Over a hundred child contact centre volunteers and staff came to NACCC’s AGM and conference on Saturday held in Amersham. Sir James Munby, who has recently become NACCC’s President spoke warmly of NACCC and the whole contact centre movement as “a distinguished example of the voluntary sector at its very best and of civic society operating as it should”. He quoted from his article in the December issue of Family Law saying “Child Contact Centres … wish to play a role, alongside other agencies such as mediation services, in helping as many families as possible resolve their difficulties without resort to the family justice system….This is, I believe, a fundamentally important objective … Court involvement might then be confined to the minority of cases in which judicial resolution is essential. I have long been clear that the aim should always be to avoid court involvement, if at all possible, and to help parents maintain primary focus on their children’s needs.”
Delegates also heard about the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Child Contact Centres (APPG) and got involved with the Family Justice Young People’s Board quiz on resilience in young people particularly during family separation. This was also an opportunity to say farewell to Louis Ruddlesden, who retired earlier this year as NACCC’s Service Development Manager after over ten years’ service. He gave tribute to the commitment of contact centre volunteers and staff, the work of NACCC and in particular, the developments in the contact centre training programme led by Service Development Manager Phil Coleman.
Following a valuable time of networking delegates then attended workshops in preparing children for contact, risk assessment, domestic abuse and working together to safeguard children.Find out more about the work of NACCC https://naccc.org.uk/what-we-do
Delegates at the Amersham Free Church, Amersham 
Valuable networking opportunities for contact centre staff and volunteers 
AGM in progress led by Hazel Hedley Chair of NACCC 
Sir James Munby delivers his keynote speech 
Richard Daniels updates on the All Party Parliamentary Group 
Delegates getting involved during the Family Justice Young People’s Board presentation 
Louis Ruddlesden (Service Development Manager, now retired)
Members can access presentations and handouts from the day in the members area.
