Regulation of Child Contact Centre Services Consultation

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on the regulation of Child Contact Centre Services across Scotland. 

Child contact centres can play an important role in allowing a child to have a relationship with a parent. Child contact centres are safe venues for conflict-free contact between children, parents, and other people in the child’s life. The Children (Scotland) Act 2020 gives the Scottish Ministers the power to regulate child contact centres. The Scottish Government consultation is seeking views on what various aspects of regulation would look like, from a range of individuals, including children and young people. This will inform the development of the regulation of child contact centres. 

What does the consultation cover?

The Children (Scotland) Act 2020 (the 2020 Act) gives the Scottish Ministers the power to make provision about regulation of a contact service provided in relation to the requirements of a contact order. This provision is to be made in regulations. It can include minimum standards for the training of contact service provider staff and in relation to child contact centre accommodation. The 2020 Act also gives the Scottish Ministers the power to appoint a body for the purposes of administering the registration of contact service providers and contact centres.

This consultation seeks views on what should be covered in the minimum standards for child contact services, how the standards should be monitored and what the complaints procedures should be.

Share your views 

You can find the consultation document, here. To share your views on any aspect of this consultation with the SASW Team, to feed into our response, please contact emily.galloway@basw.co.uk before 5pm on Friday the 2nd of July.