Dealing with concerns about your children during contact

Concerns over how your child’s other parent looks after them

You may worry or have concerns about your child when they are not with you. This may be a mild concern about what they eat or when they go to bed. You may worry about who they spend time with especially if you do not know the other people. You should talk to your child’s other parent about this and come to an agreement or compromise on the things that matter most.

Concerns over your child’s safety while with their other parent

If you have concerns over your child’s safety or health, while with their other parent, you should take action and get advice.

If you believe your child has been harmed, or may come to harm, while with their other parent you can stop them visiting. You can also contact your local social work department or the police for help. This is a serious situation and may result in legal intervention so you should also seek advice from a solicitor.

If a court decides there are concerns over a child’s safety while with a parent, they may stop contact altogether or ask that visits take place in a contact centre.

Contact Social Work or the Police if you believe your child is in danger.

Using a contact centre

Contact centres provide a place for you to either drop off your child for contact outside the centre (a supported handover) or to remain at the centre itself (supported or supervised contact).

Parent do not have to meet each other. Centre staff can meet your child on arrival and take them to meet their other parent in a family friendly space. Your child can bring along their own toys and games.

At the end of  the contact your child will can be brought back to you by staff.

Finding your nearest contact centre

There are 44 contact centres in Scotland.

To find the contact centre nearest to you, contact:

• Relationships Scotland
  0345 119 2020
  Relationships Scotland