Please note that Birmingham Salvation Army Child Contact Centre offers supported contact only.

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.
• Volunteers are available for assistance but there is no close observation, monitoring or evaluation of individual contacts or conversations.
• Several families are together in one room.
• Encouragement for families to develop mutual trust and to 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 is viewed as a temporary arrangement to be reviewed after a period of time.

1. Please do not refer a client without contacting the Child Contact Centre Co-ordinator 07717335699  to check availability .
2. A completed referral form should be received by the Centre Coordinator, who will then contact the parties involved to arrange separate pre-visit interviews. These interviews are to ensure  that the Centre has all relevant facts, and that families know what facilities are available and what to expect at the Centre.
3. Only people named on the referral form will be allowed admittance to the Child Contact Centre. This may be varied by written agreement by both parties. We can also facilitate Handovers which will enable the Non-resident parent to spend some of the Contact session outside the Centre.
4. Parents are responsible for their children at all times whilst they are at the Centre.
5. To try and maintain a friendly, impartial and confidential environment, we would request that you do not, at any time, ask to see your clients on our premises without prior agreement.
6. Only dates and times of a family’s attendance will be disclosed unless it is felt that anyone using the Centre or a volunteer is at risk . In the unlikely event of it becoming necessary to quote the Coordinator  in any report, due to a Centre user or volunteer being at risk, the form of words used should be checked and agreed with that person concerned beforehand.
7. Child Contact Centres providing Supported Contact will not knowingly accept a referral when somebody involved has been convicted of any offence relating to a) physical or b) sexual abuse of any child.
8. The Child Contact Centre reserves the right to reduce or terminate contact if it is felt to be in the best interest of the child. Parents should be informed that the welfare of the child is paramount.
9. Referrers should make arrangements and pay for an interpreter where English is not the first language of the family involved and problems may arise with communication.
10. The Centre should be viewed as a temporary facility to help establish contact. The Coordinator may ask for your assistance to review the family’s progress.
11. Please notify the Coordinator if the arrangements for contact are going to change or if contact is going to cease.