Fresh Futures Family Time service is a child contact centre which provides multiple levels of support to children and families. The service offers a safe and child friendly space for children to have contact with their relatives. Please see the website for further detail for the levels of support offered: https://freshfutures.org.uk/family-time/
Family Time service works closely with Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS), alongside the Family court arena and accepts private referrals.
The aim of the service is to support children re/establish relationships with a relative where their contact has broken.
Family Time staff pride themselves on listening to the voice of the child and emphasise it, while supporting children and families agree future arrangements. In addition, Family Time supports parents establish and maintain communication in a child focused manner.
Family Time focus on neurodiversity and have recently implemented sensory spaces to better support children. The team have developed their knowledge on ways of working with children and families with neurodiverse needs, focusing on communication, specifically when children are non-verbal.
A high percentage of children who attend Family Time have been exposed to lengthy court proceedings. In 2025, Family Time staff plan to promote the service to external services who work with families, with an emphasis on Family Time being use as early intervention, to hopefully prevent families from applying to the Family Courts.
The Family Time Team includes one service manager and three child contact officers who play crucial roles in facilitating contact between children and their relatives. Additionally, Family Time often have support from students and volunteers.
The team’s primary role is prioritising the child’s physical and emotional wellbeing, supervising contact sessions and providing detailed reports from their observation of Family Time.
Additionally, they tailor unique plans to best support the children and relatives in areas such as conflict management, communication, relationship building and ways to overcome barriers which may be preventing the child’s contact progressing positively with their relative. Family Time reports are confidential documents which make recommendations for future plans for the child/ren which can support judiciary decision making during family court proceedings when developing a child arrangement order.