Community Contact
Is Community Contact the right solution for your family?
Community Contact is a form of contact which allows children and their family members to meet in a community setting, with the support or supervision of a child contact specialist. This could be a child’s favourite park or social setting, a play barn, or a cinema, as examples.
This form of contact is usually suited to situations where there are no existing safety concerns, family members and children have not been estranged for a long period of time, or when an intensive supervised contact programme has been followed and a transition into non-supervised contact is required.
How community contact works
A member of the Family Time will remain in the background during community contact, being there as a support mechanism only and to oversee the interaction between the family member and child. This ensures that family members can spend meaningful quality time with the child, but resident carers also have the peace of mind that the child is safe and free from manipulation or harm.
What happens during contact?
All parties will meet at the agreed time and location.
Supervisor will remain vigilant, making notes where appropriate.
Natural, independent communication between the child and parent is encouraged.
They have access to recording devices if they are ever left alone with the children.
They will provide a brief report of how the contact went and feed back to the centre.
Next Steps
If you feel community contact is the right solution for you, please reach out to a member of our family contact team who will be happy to begin the process of arranging support.