Providing a safe and nurturing environment where family relationships can be rebuilt or strengthened is important to your family and us.
Family Matters Guildford is a NACCC enhanced accredited children’s contact centre, providing various contact services for children and their non resident parent/ carers or alternative contact adult to spend time together as a family.
We offer a variety of services to assist with this including indirect and direct supervised contact, supported contacts and handover assistance to provide reassurance and build confidence.
When parents split up, they need to think about lots of different things; like where you will live and when you will see the parent that you don’t live with.
Sometimes parents find it difficult to agree on these things and might decide that a child contact centre is needed, or a professional to be present, for you to spend time with the parent or family member you don’t live with.
Every family’s child arrangement time will look a little bit different and there are a number of different options available to best suit your family. You can discuss these with us if you are unsure and we can help guide you on what we feel may be the best option to start with.
Supervised contact supports the physical safety and emotional wellbeing of a child whilst they have contact with their non-resident parent. We can help to re-establish contact when there has been a significant time lapse of no contact. We can assist parents in building and sustaining positive relationships between themselves and their child. We support contact for children with significant others in their families and promote sibling relationships. We work in a sensitive manner and at the child’s pace.
All our staff are experienced in this role and a report can be provided to ensure that the details of the time the child spends with the family member is fully captured and able to be provided to each parent and the Courts, if required.
All our staff are experienced in this role and a report can be provided to ensure that the details of the time the child spends with the family member is fully captured and able to be provided to each parent and the Courts, if required.
Staff are available for assistance but there is no close observation, monitoring or evaluation of individual contacts/conversation.
A full contact report would not be available but any general observations can be captured.
Handover provides a supportive environment whereby your child can safely move from one parent/contact adult to the other parent/contact adult ready for contact.
Handovers can often be used as a way to progress from supported or supervised family time.
The role of the contact centre is often to support this process by ensuring that the gifts are appropriate, and letters do not contain inappropriate messages prior to forwarding these to the child.
This service can be helpful where one parent cannot know the home address of the child. It can also be used if a parent is concerned whether indirect contact is being passed to the child and the professional can do this in person and assist the child in receiving the items. All correspondence is checked prior to be passed on to ensure it is appropriate.
Virtual contact can be either supervised or supported. The child can either come to the centre for the virtual family time, or our experienced supervisors can set an online discussion and join remotely.
A report can be provided if required.
Escorted Contact refers to when supervision is required within a particular setting, for example, if your child is in hospital or if you are in prison and there needs to be a professional present.
NACCC have made some stories to help your child understand what happens at family time contact centres
In this video we see how different children get on at a family time contact centre.
In this video, Poppy tells us about some of the changes that took place in her life and what this was like for her.
Below is an outline of our charges for family time options. Please speak to us directly for exact costings.
This is a non-refundable one off fee which covers administration and pre-visit costs for each child, parent and/or connected person having contact. Prices from £99 per referral
Supervised contact from £75 (per hour); Contact report £55
Additional supervisor cost £45 (per hour)
Supervised contact from £85 (per hour); Contact report £45
Additional supervisor cost £45 (per hour)
£65 (per hour); Contact report £45
£5 (per letter)
All letters, cards & parcels will be sent first class.
(Excluding any additional postage fees for parcels. We require additional postage to be reimbursed.)
Indirect Contact Letter Review
£15 (per letter)
£45 per handover, e.g. a handover at the beginning and end of contact would be £90.
Hopefully this provides you some more information. If not just ask us.
We accept referrals directly from individuals as well as organisations.
Once the referral is received, it can take a few weeks to complete the process prior to the first contact being able to take place.
This varies as it depends on the availability of the centre to provide the contact at the requested times. During peak times, e.g. weekends and after school, there could be a short wait to be able to provide this service.
Before your first session can be arranged, you will have to fill out referral form and a risk assessment will take place.
Contact arrangements will then be made with you at your first meeting, known, as your contact pre-visit.
If you have a particular timescale in mind or things are urgent, please ring the centre first to make sure they can help, before starting the process.
Yes there is a cost for the service. Please see our pricing for family time contact. Please contact us for the pricing of the additional services provided. All services need to be paid in advance of work being completed otherwise they are unable to go ahead.
Yes for supervised family time, there is the option to provide a full report which will be shared with relevant parties.
A full report is not provided for supported contact but brief observations and attendance information can be provided.
The reports are provided to the persons identified in the referral process.
Family time contact reports are often used by parents to inform the Courts how contact is progressing and assist with future planning.
The cost for reports varies depending on the location of the contact. If the contact is taking place out in the community, the supervisor will take brief notes (usually on a phone) to enable them to write a fuller account once the contact has concluded. This takes longer to complete that when a contact is in the contact centre and the supervisor can make fuller notes during the session, as they are in one room. It therefore takes them less time to write the full report following the session.
Yes, you are able to bring consumable items for you and your child to enjoy during your time together.
There are some cooking facilities available in the shared kitchen should these be required and a dining table available.
However, we are a nut free venue and would request you do not bring any on to the property. If we have a family with specific allergies, we may also request that other items are not brought in.
The parameters of the time will be discussed with each parent once the referral is received and the risk assessment completed.
If it is agreed that you are allowed to take your child out of the centre during the family time contact, there are a number of easily accessible activities.