Guide to contact arrangements for children

Being separated from your child can be heart-wrenching, and yet some parents have to overcome some significant hurdles to be able to spend time with their children in a way that many families take for granted.

When you are separated from your child, contact is the ultimate goal, and in this article, we will focus on the different types of contact, and what steps can be taken to finalise any agreement or seek a way forward if agreement cannot be reached. 

‘Direct contact means any contact a parent has with a child that is face to face.  It can be in many different formats and can include restrictions if necessary to meet the child’s welfare needs,’ says Natalie Blake, a Chartered Legal Executive in the family team with Tilly Bailey & Irvine. 

What type of direct contact?

The different types of direct contact provide different levels of safeguarding for the child:

• Supervised contact - if you have been having indirect contact, then sometimes the first step to direct contact will be supervised contact.  This is usually only if there remains some concerns that the child will be at risk.  This can be supervised by a friend or family, or sometimes it may need to be supervised by social services or CAFCASS.  This is typically only a temporary measure to monitor contact before it can move to a more natural arrangement. 
   
• Contact centre - this is a centre staffed by volunteers or paid staff with childcare experience that is open for a few hours each week and can accommodate a number of different children and parents at the same time.  It is not supervised contact but does occur in a safe environment.  It can also be used as a neutral venue for contact handover if there have been past issues between parents.  Contact centres are not usually a long-term solution, and typically one is only used as a step towards a more natural contact.
   
• Contact in the community - this can be at a soft play, park, swimming pool or cinema, for example.  It is deemed to be a neutral venue for contact and allows a relationship to build between a parent and child while the child participates in a fun activity.  This often occurs where one parent has raised issues about the home environment of the other parent, for example, concerns about other people that live in the home, or that the child may be exposed to inappropriate material in the home such as drugs.
   
• Contact in the home - this is typically the most natural type of direct contact and occurs in the parent’s own home.  A neutral handover location can be agreed, or the parents can agree to transport the child between their homes directly.  This type of contact can be for a number of hours, or it can be for an overnight stay.  If it is to include overnight stays, then it is important that the child has an appropriate place to sleep.
   
• Holidays - direct contact can also include taking the child away on holiday, which (subject to any court orders) could be abroad or within the UK.  It is wise to provide the other parents with details of where you will be staying and how you will be travelling.  It is also sensible if the child is away for a longer period of time than usual, that both parents agree how and when the absent parent will be contacted and if they will, for example, be able to have video calls during the holiday.

Restrictions

If there are particular concerns, restrictions can be put in place - such as restricting the venue direct contact can occur in, or restricting other people who can be present.