The process to become an accredited member of NACCC is one that evidences expertise and experience. NACCC Membership is only offered to contact services that have achieved accreditation. The accreditation process involves a number of checks completed via application forms, portfolios and inspection by a trained assessor. NACCC only offers accreditation to organisations with an evidenced organisational structure. This enables services to be able to have appropriate oversight of their practice and to be able to function in a competent and safe way. This practice will always be in the best interests of children, lawful and in accordance with NACCC requirements. NACCC requires supervised contact services to be run by experts, these people will have Social Work (or equivalent) qualifications or experience, and those supervising contact will be qualified to Level 3. Those running services are required to have attended a NACCC training course and to ensure that all staff undertake ongoing training.
Services will have a range of robust policies and procedures outlining the way that they practice. These policies and procedures will meet with best practice and be lawful. Contact services operate in a range of locations, sometimes this might include a physical contact centre, sometimes this service might be delivered in the community. Where appropriate contact sometimes happens in peoples homes, but a contact centre will never be a residential property. Services offering supervised contact undertake direct observations and provide written reports, support contact centres do not provide direct observations or write reports. Supported Child Contact Centres are entirely independent and are protected from being called to give evidence in Court Proceedings.
Setting up, managing and running a child contact service is something that needs to be carefully planned. Your overall objective needs to be the creation of an environment where families and children will feel both comfortable and safe but how do you do this? We advise that you consider the ‘action points’ listed at the bottom of this page prior to applying. This is due to you needing to complete your accreditation within 6 months from the appropriate Candidate Application form being submitted.
Before completing your application for Candidate status we would advise you to look at the Standards section on this website. And finally, you need to be aware that Cafcass, the courts and an ever increasing number of local authorities now require child contact services to be accredited members of NACCC before they will make referrals to them and use their services.
We look forward to receiving your Candidate application.
Guidance – Accreditation Process
- Visit the NACCC Website, complete and submit the appropriate Candidate Application form (see links below). Return this to NACCC. Pay initial fee.
- NACCC allocates an Assessor and provides the information needed for a centre to commence working toward accreditation. Centre works with NACCC to complete financial checks.
- The service submits portfolio to assessor. The assessor will then complete accreditation visit. The assessor will write a report and complete an action plan, if required. The service then works to complete the action plan.
- Service completes membership agreements and pays remaining fee, and becomes an accredited member.
- This process is time-limited and must be completed within 6 months from the appropriate Candidate Application form being submitted.
- Your centre’s accreditation by NACCC will last for a period of three years. You will then be asked to complete a re-accreditation process to maintain your membership and accreditation by NACCC. Any member centre found to be operating outside of NACCC’s National Standards and accreditation processes will be suspended from membership. They will then be removed from membership altogether if they fail to address and resolve the issues that have resulted in them operating outside of NACCC’s National Standards and accreditation processes.
Pick the application that is appropriate for you
If you will be providing supported and/or supervised contact from a fixed address (we call this child contact centre accreditation (CCC)), you will need to complete one of these application forms:
Supported Accreditation Candidate Application
Enhanced (Supervised) Accreditation Candidate Application
If you will be operating without a specific venue (we call this community contact service accreditation (CCS)), you will need to complete this application form:
Community Contact Service Accreditation Candidate Application
Please do not use AI tools to complete the application form. The application process is our opportunity to get to know you as an individual service. If we identify the use of AI, we will automatically decline referrals.
Fact sheets on the different types of accreditation can be found in the downloads below.
Our prices
Supported NACCC Candidate prices
- NOT FOR PROFIT – £450 Candidate membership for supported contact
- FOR PROFIT – £800 Candidate membership + £400 for supported contact
- If NACCC decide a follow-up accreditation visit is required to complete your accreditation, this will result in an additional charge of £200 made payable to NACCC.
NB: Please note that all members pay an annual membership subscription.
Enhanced NACCC Candidate prices
- NOT FOR PROFIT – £450 Candidate membership + £1,000 for supervised contact (paid in 2 instalments of £500 with the first payment of £500 to be paid with the Candidate membership)
- FOR PROFIT – £800 Candidate membership + £1,200 for supervised contact (paid in 2 instalments of £600 with the first payment of £600 to be paid with the Candidate membership, and the second payment of £600 to be paid at the end of the accreditation process).
- If NACCC decide a follow-up accreditation visit is required to complete your accreditation, this will result in an additional charge of £200 made payable to NACCC.
NB: Please note that the second instalment of £500/£600 will be invoiced at the end of the Enhanced Accreditation process, before the Enhanced Accreditation certificate is sent and details published on the NACCC website. Please note that all members pay an annual membership subscription.
Community Contact Service (CCS) Candidate prices
- NOT FOR PROFIT – £450 Candidate membership + £1,000 for supervised contact (paid in 2 instalments of £500 with the first payment of £500 to be paid with the candidate membership)
- FOR PROFIT – £800 Candidate membership + £1,200 for supervised contact (paid in 2 instalments of £600 with the first payment of £600 to be paid with the Candidate membership).
- If NACCC decide a follow-up accreditation visit is required to complete your accreditation, this will result in an additional charge of £200 made payable to NACCC.
NB: Please note that the second instalment of £500/£600 will be invoiced at the end of the Community Contact Service accreditation process, before the Enhanced CCS Accreditation certificate is sent and details published on the NACCC website. Please note that all members pay an annual membership subscription.
Action points to consider prior to applying
The need for a service in your area
- Have you spoken to CAFCASS, local solicitors, local courts and other child contact services operating in your area at present?
- If you are planning to open a supervised child contact centre, have you spoken to local authorities in your area to see whether they would use your service to facilitate contact for looked after children?
Premises
- Have you identified anywhere?
- Where is it?
- When is it available?
- What facilities does it have?
Staffing
- Will you be using volunteers, paid staff or a combination of the two to run your service?
- How many volunteers/staff will you need to run your service?
- How will you be recruiting these people?
Funding
- How much is it going to cost to set up and then run your service for a year?
- Where is this money going to come from?
I still have a query
Please check our frequently asked questions to see if these help with your query.