Supervised Contact

The Appropriate Adult Service offers professional and qualified personnel to supervise contact sessions between parents and children or sibling contacts.

A report suitable for Court submission is prepared after every visit and sent back to the social worker immediately following the contact.

The use of our service means that Social Workers do not need to put themselves at risk by supervising potentially volatile contact sessions.

The service is entirely independent and impartial and cost effective, offering a safe and effective solution to social workers, parents and children.

Our Comprehensive Supervised Contact Service

All children involved in either divorce, separation or care proceedings benefit from contact with both parents. It is essential that the contact caters for the needs and safety of the child, as well as the needs of the parent.

Particularly in cases where the child is subject to care proceedings, the court needs to satisfy themselves that the parents are able to meet the needs of the child and care for them in an appropriate way. Often the child has been removed from the family home due to suspected abuse, violence or neglect, and it is paramount to the child's welfare that any contact with their parents is supervised.

However the family social worker are historically not the best people to undertake the supervision, primarily due to the animosity felt by the parents.

Any contact time with the social worker, or representative from social services present is marred by the destructive relationship between the supervisor and the parents.

Parents often blame the social worker for taking their child away from them, and can become violent or aggressive towards the worker. This is detrimental to the child as well as placing the social worker at extreme personal risk.

The Appropriate Adult Service can provide appropriately trained and qualified independent workers to supervise the contact sessions, and then prepare a comprehensive report to the social worker about the contact session. This can happen in a contact centre, can be activity based, such as shopping, or beach, or in the parents home.

How The Appropriate Adult Service Can Help

The Appropriate Adult Service can provide appropriately trained and qualified independent workers to supervise the contact sessions, and then prepare a comprehensive report to the social worker about the contact session. This can happen in a contact centre, can be activity based, such as shopping, or beach, or in the parents home.

The contact supervisor can transport the young person from their foster placement to the designated meeting place, and then return them to the home. This also ensures that the location of the foster placement remains confidential.

Our supervisors also have the benefit of not knowing the details of the individual case, meaning that the contact is supervised in an entirely independent way. Obviously essential information and any potential risks need to be disclosed, but no other case history needs to be known in order to effectively supervise the contact.

Unfortunately this cannot always be done within the family home, or through unsupervised methods.

There can be a number of reasons why contact needs to be supervised, which can include

Suspicion of Abuse
Lack of previous contact with the child
Lack of parenting skills due to learning disability
Safety of the child
Breakdown of relationship between parent and child which needs to be slowly rebuilt
An Assessment of parenting skills is required
Contact needs to be in a secure environment due to a violent partner at home

Every Child Matters' placed supporting parents and carers at the heart of its approach to improving children's lives. The bond between a child and its parents can be the most critical influence on a child's life. Parenting in the home has the greatest impact on a child's educational development as well as on their behaviour and mental health.

Therefore it is essential to maintain and establish contact between children and parents wherever possible.

The service we offer is designed to be as flexible as possible and tailored to the individual circumstances of the case. We ensure continuity throughout the contact sessions by retaining the same personnel for the duration of the contact sessions.

The use of our service means that the contact can be supervised, without the need for social workers to leave their already overstretched workload. It also ensures complete impartiality of reports. Solicitors and Guardians can be assured that the reports submitted are entirely independent.

The service we offer is designed to be as flexible as possible, and tailored to the individual circumstances of the case.

trained and qualified independent workers

supervised in an entirely independent way