Guidelines for Referrers

Guidelines for Referrers

All correspondence should be sent to 

Anne Clarke, Co-ordinator
Wigan Child Contact Centre
Family Support Centre
Kildare St
Hindley 
WN2 3HY 

or to


Tel: 01942 253256(Saturdays Only)
Mobile: 07768 955938

Our Child Contact Centre opens weekly on Saturdays 10-00am – 1-00pm

  1. A completed referral form should be received by the Centre Co-ordinator at least one week in advance of the date which your client would like contact to commence. Where a Centre has a waiting list, a completed referral form should still be sent, the Centre will then notify you when a place becomes available.
  2. Only those named in the referral will be admitted to the Centre. This may be varied by agreement by both parties.
  3. Parents are responsible for their children at all times whilst they are at the Child Contact Centre.
  4. Please ensure that both parents have read and understood the Child Contact Centre’s information leaflet.
  5. To try and maintain a friendly, impartial and confidential environment, we ask that you do not ask to see your clients on our premises without prior agreement.
  6. In the unlikely event of it becoming necessary to quote a Co-ordinator / Centre Manager in any report, due to a Centre user or volunteer being at risk of harm, the form of words should be agreed with that person beforehand.
  7. Centres providing Supported Contact will not knowingly accept a referral involving someone convicted of an offence relating to physical or sexual abuse of a child, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
  8. The Child Contact Centre reserves the right to reduce or terminate contact if it is felt to be in the best interest of the child. Parents should be informed that because the welfare of the child is paramount, there might be times when contact cannot take place if the child is too upset, even if there is a contact order.
  9. Referrers should make arrangements for the provision of an interpreter where English is not the first language of the family involved and problems may arise with communication.
  10. The Centre should be viewed as a temporary facility to help establish contact. The Child Contact Centre will be asking for your assistance to review the family’s progress after six months.
  11. Please contact the Co-ordinator if there is any variation in contact or if contact is going to cease.

Thank you for your co-operation.

N.B. Only dates and times of families’ attendance will be disclosed unless it is felt that
anyone using the Child Contact Centre or a volunteer is at risk of harm.

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