In the context of child welfare, a contact centre is a supervised venue that exists to support and promote contact between parents, grandparents, guardians and children that do not live together. Such centres are particularly important in cases where acrimony or a history of domestic violence exists between parents, making it difficult for parents to organise parenting time without outside assistance.
The first contact centres in Scotland opened in 1988. As of 2002, there were 28 such centres in the country. The centres are local projects, run by charities such as Family Mediation and the Women's Royal Voluntary Service, and are not statutory institutions. However it is common for solicitors to direct their clients to contacts centres as well as for courts to order parents to allow the other parent contact with their children at such centres.
Building Bridges? Expectations and Experiences of Child Contact Centres in Scotland (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/social/bbeecc.pdf) Research report commissioned by the Scottish Executive into the effectiveness of such centres in Scotland.
These are generally used either (a) when contact is being resumed after a break and reasssurance is required by the resident parent in regard to appropriate behaviour with the child or (b) when there are allegations of violence or sexual abuse in relation to the child and supervision is necessary.
Such centres are intended to be transitional, though where mutual or unilateral hostilities between the parents persist, it can require further court appearances in order to 'move on' from the contactcentre.
Some fathers' rights campaigners in the UK argue that shortages of places at contactcentres are used as reasons to prevent them seeing their children and that frequently the only reason given for using a contactcentre in those cases is that the mother demands it.
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