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Children Still Matter Children Still Matter THE IN-HOUSE 2005 MAGAZINE OF • THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHILD CONTACT CENTRES Autumn ISSUE MATTERS CHILDRENCHILDREN LAUNCH OF NORTHERN STILLSTILL MATTERMATTER IRELAND NETWORK Page 4 NACCCNACCC 20052005 AGMAGM andand ConferenceConference PagePage 88 –– 1111 VIEW FROM THE FIELD Page 6 CHILDREN STILL FIRST Page 14 NACCC CHRISTMAS CARDS Page 15 NACCC Chief Executive Supervised Child Contact Centres Following the resignation of NACCC's Chief Executive, Beverley J Brooks MBE, NACCC is in the Conference process of recruiting a new Chief Executive, with NACCC, in conjunction with the Child Contact Centre interviews being held in October. Implementation Group, is holding a conference to firstly share, develop and evaluate good practice and secondly to ensure that Supervised Contact is being NACCC Chair organised and run both consistently and safely. To be held at: The Trinity Centre, Church Hill, Sutton With regret, Pauline Bond has stepped down from Coldfield, Birmingham on Tuesday 8 November 2005 the position of Chair, due to personal – 10 am to 4.30 pm. This conference is being circumstances. At the September Board meeting sponsored by the DfES. Full NACCC members will not Fiona McGill was appointed Chair of NACCC, and be charged to attend. Buffet lunch will be provided. Pauline will continue as Vice-Chair for the coming year. There will be a speaker at the beginning of the day and time for questions at the end, but the bulk of the time will be made up of a series of workshops Divorce rate focussing upon: • Premises increases again • Funding • Staffing/training The number of couples getting divorced increased • Referral forms last year to the highest level since 1996 and the • Risk Assessments fourth successive annual increase. The number of • Contact Agreements divorces in the UK rose by 0.2% to 167,116 • Recording Procedures, to include assessments and according to the Office of National Statistics. reports • Information for referrers and users • In 2004 there were 14 divorcing people per • Evaluation of service delivery 1,000 married ones • In 2004 69% of divorces were to couples where An existing Service Provider will facilitate each both parties were in their first marriage, while workshop. Delegates will be given the opportunity to 10% were between couples who had previously contribute from their own knowledge and been divorced. experience. It will be an opportunity for everyone • Men and women aged 25-29 had the highest participating in the workshop to share, listen and divorce rates. learn. • The average age for divorce increased to 42.7 years for men and to 40.2 for women. At the end of the conference each workshop leader • The average marriage also increased from 11.3 will be asked to provide a summary of what the to 11.5 years. group consider to be best practice drawn from the • 69% of divorces were granted to the wife. The input of delegates throughout the day. The material most frequent fact on which divorce was will then be used to help to move towards best granted to a woman was the husbands practice and minimum standards for Supervised Child behaviour, while for a man it was separation for Contact Centres. two years with consent. • More than half the couples getting divorced in There will also be an opportunity for delegates to 2004 had at least one child under 16 years old. develop and become involved in one or more • 149,275 children aged under 16 were in families regionally based support networks. where the parents divorced, with 23% aged under 5 years and 64% aged under 11 years. All NACCC Supervised Contact service providers will be sent an invitation to this conference shortly. (Information supplied by the Office of National Please note we are only able accommodate two Statistics) delegates per centre. 2 MATTERS Launch of Northern Ireland Network of Child Contact Centres Over the past four years, the disputes and the balancing of operational Child Contact Centres human rights in recent years” as in Northern Ireland have met they “operate at grassroots level together, initially as a forum for providing a vital practical service sharing practice issues and to ensure that justice is given an supporting each other. opportunity to flower”. Judge Recognising the need for an Gillian also expressed his concern From left to right, Child Contact Centre organisation to provide a voice in at the small number of centres Coordinators: Myra, Central Belfast; Ilene, order to participate fully in the operating in Northern Ireland and Cookstown; Judy, NACCC; Anne, Cloona; debate about Contact services in his hope that contact centres Elizabeth, Foyle and Muriel, Knock. Northern Ireland, the Network would be given a higher profile was formed and a constitution both economically and physically Judy Birchall then provided a and framework was developed. and asked the government to face national perspective on Child up