Contact centres
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Contact centres are places where an estranged parent can see his (or her) children under supervised conditions. These are generally used either (a) when contact is being resumed after a break and reasssurance is required by the resident parent in regard to appropriate behaviour with the child or (b) when there are allegations of violence or sexual abuse in relation to the child and supervision is necessary. The contact centres are largely staffed by trained volunteers - many from church groups - and are regarded as a neutral ground. Such centres are intended to be transitional, though where mutual or unilateral hostilities between the parents persist, it can require further court appearances in order to 'move on' from the contact centre.
There are more than 280 contact centres throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is estimated that 12,000 children use them every year. All staff and volunteers are checked by the Criminal Records Bureau prior to starting work at the centre. Most families are referred to contact centres by solicitors. Other families are referred by the courts, CAFCASS officers, family mediators and social workers. The majority of contact centres do not charge for the use of their services but are dependent upon donations or grants to continue their work. Some are supported by local community initiatives.
Some fathers' rights campaigners in the UK argue that shortages of places at contact centres are used as reasons to prevent them seeing their children and that frequently the only reason given for using a contact centre in those cases is that the mother demands it. Rather than devoting funds to extend the network of contact centres, some fathers' rights campaigners argue that contact centres should only be used for a specific small minority of cases, such as where there are health reasons why the father cannot care for his children unaided.
It has been reported that in Sunderland there is a situation where it is usual to award of children of certain ethnic groups to the father and use the contact centre for mothers to see their children.
External links:
- National Association of Child Contact Centres (http://www.naccc.org.uk/)
- The Advisory Board on Family Law Children Act Sub-Committee : Making Contact Work Ch.8 (http://www.dca.gov.uk/family/abfla/mcwrep.htm#chap8)