Between September 2022 and February 2023, Cordis Bright worked with the Ministry of Justice to conduct research into safeguarding processes in child contact centres in England. The research was commissioned to meet the requirements of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, and aimed to:

• Understand the safeguards and processes in place to manage allegations and incidences of domestic abuse and harm whilst in contact centres.
• Make an assessment of the extent to which current processes adequately protect those at risk of domestic abuse and/or harm, and make any recommendations for change.

Our findings showed that:

• Contact centres provide an important service and enable thousands of parents/carers to have contact with their children safely.
• There is scope to improve both emotional safeguarding and the provision of domestic abuse training for contact centre staff.
• Findings highlight the importance of a system-wide approach to safeguarding adults and children from the risk of domestic abuse and other harm, and present a series of evidence-led recommendations to support this.

The research report has now been published, and will be considered by Parliament as part of a wider review of the functioning of child contact centres. For more information, please contact Matt Irani (mattirani@cordisbright.co.uk).

Resources:

Report