Example: confidence

A Guide to Best Practice in Supervised Child Contact - Coram

A Guide to best Practice in Supervised Child Contact Alan Slade Head of Coram Child Contact Service 1998-2006. Supported by the Lord Chancellor's Department First published in 2002. Digital Reprint 2010. Designed and produced by Needham Griffin Limited London SE1 8SS. 020 7633 0917. Published by Coram Coram Community Campus 49 Mecklenburgh Square London WC1N 2QA. A Guide to best Practice Contents in Supervised Child Contact iv. Foreword Part 4: Guidance on the Supervision, v. Acknowledgements Assessment and Recording of Child Contact vi. Introduction 107. Supervising Child Contact 139. Assessing Child Contact Part 1: 150. Recording Supervised Child The Background to Supervised Contact Contact : Law, Theory and 158. Summary: Key learning points Research 1. Contact : a brief history Part 5: 3. Coram Family's definition of Monitoring and Evaluating Supervised Contact Supervised Contact Service 4. UK legal context Delivery including 7. Theoretical context 167. Quality assurance 14. Research findings standards and monitoring 23.

The service has always aimed to influence practice and policy in respect of child contact. This Guide to Best Practice in Supervised Child Contactdraws on Corams experi-’ ence and learning. It is intended both as a guidance manual to enable and support agencies, professionals and others to understand, assess, plan and effectively man-

Tags:

  Practices, Best, Best practices

Information

Domain:

Source:

Link to this page:

Please notify us if you found a problem with this document:

Other abuse

Transcription of A Guide to Best Practice in Supervised Child Contact - Coram

1 A Guide to best Practice in Supervised Child Contact Alan Slade Head of Coram Child Contact Service 1998-2006. Supported by the Lord Chancellor's Department First published in 2002. Digital Reprint 2010. Designed and produced by Needham Griffin Limited London SE1 8SS. 020 7633 0917. Published by Coram Coram Community Campus 49 Mecklenburgh Square London WC1N 2QA. A Guide to best Practice Contents in Supervised Child Contact iv. Foreword Part 4: Guidance on the Supervision, v. Acknowledgements Assessment and Recording of Child Contact vi. Introduction 107. Supervising Child Contact 139. Assessing Child Contact Part 1: 150. Recording Supervised Child The Background to Supervised Contact Contact : Law, Theory and 158. Summary: Key learning points Research 1. Contact : a brief history Part 5: 3. Coram Family's definition of Monitoring and Evaluating Supervised Contact Supervised Contact Service 4. UK legal context Delivery including 7. Theoretical context 167. Quality assurance 14. Research findings standards and monitoring 23.

2 Summary: Key learning points 169. Service 'user evaluation 171. Summary and endnote Part 2: Setting the Scene: Part 6: The Importance of the 173. Toolkit'. Environment and Staffing 1. Quality assurance standards 27. The environment 2. Referral and service eligibility 39. Staffing for Supervised Contact form 46. Summary: Key learning points 3. Terms and conditions of use 4. Referral agreement form Part 3: (contract for use of services). Managing, Assessing and 5. Customer information leaflet Planning Referrals for 6. Anti-discrimination statement Supervised Contact 7. Guidelines for the observation 57. Managing referrals and and assessment of Child Contact demand 8. Record of Supervised Contact 64. Referral intake and initial form assessment 9. Record of decisions form 73. Referral assessment and 10. Example of customer planning for a service evaluation survey 91. Summary: Key learning points 11. Example of quarterly monitoring and monthly monitoring forms 12. Monthly monitoring forms iii A Guide to best Practice Foreword in Supervised When the relationship of parents breaks down, it is not only the adults who Child Contact suffer.

3 Children generally love and need both their parents and the effect of divorce or other separation can be seriously detrimental to the welfare of the children of the family. Wherever possible, unless the absent parent is unsuitable, the Child should have the opportunity to remain in Contact with him/her. In some cases unrestricted Contact is not feasible but, nonetheless, the maintenance of a link with the absent parent is in the best interests of the Child . To maintain Contact in those circumstances is a difficult and sensitive matter. Coram Family has many years of specialist experience in managing difficult situations revolving round issues of Contact in a Supervised setting between the absent parent(s) and the Child . The contribution made by Coram Family to the children and adults who have passed through their doors is incalculable. The vast experience gathered from this first hand exposure to these often seemingly insoluble problems has been for some years and continues to be provided to other organisations.

4 I am delighted to hear that the unique service provided by Coram Family has been recognised by the Lord Chancellor's Department and that a consultancy and advice service is being set up to support the establishment of similar centres around the country. I cannot stress too strongly the importance of the service provided by Coram Family in making possible the important continuing link between the Child and either or both parents with whom the Child does not live. The Guide to best Practice in Supervised Contact will give the opportunity to a much wider audience to learn about the high quality of the services provided by Coram Family and how to provide such services elsewhere. The Right Honourable Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss DBE. President of the Family Division March 2002. iv A Guide to best Practice Acknowledgements in Supervised Over the years, Coram Family's Child Contact Service has been fortunate to Child Contact have the support and guidance of many agencies and individuals. We are grateful for a decade of unswerving support from the Inner London and Middlesex Probation services, in particular Peter Jeffries and Steve Walsh, and to the London Borough of Camden Social Services Department, particularly Steve Liddicott and Sue Walker.

