified social worker. Direct work with children per hour by a qualified senior social worker Family Support community work from Jan 2025 We do not have an age range all children and young people are welcome. We also offer services for people who have guardians due to learning difficulties etc. We endeavour to work with families to move Family Time forward i.e. from supervised to community to supported. We work in line with the court orders, however if parents can start negotiating and there is no risk to the child we have moved Family Time forward, which parents can then inform the court about. However, some Family courts will put in the court order for YFS to review after a matter of weeks or months to whether Family Time can move forward. We do facilitate hand overs. Again, trying to move the parents forward - when appropriate assisting parents with face-to-face Family Time and managing the handover with us observing and supporting with the aim that the family can find a mutual venue in the community to do this without assistance. We offer supervised, supported, community and handovers. We also offer parenting assessment in the community and in the centre as the centre has full facilities for parents to demonstrate, meeting basic care needs i.e. bathing, feeding including preparing and cooking meals, appropriate stimulation, boundary setting etc. Life Story work to help children understand why their parents are not living together, why the parent has been absent etc. Work with individual parents to enable parents to come together in the best interest of their children. All supervised and community contacts generate a report. We provide all families with a logged chronology of attendance and significant communications, this is made available to parents prior to attending court and for supported contacts to give an overview to the court of how Family Time has progressed, any problems etc. Any additional information required will come at a cost please refer to the information above for additional letter fees. Although reports are not required for supported Family Time if there are ongoing issues, we will write a report detailing concerns, and efforts that we have made to facilitate Family Time. We also do individual parenting work with the absent parent with reference to their children, for example, understanding emotional needs, behaviour, how to build a positive relationship with the child. Learning about their child (especially for absent parents) Children thrive better when they have both parents in their lives, research demonstrates that children who have Family Time with both parents have better life outcomes. We therefore work with families to facilitate Family Time this work includes the above and a) Work with both parents to develop a business-like relationship to enable Family Time to move forward. For children seeing both parents ‘get on’ has positive outcomes as most children just want their family to function and feel able to have a positive time with each parent without fear of upsetting either parent. b) Work with resistant children to understand what their fears/anxieties are and when appropriate work with the absent father to understand how their child is feeling and encourage them to apologise for any behaviours that have caused the child’s anxiety. c) The service we offer is bespoke to each family as their needs can be quite diverse and do not fit into one solution. We strive to be creative in finding solutions to facilitate contact. However, if a child is genuinely distressed, we may stop Family Time and suggest other options for the child i.e. play therapy d) The child’s wellbeing is always our priority, and we encourage parents to have the same view rather than focussing on their own issues. For further information please contact the Duty Manager/Managing director.
Notes from this centre
No disabled access
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: 10/09/2025
Summary:
Your Family Services is an established provider (accredited since 2022) based in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. The centre has excellent bus routes with the nearest train stations 3-8 miles from the centre. There is no dedicated parking, but nearby street parking is available and nearby council run carparks.
The centre has access to four rooms on two floors. The rooms differ in size and as such will cater to different size families and age ranges. The rooms are child-friendly and recently decorated. A kitchen area is available should parents wish to prepare food and drinks.
The service has in place the appropriate documents and processes to ensure that parents and children are well prepared to access their services through preparation meetings and visits.
The service worked well with the assessor during this process and all staff met with were friendly and welcoming both towards the assessor and families attending during the visit. Any recommended actions following the visit are now complete meaning the service meets the standards for enhanced (supervised) family time accreditation.
Photos from this centre
