Lottery funding drives a new era for Bishop’s Stortford Child Contact Centre

We welcome our new centre co-ordinator, Claire Sanday, as she becomes established in her paid part-time role, writes Sarah Fahy, chair of trustees of the Bishop’s Stortford Child Contact Centre.

This is a massive boost for our charity and will take the vital service we provide for vulnerable families into the future in a much more sustainable way. Huge thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund for making this possible.

One of the major aims of our strategic plan was to make the role of centre co-ordinator a paid position to reflect the professionalism required to run our expanding service for children and families in Bishop’s Stortford and the surrounding area.

Claire, a qualified social worker, brings invaluable experience and expertise to the role, having worked in the NHS and private healthcare sector and in child protection and addiction services.

She said: “I wanted to support local families in a child-focused organisation and help make a difference in my local community. My role offers all this and more, and the child contact centre is a wonderfully forward-thinking, proactive charity.”

One father summed up perfectly what the charity meant to him. “Without the contact centre it would not have been financially possible for me to have contact with my children whilst going through the court process. BSCCC provides a relaxed, loving atmosphere for parents to spend time with their children without fear of judgement.”

As chair of trustees of the child contact centre since 2021 and with my term of office ending this year, we are looking for a new chair to lead the charity into its next phase of development at our AGM in the summer. We encourage anyone with an interest in working with children and families and joining our friendly board of trustees to get in touch if they would like to find out more. Please email me directly at chair@bsccc.co.uk.

Over the last two years we have identified premises in Stansted and Sawbridgeworth that we can use during the week to provide a more protective level of child contact, called supervised contact, in addition to the supported contact we provide every Saturday morning in Bishop’s Stortford.

Last year we were accredited by the National Association of Child Contact Centres to offer this new level of contact, which will increase the accessibility of formal contact arrangements for local families who may be required by the family courts to have their time with their children observed and reports written. All our staff are being trained to provide this and to ensure that children and parents feel safe as well as happy and cared for.

All our staff, apart from the co-ordinator, are volunteers and we continue to recruit and train volunteers, who are required to undertake Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks and mandatory training each year. Anybody interested in volunteering is welcome to get in touch and can also apply through our website at www.bsccc.co.uk.

We are truly grateful for the National Lottery award which provides salary costs for one year. Each year we receive a small grant from the Ministry of Justice, and others who have given us grants over the last couple of years include East Herts Council and the Essex Community Foundation in conjunction with Saffron Building Society.

Several of our councillors have kindly supported us from their locality budgets and we have received generous donations from churches, Rotary clubs and private donors. As with any small charity, we continue to fundraise and are now planning ahead with an updated strategic plan to ensure we can continue to pay staff and maintain a professional and essential service for residents.

As chair, it is vital I stay in touch at a grassroots level. When asking volunteers recently what they enjoy most about their role, I was enthused by their responses and dedication.

“When families make good progress in re-establishing good relationships with their children, it feels like something has really been achieved and all the effort is worthwhile. It’s just great to see happy kids,” said one.

“I enjoy supporting parents and facilitating family relationships when people have been through a rough time,” expressed another.

We continue in our purpose, established 25 years ago when the contact centre came into being, to provide a safe environment for children to connect with parents and family members and maintain relationships which they might not otherwise be able to do.

We believe that relationships matter.

For more information, visit www.bsccc.co.uk or email admin@bsccc.co.uk.