5 The support and interest of The Lord Chancellor's Department in funding the development and production of this Guide has been invaluable. Coram is especially grateful to the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, in particular Richard Glover and Brian Blair, and to the Tudor Trust and Roger Northcott for their long-term and ongoing support of our work, without which Coram would be far less of a service than it is today. Similarly, the John Lyons Trust', the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Inner London and City Family Proceedings Courts have been instrumental in various developments in our work. Very many people have contributed to the development and success of Coram 's Contact service. However, the following deserve special thanks: Sue Anderson, Val Barlow, Margaret Briant, Amanda Checkley, Una Cottingham, Nick Crichton JP, Frank Duffy, Barbara Eaton, Astell Evans, Lady Evans-Lombe, Ann Foden, Dr Chris Hanvey, Dr Sebastian Kraemer, Dr Brynna Kroll, Betty Marshall, Colin Masters, John Orr, Ted Peterson, Arran Poyser, Dr Gillian Pugh OBE, His Honour Judge Christopher Tyrer and, Felicity Whittaker service founder, mentor and Guide .

6 Very special acknowledgement goes to Jenny Hale, Child Psychotherapist, the first Coram Contact Manager and standard setter of its unequivocal Child focus. Finally, wholehearted thanks to the core team members not already men- tioned above, and whose energy, enthusiasm and effort remain undimin- ished despite the stresses of the work: Lee Kendling, Jane Widdowson, Carol Murphy, Hilary White, Melanie Anderson, Julie Holloway, Pam Edwards, Maxine Dacres, Fathima Kamaldeen, Tasneem Khan, Gairika Gupta, Yvonne Haye, Jackie Andrews, and Mrs Ann Sturges (our wonder- ful cleaner and longest serving staff member). Contributors to this publication Jenny Hale, Child Psychotherapist, for the groundwork to Parts 3 and 4. Sarah Wellard, writer and journalist, for her contributions to Part 1. Felicity Whittaker, for her informed and thoughtful contributions to Part 2. Carol Murphy, for her painstaking and invaluable editorial oversight of all Parts. Coram Child Contact Service is grateful for the support of London Borough of Camden, Cafcass London, Lord Chancellor's Department, Tudor Trust, Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, John Lyons Trust, Home Office, Wednesday's Child Foundation, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Inner London & City Family Proceedings Court.

7 V A Guide to best Practice Introduction in Supervised Coram Family, one of England's oldest children's charities, has been working Child Contact continuously with deprived and disadvantaged children since 1739 when Captain Thomas Coram , a merchant sailor, established the Foundling Hospital to provide care for the abandoned children he found living and dying on the streets of London. Since 1739 Coram Family has been pioneering innovative approaches and pushing back the frontiers of professional good Practice . Today Coram Family (previously known as the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children) works with vulnerable children, young people and their families to promote resilience, enabling them to take responsibility for their own lives and achieve their full potential. A number of Coram 's services, such as the Coram Adoption Service, Coram Leaving Care Service and the Fostering New Links service work with children and young people who have experienced trauma and dislocation and are already separated from their families.

8 Other services, such as the Parents Centre and Family Support Service aim to provide early intervention and parenting support to promote children's life chances. Coram Child Contact Service, established in 1987 as The Meeting Place' project, was the first service in the UK to provide professional social work supervision of children's Contact in a specially designed setting independent of social services and the courts. Uniquely, Coram started providing specialist Contact originally to children in local authority care and then, in 1989 to children whose parents were divorced or separated, before it branched into a supported Contact Centre' and affiliated with the National Association of Child Contact Centres. Coram provides a Supervised service in equal measure to children of divorce and separation and to children looked after by local authorities. Its aims are to support the emotional, psychological and social development of children and young people by providing them with safe and beneficial Contact to parents, siblings and other family members from whom they are separated due to care proceedings or serious breakdown in parents' relationships, or by restricting unsafe and damaging Contact .

9 The service seeks to value and promote the rich cultural and ethnic diversity of its users. It advocates for and promotes the provision of professionally managed Child Contact services at a national and regional level as fundamental to supporting children during and following contested family law proceedings. Coram Child Contact Service manages over 770 professionally Supervised Contact visits per annum. It has provided almost 10,000 Supervised visits, some 20,000. hours of Contact since 1987, for around 3,000 families and 5,000 children. The service has always aimed to influence Practice and policy in respect of Child Contact . This Guide to best Practice in Supervised Child Contact draws on Coram 's experi- ence and learning. It is intended both as a guidance manual to enable and support agencies, professionals and others to understand, assess, plan and effectively man- age Supervised Contact in the most complex and intractable cases, and as a starter pack' for agencies wanting to establish a Supervised Contact resource or improve on already existing resources.

10 Vi A Guide to best Practice in Supervised Child Contact Part 1: The background to Supervised Child Contact A Guide to best Practice Part 1: The background to in Supervised Supervised Child Contact Child Contact Contact : A brief history In 1818 the Marine Society, which sent to sea 10,000 British boys between 1756 and 1862, was asked by MPs what provision was made to maintain Contact between sailor boy and parent. After some hesitation, the Society gave the rather discouraging reply, None'.1 In a rare reference to Child Contact , those elected representatives posed their question on behalf of the public rather than their electors (women did not then have the vote) and without the benefit of the modern human sciences of psychiatry, psychology, and Child -development. As for many of us today, it was a matter of common sense to them that Contact with family might be important for those far-flung sailor boys and the parents they were adrift from. Contact , or maintaining links between children and absent family, is a part of life for growing numbers of children in modern society.


Related search queries