Sydney Children’s Contact Service

Inner-city based supervised visits and changeovers for children and their separated parents.

What we do?

Sydney Children’s Contact Service (SCCS) provides subsidised supervised visits and changeovers for children up to 12 years of age. The Children’s Contact Service is for parents that have parenting orders from the Family Court, or are in the process of applying for orders. 

Our service is funded by the Attorney-General’s Department and operates in line with the ‘Children’s Contact Services Guiding Principles for Good Practice’. We are an Affiliate of the Australian Children’s Contact Services Association (ACCSA).

Continue reading to find out more or contact us to make an appointment.

Our Services

Supervised visits

During a supervised visit, contact workers oversee and actively support the child and their parent as they spend time together on-site. Supervised visits are able to occur on-site for a maximum of two hours per fortnight.

Supervised changeovers

Supervised changeover helps children to move between their parents for off-site, unsupervised contact. Contact workers facilitate the transition between parents to avoid conflict for the children.

Both our services:

• Are available for parents on a short-term basis and assist parents to move toward self-managed contact arrangements, if safe to do so.
• Are accessible fortnightly and visits and changeovers both occur on weekends only.
• Require parents to individually make an enquiry with the service. They then complete and return an application form to go on the waiting list for services.
• Include separate assessment interviews for each parent with a practitioner and an age-appropriate assessment of each child.
• Will offer a place to families assessed as suitable when a vacancy becomes available.
• Can provide guidance and tailored referrals from our practitioners to support parents toward a safe and workable post-separation parenting arrangement.
  
  

For a detailed overview of the application and intake process please download the Application and Intake Process Flow Chart.

Location

The service is located in an inner-city childcare centre close to public transport and with on-street parking. Our Children’s Contact Service provides a safe and welcoming child-focused environment, has separate entrances and staggered arrival times for parents are arranged. The centre has a range of age-appropriate games, craft materials and play equipment that children can enjoy with their parents.

The address of the contact centre is provided once parents start with the service.

Fees

Fees for the intake assessment and supervised visits or changeovers are payable by each parent unless a court order has directed one parent to pay all the fees. Costs are also payable for any files subpoenaed for court proceedings.

Download and review a breakdown of our current fees schedule.