Looked After Children

Parents and Carers Guidance

Contact with your child

We will always promote contact with your child, as our aim is, if possible, to reunite families when and where appropriate. However, we will only promote contact if we believe it is in your child's best interests. In some cases this contact may need to be supervised so that we can make sure that it is safe and enjoyable for both you and your child.

We will keep records of your contact visits so that we can keep track of the progress that is being made in your family.

Supervised contact

There are two reasons your contact may be supervised:

If we need to do an assessment on your relationship with your child someone may be present at your contact visits.
If we believe that the best way to make sure you and your child have a safe and enjoyable visit is to have someone else present, your contact visits may be supervised.

If we believe that your contact visits need to be supervised a social worker and/or contact supervisor will be present.

Locations of contact visits

The contact visits may take place at:

A neutral setting
Your home
A foster home

We will discuss with you the best place for the contact visits to happen.

Rules surrounding contact

We will set some rules that are aimed to ensure that during contact the child or young person is safe, both physically and emotionally, and will be a positive experience for both the child and parent. These rules will vary and will be explained to you by a Social Worker before the contact visits.

Looked After Children (LAC) Reviews

You will be involved either by attending, if appropriate, or by completing a consultation document or by discussing the content of the LAC Review with your child's Social Worker.