It’s generally better for children to remain in contact with both parents after separation or divorce. But this can be hard for many reasons. Some parents find it very difficult to agree to share their children’s time with their ex-partner or extended family members. There may be many reasons for this, but it might be simply that you and your ex-partner have great difficulty communicating and agreeing arrangements. Sometimes it’s too difficult for parents to see each other after separation. If that sounds like you, perhaps our child contact centres can help.
Child contact centres help children and parents by providing a safe, neutral environment away from high-conflict situations so that children can see their parent who does not live with them or other family members, such as grandparents.
What types of contact are there?
Supported in-centre contact is facilitated by contact centre staff who will support children and non-resident parents to meet and spend time together in a welcoming room at the centre. If parents don’t want to meet each other at the centre, this can be arranged. This video will give you a good idea of how supported contact works.
We also offer a drop-off/pick-up service, also know as ‘supported handover contact’. With drop-off/pick-up the child contact centre becomes a venue to pick up and drop off children for out-of-centre contact. Staff support the handover of the child from one parent to the other and parents do not need to meet each other. A record of attendance is kept and an attendance report can be provided on request.
Supervised in-centre contact is when a trained member of staff observes and supervises the contact between the child and non-resident parent to ensure the safety of those involved. We do not currently offer supervised contact, please contact Family Mediation West if you are interested in this service.
We have further information available on what happens at a child contact centre.
Get in touch if you’d like to chat about our child contact centre services or to book an appointment with one of our professionals.
