At Tidal Family support, we offer a range of child contact services for families needing safe, supported contact options to maintain or rebuild relationships when going through separation and divorce.
For families where a higher level of safety is needed for children during parent contact sessions.
For families who need a safe, neutral space to rebuild or maintain positive contact relationships.
For families needing a neutral, safe space to hand children between parents without direct interaction.
For families who cannot meet in person due to distance, risk, or other practical reasons.
For families where face-to-face contact isn’t possible, allowing safe communication through letters or messages.
For families needing extra support to improve communication, build trust, or work through complex issues.
Supervised Contact is used when a child needs to spend time with a parent or family member in a safe, supported environment. This service is usually recommended when there are concerns about a child’s wellbeing, or when a court or local authority has identified a higher level of risk.
At Tidal, supervised contact takes place within our contact centre, with a trained member of staff present throughout the session. The supervisor observes and records the interaction to help ensure the emotional and physical safety of the child.
Before contact can begin, both adults are invited to the centre separately to go through our Terms and Conditions and view the space. A written agreement between both parties and Tidal must be in place. If agreed as part of the process, drug and alcohol testing may be required. If a contact parent tests positive on the day, the session will not go ahead.
During each session, the supervisor will take observation notes. These notes can be used to create summary reports for families or the court if requested and appropriate.
Parents and children (if old enough) take part in brief check-ins with their key worker before and after each session. Every six sessions, a review takes place to assess how things are progressing and whether any changes are needed. Where required, Tidal can also provide Executive Summary reports for the court.
Supervised Contact is designed to help families move forward safely, while supporting the child’s right to stay connected to those who are important to them.
Tidal are also able to offer a supported contact to those families who do not require the level of support from a contact worker, as required in Supervised Contact. Tidal’s process and timescales for managing a referral for Supported Contact is the same as that for Supervised contact.
Supported Contact offers a more independent experience for families while still providing structured support. It’s often used as the next step after successful Supervised Contact, helping families move towards contact outside of Tidal.
The contact supervisor does not remain in the room but checks in every 15 minutes to offer support or assistance if needed.
Observation notes are still prepared by the key contact worker.
A Summary Report can be provided to the Court or other relevant agencies if required.
Families continue to take part in the Contact Review and Consultation process, involving both parents and children where appropriate.
Supported Contact helps build confidence and independence in a safe and supported way, working towards long-term positive contact arrangements.
The Tidal Family Support Centre Handover Service is used for those families who require a neutral handover point for the children to move from one parent / carer to another.
Our role is to ensure that the parents/ family members involved do not have to meet face to face, where this is likely to be difficult for the children.
In this service, a member of the team will receive the child from one parent/family member and then hand over the child to the non-resident parent/family member that is asked to arrive 15 minutes later.
This service is often used by parents that do not feel safe/comfortable meeting the non-resident parent/family member, this can be due to family fall outs or in some cases historical Domestic abuse. This service means children are not exposed to uncomfortable conversations or feeling they must take sides.
Virtual contact takes place online, using video calling platforms such as Zoom or Teams. It can be either a Supported or Supervised session. These calls last 30 minutes.
Virtual Contact can be put in place where it is accessed to be too high risk for in person contact. This service can also be used as a method of contact in situations where the non-resident parent/ family member is unable to attend sessions or lives on the mainland/aboard and is unable to get to the contact Centre.
Indirect/Letterbox contact is facilitated by Tidal Family Support and is used in situations where direct contact is deemed unsafe, unworkable, and or not in the child/ren’s best interests.
Indirect/Letterbox Contact service can be useful where the non-resident parent/family member is not permitted to know the home address of the child or children.
This service covers a wide range of activities, from sending letters or cards, sending gifts. The role of centre in this process would be ensuring that the gifts are appropriate, and that the letters do not contain content that is inappropriate prior to forwarding these to the child or children involved. We can also support children in writing letters and expressing their thoughts and feelings to the non-resident parent/family member.
Tidal Family Support is developing a range of co-parenting support services to enable families to positively develop their co-parenting of their children e.g., by providing advice to parents on how to utilise the ‘Our Family Wizard’ digital communication platform.
One of our key objectives, shared by our local family court judiciary is to reduce the number of families using the court, and enable those families already in proceedings, to find a solution to their co-parenting difficulties by improving their co-parenting communication, as well as with support from specialised family practitioners, families can form parenting agreement.