Levels of Contact

Child in Mind Services provides supported contact and handover.

Supported Child Contact

Supported contact takes place in a variety of neutral community venues where there are facilities to enable children to develop and maintain positive relationships with non-resident parents and other family members. Supported Child Contact Centres are suitable for families when no significant risk to the child or those around the child has been identified.

The basic elements of supported contact are:

• Impartiality.
• Staff and volunteers are available for assistance but there is no close observation, monitoring or evaluation of individual contacts/conversations.
• Several families are usually together in one or a number of rooms.
• Encouragement for families to develop mutual trust and consider more satisfactory family venues.
• Apart from attendance dates and times, no detailed report will be made to a referrer, CAFCASS, a party’s solicitor or court, unless there is a risk of harm to the child, parent or Centre worker.
• An acknowledgement that it be viewed as a temporary arrangement to be reviewed after an agreed period of time.

Handovers

Handovers can take place at the majority of Child Contact Centre and are set up through the normal referral process. Parents do not have to meet, as the handover will be done by Child Contact Centre staff or volunteers. The non-resident parent will then take the child out of the Centre for the duration of the visit, bringing them back to the Centre afterwards. It may be possible for the child to be picked up from one Child Contact Centre in the morning and then taken back to another Child Contact Centre in the afternoon if they are in the same area or at another mutually agreed venue.