It is important that your child is safe when using our services

Child contact services are there for children to maintain or re-establish contact with a parent, grandparent, sibling, other relative, or another person important in their life. It may be that trust has broken down or communication has become difficult following parental separation. If there is a risk of harm to children then a supervised service needs to be used. If you need a neutral venue for contact then you may use a supported service.

Not sure which service you need? Let us help you decide.

Supported family time

Supported family time helps to keep children in touch with parents if trust has broken down or communication is difficult. Parents do not have to meet and several families use the facilities at the same time.

This is a form of family time where the level of risk is assessed to be lower than might be the case for supervised contact. It is also used as a way to progress from supervised family time.

In supported family time, direct observations are not made and reports are not written. Staff or volunteers will be present to ensure the comfort of those engaging in the service.

Tim Lovejoy visits Harpenden Child Contact Centre.

Whilst all contact centres look very different and families use them for a variety of reasons, this video provides an example of the type of set up that might be familiar at a supported child contact service.

Video clip provided courtesy of October Films.

Supervised family time

Is there a potential risk of harm? The centre ensures the physical safety and emotional well-being of children in a one-to-one observed setting.

This form of family time is provided where it is assessed that there might be a higher risk or greater complexity in a families circumstance. These sessions will be supervised by staff who are experienced in this role.

Observations will be made, and reports will be written. It is generally expected that staff will remain within sight and sound of children at all times.

Still not sure if you need Supported or Supervised Family Time? We have a checklist here that might help.

Handover

The centre is used for a short period as a drop off / pick up point. Again, parents do not have to meet.

This is a service offered by some contact centres, in order to support a child moving from one parent to another. Family time will often take place away from a centre with no professional involvement.

Handovers can often be used as a way to progress from supported or supervised family time. Depending on your circumstances, its possible that a mutually trusted person could help with this.

Virtual family time

This is a form of family time that takes place online, using video messaging software like Teams or Skype. Virtual family time can be either supervised or supported.

Virtual family time became a lifeline to families during the pandemic. ACC Dudley Child Contact Centre https://www.acccontactcentre.com/ has kindly shared this tool-kit which helps families to help enhance their interactions over Teams, Skype and other video platforms.

Preparatory sessions / assessment

These can be used to identify the issues that have prevented family time from starting, caused it to break down, or made it unworkable. The focus here will usually be around making recommendations to rebuild relationships.

Preparatory work is a service offered (mostly) by supervised contact centres. This can be offered to adults or children. The aim of this is to prepare people for family time, what it will be like and what emotions they might experience.

Preparatory work can be most effective where people are very anxious or where they have been separated with no or little contact for long periods of time.

Indirect family time

Indirect family time takes place at supervised centres and is used where direct family time is either unsafe, unworkable and or not in the child’s best interests.

This term is a generic term for a wide variety of activities that might be considered family time. These activities can include sending letters or cards (sometimes called “letterbox family time”) or sending gifts.

In this scenario, the role of a professional is often to support this process by ensuring that the gifts are appropriate, and letters do not contain inappropriate messages prior to forwarding these to the child.

This service can be helpful where one parent cannot know the home address of the child.

Community family time

This is a family time service offered by Supervised Centres. Sometimes this will have varying other names, “escorted family time” is one example. Community family time takes place in locations like restaurants, shopping centres, cinemas or soft play centres for example.

This type of family time is not available at all centres and is not appropriate for all families.

Sometimes this will be provided by supervised service without a fixed venue and accredited by NACCC as a community contact service (CCS). Again, this service might use local community venues to deliver their service or in some cases, family time might take place in family members’ homes, where this is safe and appropriate.

Life story / identity family time

Life Story work is the process of helping children to understand and make sense of their lives. This service is often offered to children living in care, although it can be used for other purposes. The aim of such a service is to help them understand the things that have happened in their lives and therefore to support children to develop a sense of identity and therefore, to reduce emotional distress. Life story often concludes with a product for children to keep and treasure, this might include a book, DVD, treasure box, or various other things.

You may also find our Jargon Buster helpful with all the different terms explained in one place:

Jargon Buster