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Standards of Service for Child Contact Services

Supervised Access Ireland (SAI) follows a set of recognized international standards to ensure that our child contact services are safe and effective places for children to enjoy contact with people who are important in their lives. This page provides a summary of our standards, which we hope will be helpful.

01

Child Contact Service Management

  • Management should be experienced and qualified.
  • The service should understand and meet local community needs.
  • Standards and membership agreements may be amended in uncertain times, with consultation and support.

02

Service Staffing

  • Child contact services must be staffed by suitably skilled and experienced individuals, in sufficient numbers to offer a service that meets the needs of those using the service. Staff should be trained and supervised to ensure that they are competent to provide a safe and reliable service.

03

Operating Procedures

  • Child contact services must have clear and consistent operating procedures that are known, understood, and accepted by staff, referrers, and families using the service. These procedures should cover every aspect of the service, including intake and assessment, scheduling, supervision, reporting, and feedback.

04

HR and Recruitment

  • The systems and processes at a service must enable all the operations of the service to function in a way that is effective and legal. There must be a clear recruitment procedure that ensures the selection of staff for new and existing child contact services. This includes conducting background checks, verifying qualifications and experience, and ensuring that staff adhere to the service’s code of conduct.

05

Policies

  • Policies and procedures provide a framework within which a child contact service can operate and evaluate the service it is providing. Policies should be developed in consultation with stakeholders and cover important areas such as child protection, confidentiality, complaints, and health and safety.

06

Safeguarding Children / Child Protection

  • Child contact services work with families who might be particularly vulnerable because of events that have or continue to happen. The service must take all possible steps to ensure that the people using its services are adequately protected. This includes having a safeguarding policy and procedures in place, providing training to staff, and having clear reporting mechanisms.

07

Confidentiality

  • Families using child contact services have a right to know that information about them will be treated in line with best practice relating to confidentiality. People using services must be able to trust child contact services and the way that their information is kept safe. This includes having a clear confidentiality policy, obtaining consent for sharing information, and ensuring that staff are trained in data protection.

08

Complaints and Compliments

  • Child contact services must be able to monitor and evaluate their services to ensure that they are meeting the needs of families and children. Families need to know that any complaints and compliments they make will be listened to