Should contact centre care more?

[Hotandsunny]

I feel like making a complaint to a contact centre but I'd like to hear the opinion of those with more experience.

I support a lady who is suffering with her mental health at the moment. Her toddler DS was put into foster care and she sees him at a contact centre. Today we planned to take him to a cafe for lunch and then to the park.

We go into the room at the contact centre and mum says Let's get your shoes on we're going for some lunch and then to the park. He gets excited and then the supervisor says 'oh, you can't take him out today' We protest that we have no lunch for him and it's a hot, sunny day and we don't want him stuck in a small room for 3 hours. I ask why they didn't tell me when I rung in the morning to confirm contact or when his mum was waiting in the reception (she was 40 min early) meaning we could have sorted lunch and not told the little boy we were going out. They just said the social worker should have told us and I could buy him lunch from the corner shop. It's literally a tiny corner shop selling crisps, sweets and fizzy drinks kind of thing. Luckily I had brought some fruit as a snack, I bought some crisps and biscuits in the shop and that was his lunch. His mum was obviously upset but had to swallow it down so she could make the most of her time with her son. At the end of contact she puts him in a buggy to be taken out to transport. When she was putting him in the buggy he started getting excited, thinking finally we are going to the park. Once he realised that wasn't happening he got upset.

Now, of course the social worker should have told her. But the contact staff's attitude that they couldn't care less really got to me. Would it really have been so hard for them to check we knew so we brought lunch. Could they not have said something before we went into the room just to prevent upset of mum in front of the child as well as upset of the child being told something that couldn't happen. At the end of the day social workers are notoriously overworked and communication suffers, it's not right but should they not put the child's welfare first and make sure these things are known rather than end up in the situation as described.

If you fail to communicate something to them all hell breaks loose but the other way round they refuse to take any responsibility.

By the way, I'm not saying the social worker isn't ultimately responsible for this, she absolutely is and I've messaged her about it and asked her to contact me. I just feel it's a shame the people on the frontline can't work in a cooperative way for the sake of the children.

YABU - don't make a complaint this is the social workers fault only.
YANBU - the contact centre should have some concern for how these things affect the children and communicate with parents

Have you been able to take him out before. I would say it is highly unusual for parents to be able to take children out of contact centres for visits.

This is a contact centre as the child is in foster care, so there must be safeguarding issues. The mother should ask nicely for a list of what she can and cannot do with said child and not presume Im afraid. YABU

How would have the contact centre known the mother wanted to take him out?

If it’s a change and she was allowed to take him out and now, for some reason, isn’t allowed to take him out, I can’t imagine passing that information to the mother is their responsibility.

I am guessing they would have assumed, that the social worker would have communicated it. It’s not really their job to do this.

I’m surprised that there was the expectation at all that the little boy could be taken out and therefore not be under the supervision of the contact centre.

I don’t really know what else you were expecting of the CC staff either, although I do get that a parent visiting their child who is in foster care is always going to be a tense, emotionally charged and possibly really difficult situation to support with - I think it’s totally understandable you felt upset but I don’t think any fault lies with them.

I didn't think children could be routinely taken out at all if the adult could only see them in a contact centre.

Isn't this just standard?

This is on the social worker.
If there's going to be a change to the arrangements then the social worker or their team need to communicate that.
The worker might have thought the parent already knew assuming this was a decision by the social worker.
They can't change that decision or arrangements, they are simply told what to do.

Surely the whole point of a contact centre is that contact us supervised within it? Due to safeguarding issues, which is there clearly are in this case since the child is in foster care.

Not at all, lots of contact is supervised in the community if it's deemed safe. It's often much nicer for children to be out and about.
It has to be arranged and not just randomly decided to make sure there's agreement, staffing etc

I may be wrong but it sounds like they've been allowed to go out before and this is a change.

You sound like a great source of support to this lady OP.

I wouldn’t complain, though.

It would also be interesting to know if you support this lady in a professional capacity or as a friend, partner or family member. If as a professional it might be a good learning experience to check with the social worker prior to supporting in these kind of scenarios in future to ensure you know what to expect so you’re not caught off guard.

Contact centres do allow the children to leave with caregiver, social Work can arrange that with that with a family support worker as well or another family member alongside the visiting caregiver

In a support role, I have also seen this happen at contact centres . Routinely plans changed because there aren't enough staff so visits are shorter or as in this instance, a plan has been changed without notifying the visitor.

It's set up the visit to fail and is very unfair but I do think contact centre staff manage these troubles day in and day out and may seem uncaring when they are really just unable to help

I'm a foster carer and my boy gets taken to a contact centre purely because it's for contact. Supervised by a social worker (usually the child's) and safe for them. I have never heard of the parent being allowed to leave with the child during contact. I'm assuming this is your first contact and we're unaware but mum should have been completely informed.

There's a lot of people commenting who clearly have no idea how things work and I'm confused why they feel able to give a view!

@Convincemebob I mean reading the thread would show that's not the case.

I work with contact centres in a professional capacity, it is very common for supervised contact to progress to the local park etc. This sometimes happens because of staffing eg if someone goes sick as usually a never of staff would have to supervise the park visit. In this instance they should've told you when you called to confirm. If however the plans have changed due to an emerging risk, that's a social care decision.
Are you an advocate for this lady, or a MH worker or a friend/family member?

I was thinking it could potentially still depend on the level of risk, who the professional is, the needs of the child, but managing the mum’s expectations could have been done better by professionals speaking to each other in advance.

If the responsibility lies with the social worker then yes you would be unreasonable to be annoyed that someone in another role didn't go around checking they have done their job and mopping up after them.

Most people aren't expected to duplicate work just in case someone else fucks up.

As others have said, it could be that the contact centre had to make last minute changes.

For example, there was a staff shortage and they couldn't leave another staff member in the centre alone. I would hope that would be explained to mum however. There's not really enough information about why they couldn't go out.

@Convincemebob this statement is inaccurate. The OP could be a professional; an advocate, a mentor, a mh worker. That doesn't mean she'd be allowed to supervise child contact. Even if she could be considered to be a person appropriate to supervise contact that would require prior assessment, not just an ad-hoc we don't have enough family support workers available to supervise, oh it's ok OP is a professional she can do it.

It's down to the social worker. The contact centre staff will have their directions from the social worker and will just be following them. They aren't able to override what has been agreed or stated by SW. If being in the community is something that usually happens and is a change then this should have been communicated by the SW and contact centre would presume this had been done. I don't think they've done anything wrong. They pointed out you weren't able to take the child out the contact centre. They may not be privy to the reason why. They also tried to give an option for lunch although not ideal it's not their fault there isn't a sandwich shop nearby. This lies with the SW and I think you're right to address this direct with them and support mum to do so too.