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.

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“I attended the starting point contact centre for 5 months to establish a relationship with my little girl after a rough custody battle. I can safely say we have not only regained our relationship but we are stronger than ever. I can't thank the starting point enough for all of their help and understanding. I feel very Lucky that this centre was there for me when I needed them most. The staff are friendly, fair, strict and most importantly professional. The staff there listen to what you're feeling, your needs and the needs of your child. I wanted to personally thank you for everything and I hope that anyone reading this can put their faith in the starting point also. Good luck to you all and thanks again!”