Statutory Visits & Family Time / Contact Supervision
Practical support for placing authorities and families where distance, urgency, or supervision requirements make local, experienced provision essential.
- Visits completed on behalf of placing authorities where distance is a barrier
- Emergency attendance available due to local proximity
- Clear written reporting after each visit / session
- Experienced social work practitioners
Planned placement visits completed on behalf of placing authorities, with timely written reporting.
Local, responsive attendance when an urgent professional visit is required, with immediate verbal update.
Supervised parent/family and child contact to support plans, proceedings, and safe, meaningful time together.
We can confirm availability, scope, reporting format and timescales once you share placement details, key dates and any specific instructions.
For many Looked After Children, placement can mean living far from everything familiar. This distance can create practical challenges for children, families, carers or residential homes, placing local authorities and allocated social workers.
Looked After Children across placement types (including section 20, Interim or full Care Orders, short breaks, private fostering, custody / youth settings and secure provision) must receive statutory visits within required timescales, which can vary depending on placement type and circumstances.
Where distance is significant, statutory visits can be commissioned to appropriately qualified professionals acting on behalf of the placing authority, with a full report provided following each visit.
With extensive experience in children and families social work, and a commitment to best outcomes for children, Hawkins Social Work Consultancy can carry out placement visits on behalf of placing authorities where commissioning a locally based provider is the most practical option.
In addition to planned statutory visits, where an urgent situation requires the presence of a qualified professional acting on behalf of the placing authority, Hawkins Social Work Consultancy can provide an emergency visit subject to availability.
Following an emergency visit, the visiting social worker will provide an initial telephone update to the allocated social worker at the earliest opportunity.
The verbal update will be followed by a full written report, including relevant recommendations based on the nature of the emergency and any immediate safeguarding needs.
There are many reasons why family time, or parent/family and child contact, needs to be supervised—and maintaining consistent, skilled supervision can be challenging.
Hawkins Social Work Consultancy can provide an experienced, qualified social worker with extensive experience supervising contact within public and private law proceedings, and as part of permanence planning.
The allocating local authority/social worker will usually provide a venue (commonly a community centre). Contact can take place in the community or a private residence only where a suitable risk assessment has been completed and shared in advance.
Where required, a short report can be submitted after each supervised contact or family time session, providing feedback and any recommendations based on the outcome.
If the court directs a full in-depth report (or one is required for ongoing proceedings, assessment or care planning), this is commissioned separately from supervision sessions. Costs are available on the pricing page.
If you’d like to commission statutory visits, request an emergency visit, or discuss supervised family time, please get in touch. We can confirm scope, reporting requirements and timescales.