Bury St. Edmunds Child Contact Centre

About Us

What, when, how much and how often ?

The Bury St. Edmunds Child Contact Centre offers supported contact, so it is suitable for families where no significant risk to the child or those around the child has been identified. We do not offer supervised contact.

We are open every Saturday from 2.00pm  –  5.00pm. From the 1st July 2023, our fees will increase to £100 for up to 8 sessions and £12 per additional session.

Most contact happens every other week and lasts for between 1 and 3 hours. We may be able to offer weekly contact if we are not too busy and can accommodate this.
All contact sessions need to be agreed beforehand with the co-ordinator.

Further information about our centre, including how to find us by local public transport, is included in the attached Bury St Edmunds Child Contact Centre Leaflet, we have also developed a leaflet for children which you can download by clicking on this link: Bury St Edmunds Contact Centre Leaflet for Children. 

Handover

If or when there is agreement for children to be taken out of the centre, we can provide a neutral ‘hand over’ point for the family. We can also manage the handover of children staying inside the Centre and arrange staggered arrival and departure times when parents do not wish to meet.

Where parents come from

We serve all communities in and around Bury St. Edmunds, also accommodating a parent visiting from another area, or occasionally two parents each living at a distance, where Bury St. Edmunds may be a convenient ‘mid-point’ for contact.

Attending the centre

There may be a short waiting time before a new family can be fitted in. All being well, if a place is available, we aim to start families within 3 weeks of receiving a referral.

 

The key elements of our service are:

  •  Impartiality – i.e. we do not ‘take sides’ or get drawn into disputes between parents. The most important people at the Centre are the children. We aim to create a warm, friendly and positive environment where they can relax and enjoy themselves.
  • Sessions are led by our Coordinator/Deputy and 2 volunteers on duty. We are available for assistance but there is no close observation, monitoring or evaluation/ feedback of individual contact visits/conversations.
  • We do not write reports unless we feel there are safeguarding concerns and we have a legal duty to report these to the relevant authorities.
  •  Staff and volunteers are fully trained (including on Child Protection and Safeguarding) and work to a strict confidentiality policy. They have all undertaken an Enhanced Criminal Records Check (DBS)
  • Families share the church hall and have their own area set up with a table and chairs.
  • Our service is a temporary arrangement. We encourage families to develop mutual trust and move forward when alternative plans are agreed.
  • Parents are expected to pay a £100 fee for up to 8 sessions at the Contact Centre. This should be paid on the first visit. Further sessions can be discussed/ arranged with our Coordinator and cost £12 per time. Tea, coffee and soft drinks are available. Donations are always appreciated to help with our running costs.

Images from our Centre

Below is an images from the Bury St. Edmunds Child Contact Centre meeting location.

NACCC Accreditation

The Bury St. Edmunds Child Contact Centre is accredited by the National Association of Child Contact Centres (NACCC)- which promotes safe child contact. We follow their national framework/ standards of best practice.

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