to the challenge. Contact Centres explaining The Northern Ireland Network of NACCC’s role in support, training Child Contact Centres (NINCCC) Professor Monica McWilliams was officially launched on 12 May and accreditation and quoted spoke about “Making Contact 2005 at the Island Civic Centre in figures based on average statistics Lisburn. Safe – some lessons from received by NACCC from their research”. She reminded member Centres for 2003/4, that attendees of the effects of About 150 delegates / guests 154,056 hours were freely given attended the event, NINCCC was domestic violence not only on adults but also on children and by 5,502 Volunteers. If the delighted by this response, minimum wage of £4.50 – £4.85 particularly by the delegates from the importance of this being Eire – one group were already taken seriously and appropriate (21 years) was paid, this would organising a CCC on an informal measures being put in place to require £693,252 per annum rising basis, others wanted to set up a ensure the safety of the child/ren to £747,142 p.a. in wages alone. service. and resident parents. She At an average Social Work emphasised the need to ensure Assistant rate of £10 per hour, this The speakers were not only that families who have would represent £1,777,190 p.a. in interesting but also engaged in a experienced domestic violence are wages alone. philosophical debate around issues provided with the most relating to Human Rights, appropriate support and venue, All of the speakers recognised the Domestic Violence, and Child whether this is supervised by social Safety within the context of workers or supported in a child need for funding to be made contact. contact centre. (Northern Ireland available for these services to has no supervised centres and no continue and to expand so that One of the key advantages of the CAFCASS). Professor McWilliams there are Child Contact Centres day was the networking that closed by encouraging those available to all children who need occurred on all levels. involved in child contact centre them throughout Northern work to hold on to the hope that Ireland. The launch was chaired by Lady by putting “good contact” in Eames and the speakers were The place, we are helping to create In June 2005 NINCCC evaluated Hon Mr Justice Gillen, Judge of healthy family relationships. the Family Division of the the event and recognised that as a Supreme Court of Northern Muriel Orr, Chair of NINCCC, gave voluntary group with no core- Ireland, Professor Monica an overview of the work and funded or paid worker NINCCC McWilliams, University of Ulster, development of child contact had held a very successful launch. Muriel Orr, Chair of the Northern Ireland Network of Child Contact centres in Northern Ireland over Centres and Judy Birchall, Support the past 6 years. In the past year, NINCCC is actively working to Manager (North), National the three Child Contact Centres in develop Child Contact Centres in Association of Child Contact Belfast (Central Belfast, Cloona Northern Ireland; playing an Centres (NACCC). and Knock) plus the Mid Ulster active role in NACCC and CCC in Cookstown had facilitated hopefully in Eire. The future looks Mr Justice Gillen, who is a patron 245 families with 342 children. exciting, it will involve much hard There were over 3,000 family visits of NINCCC spoke about work, making funding “Balancing human rights in and over 4,000 children’s visits. In applications, and partnership contact disputes.” He remarked 2005 further CCC’s will open in that “the growth of contact Ballymena, Armagh, Foyle and working. centres is probably the most Omagh. Other projects are being significant development to occur planned in Carrickfergus, Vera McElhone, Muriel Orr and in the management of contact Coleraine and Craigavon. Judy Birchall MATTERS 3 Halton Child Contact Centre: Going for Gold 9 Volunteers 6 Gold, 3 Silver (88) St Mark’s Child Contact Centre Although ALL Child Contact Centre (Chester): 17 Volunteers 9 Gold, volunteers are worth their weight in gold… 1 Silver, 2 Bronze (116) The Dorchester Child Contact What a fantastic response to the new Long Service Certificates awarded Centres: 8 Volunteers all Bronze (32) to Child Contact Centre Volunteers. The number of Certificates issued is as follows: 65 Gold for over 10 years service, 93 Silver for over 5 years Buttershaw Child Contact Centre service, and 75 Bronze for over 3 years Service. The total is 1,445 years (Bradford): 4 Volunteers 2 Silver, service given to local Child Contact Centres. What dedication and commitment this shows. Congratulations from all the Trustees and staff 2 Bronze (17) at NACCC. It can never be said enough – Child Contact Centres could not ‘Jimmy’s’ Contact Centre (Buckhurst operate without YOU. Thank you. Hill): 7 Volunteers 4 Gold, 2 Silver, The following list indicates the number of each level of certificate 1 Bronze (53) awarded since the last publication of Contact Matters in March.
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